Essay about Death Penalty

Submitted By tylermillar5
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Death Penalty There are currently 3,108 inmates awaiting the death penalty in the United States, but many say that number is too low (NAACP). The time they have left is rapidly decreasing due to courts’ increasing on ratifying the death penalty laws allowing executions to take place at a much higher rate. The death penalty is a highly debated topic as it literately deals with life and death. Many find it inhumane and unjust but the death penalty is one of the best punishments and is much more humane than it used to be. The death penalty was first introduced when Hammurabi put people to death for 25 different crimes and believed in the philosophy “an eye for an eye”. Then, in Athens in the 7th century, the Draconian Code made death the only punishment for all crimes. In the past the many ways to enforce the death penalty were actually inhumane. They ranged from crucifixion and impalement, to boiling alive and beheading. Today lethal injection is used almost 90 percent of the time and is much more humane than previous practices (Randa). The death penalty should be enforced by the government because it serves justice properly and fairly, saves the American tax payers money, and protects society.
The death penalty should be legal because it is one of the best crime deterrents. If criminals know in the back of their minds that if they commit a crime in a manner that can give them the death penalty, then maybe they will think before they act. Some controversy with that is the fact that some people will say that criminals will act regardless of the punishment, but, according to Jeffrey Fagan of Columbia University, “No prisoner wants to face the death penalty. Regardless of how tough they look, they are all scared. Each and every one.” Further into his research, Fagan describes one prisoner that was facing the death penalty who changed when he was sentenced to death row. He used to be a prisoner that was in and out of jail but, like many others, enjoyed the jail life. Even though he had made bad decisions in the past he said that the only reason he escalated was because he thought he wouldn’t face capital punishment. He thought it would just get him back to the life he knew, but now he won’t have a life. If this man knew that his state enforced the death penalty, he wouldn’t have committed those crimes. Now some will argue that he did that because he wanted to be back in jail. In all reality though, he, like many others, can’t get away from crime. He isn’t a good person he just didn’t know that the death penalty was active in his state. If he had known, then he wouldn’t have done it. Lastly, according to the NAACP, states that haven’t had the death penalty in the past but have reinstated it; have crime rates that drop, especially in the homicide category. The death penalty is a good form of punishment because it deters homicidal crime. Technology has come a long way, and has become one of the best uses to confirm what happened and possibly how at a crime scene, which gives even more closure and certainty that a criminal should be given the death penalty. Mallory Simon of CNN has said that it is confirmed that DNA testing is 99 percent accurate results now (Simon). All things true, this means that if a case uses DNA testing, then there is no argument that an innocent person has been sentenced to death. In the past that has been a controversial issue that the wrong person was convicted. Hugo Bedau from the American Civil Liberties Union said that since 2007 there have been only 54 false convictions out of thousands and not one was because of faulty DNA testing (Bedau). Innocence is out of the question. Technology has become a key component when it comes to convicting murderers as it puts the argument of putting an innocent person to death to rest. The death penalty should also be legal because it gives the victim’s family some type of closure rather than leaving them with lurking questions. In almost every case, the
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