Texas Death Penalty

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This paper will distill information from the seven articles provided to deliver a compelling argument for the abolition of the death penalty in the state of Texas. Furthermore, this paper will clearly articulate the reasons as to why ending the practice of capital punishment is the only morale and fiscally responsible way forward. This paper will use historical and contemporary sources to further illuminate how the death penalty has negatively impacted Texan society. This paper will dispel long enduring myths that capital punishment serves as a deterrent against more crime. Finally, this paper will highlight exactly why the death penalty, in its current form, is a barbaric and archaic practice that Texas should outgrow and leave behind. …show more content…
So tremendous, in fact, that “Each death penalty case in Texas costs taxpayers about 2.3 million. That is about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell in the highest security level for 40 years” (Hoppe). The reason for the huge price tax for ending the lives of offenders is because the constitution of the United States demands a dramatically more complex series of steps that must be undertaken throughout the criminal justice system to prove or disprove guilt. As soon as the death penalty is on the table in a court process, the length and cost of the trial will be blown up to absurd proportions. Additionally, because the burden of proof lies with the state, or the prosecution, the costs of successfully trying and sentencing a death eligible case is tremendously more substantive than in a case without the death penalty on the table. The truth is simple, and it is a truth that legislatures in other states have learned decades ago, that simply sentencing an offender to life in prison who otherwise would have received the death penalty would cost a miniscule fraction of the current death-penalty eligible case in Texas. The result of an immediate abolishment of the death penalty and instating mandatory life imprisonment without possibility of parole would net Texans millions of …show more content…
The argument that proponents of capital punishment use often is the idea of seeking equity for the offense committed. If someone kills another person, they must be killed in return. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. This is the sort of argument that pleads best to an individual’s emotions, but it is not what this country was founded on. In this country, we are all born with inalienable rights which includes, among many others, the right to live. This right to not have your life taken away should apply to everyone in our society, even those who have committed the most atrocious of crimes against us. As an example of this being put into practice, one could say that it would be understandable for a father to want to murder the man who broke into his home while he was away and murdered his wife. It could further be argued that it would be understandable, if not excusable, that if he caught the man that murdered his wife, that he kills that mean. We, as a society, must rise to a higher standard than simple retribution. We must call upon the better angels of our nature and rise above the animalistic urge to hurt those who hurt our sensibilities. “The rule of law is a history of the progressive restriction of personal vengeance in public policy and legal
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