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Kayla DiRoma
Dr. Sonia Begert
English 101
24 November 2015
Position Paper
Eighteenth Century B.C. was the first established date of death penalty laws in the Code of King Hammaurabi of Babylon, it then codified the death penalty for 25 different crimes. Britain influenced America’s kickoff of the death penalty more than any other country since the time when European settlers came into the new world they brought the practice of capital punishment. The death penalty condescends itself for killing killers when they can just be kept in prison for all their lives instead with no chance of parole. There have been multiple cases of people being charged with the death penalty and even minutes before execution have been convicted of being wrongfully charged and turn out to be innocent, but also there have been cases where individuals have been found to be innocent after the fact that they have already been executed. The death penalty should be abolished not only because of wrongful convictions but it is unjust, costly for taxpayers, and there are better alternatives to take down the prisoners who do not deserve to see the light of day again.
In a piece written by Sean McElwee on the Huffington Post, he takes a position of the death penalty being abolished or not. Sean states, “The United States needs to
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abolish the death penalty. It’s archaic, costly, ineffective, and most importantly, unjust... The purpose of our criminal justice system is to deter crime, rehabilitate convicts, and incapacitate hardened criminals. Philosophically speaking, life in prison serves these functions better than the death penalty.” Just like Sean says, there are multiple valuable reasons the death penalty should be abolished. Some people believe that God created the death penalty because Genesis 9:6 says, “whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.” Which is really just saying that if anyone kills a man, than it would be no other than to kill the killer. But people say God also commanded “Thou shalt not kill.” When the people who inject the medicine into the prisoner are killing the man. Sean McElwee also gives another good point by saying, “However, while it brings no benefits, the death penalty does seriously undermine the criminal justice system for three reasons: racism, false incrimination, and revenge.” It has been known that those who murdered whites have been more prone to receive the death penalty than those who have murdered blacks, there have been a great deal of times when prisoners have been falsely incriminated. If a prisoner has been put on the death penalty and was falsely incriminated that is a huge strain on the prisoner himself thinking that he is going to die in the prison and what if the prisoner is not found guilty until after he has been killed, you cannot take it back life is forever. With supermax prisons escape is no longer a stable possibility. Death is final and life in prison creates for rehabilitation, it does not mean prisoners are getting away with
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anything by not getting the death sentence, they still will never see out of the prison gates just like people who have to get killed while in prison.
140 countries have abolished the death penalty and there are 196 countries in the world if you do count Taiwan, but the United States does not so you can say there are 195 countries. The United States is related with 54 other countries which have a similar commitment to death including Iraq, Iran, China, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Yemen and North Korea,that still today provides the death penalty in prisons.We are not getting any better at doing the death penalty, and we are put in the same category as those countries. All in all keeping or abolishing the death penalty has been a prolonged issue. Time Magazine wrote an article titled The Death of the Death Penalty. Time stated, “In Arizona on July 23, prison officials needed nearly two hours to complete the execution of double murderer Joseph Wood. That was not an aberration. In April 2014, Oklahoma authorities spent some 40 minutes trying to kill Clayton Lockett before he finally died of a heart attack.” Since 1700 there have been multiple different ways of executing prisoners and the long search to find the perfect killing way leaves witnesses watching a squirming in their seats having to watch individuals gasp for air. According to Time Magazine writer David Von Drehle that since the American death penalty is so inconsistent, the system is so slow, it then becomes inefficient and way more costly than life without parole. Death sentence cases require not just one trial but two, which is very costly, on top of all those court costs like lawyers, investigators and
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judges the government is going broke and all prisons have tight budgets, but the cost of incarceration is minimum. David Von Drehle stated in Time Magazine, “When I examined the cost of Florida’s death penalty many years ago, I concluded that seeing a death sentence through to execution costs at least six times as much as a life sentence. A more recent study by a federal commission pegged the difference in the costs of the trials at eight times as much.” Using the death penalty is not super costly to taxpayers, it is also a whole lot more costly to the government too.
Pope Francis also believes that the death penalty should be abolished. He called out to congress in a conference where he stated his own beliefs about the death penalty. This was not the first time Pope Francis has spoke his mind about the downfalls of the death sentence and the worries he has for it to still stand, he has written a letter to the International Commission Against the Death Penalty where he called the practice of capital punishment “inhumane” and “unacceptable”. Pope Francis believes regardless of the crime it is inhumane to use capital punishment and that people are deprived of their freedom which is one thing we have that should never be taken away from us, and an amendment we will stay by to keep and fight for. The Pope addressed at a joint meeting of congress, “I am convinced that this way is the best, since every life is sacred, every human person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes.” Every life is a living breathing person and no matter the crime it doesn’t make sense, and doesn’t make it okay to kill people because they are killers. People believe that it is
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good way for the victims families to cope with what happened with their family member. or friends killer which is true, but that isn’t the only way for the killers to never be out of a prison cell again. People this year have struggled when they have been injected with the drugs that should easily put them to rest but it has a bad reaction and they don’t die peacefully like they are supposed to. Life in prison can also be a benefit by using rehabilitation methods and not abusing their freedom by killing them.
Many people believe keeping the death penalty is beneficial and that no one should even consider abolishing the sentence. They may not know that it is actually very costly to taxpayers and the government, it is inhumane, it is taking away a person’s freedom forever even though they have a tiny bit being locked up in prison in the first place. There have been cases of wrongful convictions and race plays a part in the sentence. Instead of spending the time and money to maybe eventually carry out a death sentence keeping the prisoner for life without parole is a more beneficial punishment. It is inhumane, unjust, and costly and already 19 states have banned the death penalty, the United States is still on the list with Iran, Iraq, Somalia and North Korea of still practicing the death penalty. The death sentence is not a practical punishment and it undermines the very purpose of the criminal justice system, it should be abolished and we could hopefully have a better view of benefits for prisoners.
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Sean, McElwee “It’s Time to Abolish the Death Penalty” Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web 8 July 2013
Mark, Berman "Pope Francis Tells Congress ‘every Life Is Sacred,’ Says the Death Penalty Should Be Abolished." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 24 Sept. 2015. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.
David, Von Drehle “The Death Of The Death Penalty” Time. Time.com, n.d. Web 8 June 2015
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