Essay Example on Why the Death Penalty should be Abolished

Hundreds of thousands of people commit crimes each year that land them in jail or prison Each case is different and each crime has different consequences However the worst consequence is the death penalty Instead of spending their whole life in prison for what they did some people pay with their life In the past the death penalty had been extremely inhumane and disturbing but it is still currently legal in thirty states The death penalty should be abolished because it goes against the law stating that murder is illegal puts innocent lives at risk and does not decrease crime rates First the death penalty should be abolished because murder is against the law and is a crime 18 U S Code 1111 states that murder is against the law and will result in punishment yet 1 466 prisoners have been executed since 1976 18 U S Code 1111 Executions by Year Even though this law is known by everyone not many people question why it does not apply to the lives of people in prison Killing someone no matter the circumstances makes the person that did it a criminal too Killing is an intrinsically evil act it is wrong because it destroys human good it can never be justified Murder cannot be justified by the circumstances of the act Not only is murder terrible but the way that some of the prisoners have been executed are extremely inhumane For example the electric chair was one way for execution the person was literally fried to death On top of that it makes a public spectacle of the individual s death 

5 reasons to abolish In some ways the death penalty is hypocritical because people say an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind yet the death penalty is like taking an eye for an eye Dye The death penalty can also be considered cruel and unusual punishment which goes against the 8th Amendment of the Constitution Murder is murder period Second innocent lives have been put at risk because of the death penalty Since 1976 138 innocent people have been sentenced to the death penalty some who were just days from being executed 5 reasons to abolish 20 000 people are wrongly convicted each year and punished for a crime they did not commit Since so many people are wrongly convicted there is a chance that some of those people are put on death row and may be killed for a crime they did not commit Dye It is not okay for this to be happening and it leaves taxpayers paying to put someone on death row who is not even guilty These numbers just go to show that judges and juries can make major mistakes which is not acceptable when someone s life is on the line In some cases it is the defense teams fault because they do not defend their client to the best of their ability which results in an unfair sentence There is too great of a chance that someone innocent can be put on death row for the death penalty to be accepted as an option for punishment Next the death penalty does not decrease the crime rate Some may think that threatening the use of the death penalty keeps people from committing crimes but there is no evidence that shows the use of the death penalty causes a reduction in crime According to the NC Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty when North Carolina stopped using the death penalty the murder rate for the state declined as a result Why the death penalty Murder is commonly seen as a crime of passion and the murders do not think about the possible repercussions while carrying out the crime The death penalty will not deter people from murder because a lot of murders are under the influence of drugs and alcohol Since they are under the influence they are not thinking straight and are not considering the consequences that will follow their actions