Essay Example on At what point is it right to take a life to punish a Crime

At what point is it right to take a life to punish a crime Capital Punishment has been existent in the United States for many centuries Its beginnings go far back to the colonization era with Britain acting as one of the major influences towards the adoption of the death penalty It was brought with the arrival of Europeans to the new world and had its first apparition in 1608 with the death of Captain George Kendall in the colony of Virginia Few years after its adoption minor crimes such as killing a chicken could be punishable by death This started some uprisings and opponents to the death penalty and since then it has been a controversial subject all over the United States Each and every state has the right to abolish the death penalty Today 31 of the 50 American states approve it The states are generally responsible for policing crime and prosecution and holding criminal trials Cases relating to murder treason and espionage are the most common types linked to the Capital Punishment 1972 marked a new beginning in the history of the death penalty as a case was for the first time held in the Supreme Court In addition it was the first time in the history of the US that the Supreme Court found Capital punishment to violate the Constitution Furman v Georgia was a case that was argued on January 17 1972 and decided on June 29 1972 In this case the petitioner named William Henry Furman was caught burglarizing a house and while trying to escape from the authorities killed one of its inhabitants 

Not to forget that the death penalty costs the Government a lot of money Many people who are in favor of the death penalty say that it is an effective crime deterrent Their argument is wrong as states who apply the death penalty have a higher rate of crimes than the others However sentencing individuals to life in prison without parole has shown to deter crime in some occasions and is far less expensive for the government The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice showed how expensive the current system was compared to a system without death penalty The present system after the implementation of the new reforms costs 232 7 million dollars per year whereas a system imposing a maximum penalty of lifetime incarceration will cost only 11 5 million per year With these factors considering the death penalty as an extreme measure if it is not effective in deterring crimes I believe it should definitely be abolished