Can American afford the Death Penalty?
Why does the United States, the Super Power of the free world, find it necessary to continue executing prisoners who have committed the most heinous of crimes when the majority of the industrialized world have abolished Capital Punishment? Most industrialized nations have begun a trend to confine prisoners to long terms of mandatory imprisonment and stiff fines in lieu of execution for the most severe crimes. The United States is an exception to this trend and find themselves with non-industrialized nations such as, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as the five nations that conducted 85 percent of all executions in 1999 (Capital Punishment, Sec. C Par. 3). For the first time in history, by the late twentieth century, the nations of the world were evenly divided with respect to the death penalty. Lines were clearly drawn between the nations that did and did not support the death penalty. In general, industrial democracies such as, Western Europe and the majority of South America, have abolished the death penalty, while non-industrialized nations, such as, Asian, Islamic and African countries are more likely to continue with capital punishment. The United States is the only Western indu
The second reason is a rule known as Exhaustion of Remedies. Recent studies and reviews have found that capital cases are the most expensive types of punishment. The amount of time an inmate spends on death row is usually a decade or more. They contend that capital punishment prevents more crime because death is feared more than the possibility of life in prison. Policymakers find themselves facing a dilemma: if they solve either of the problems the other becomes worse. The mandatory appeals process for inmates cost California $78 million of the $90 million spent on death penalty convictions (Facts about the Death Penalty, Page 4). In Texas, a death penalty case costs an average of $2. 3 million, three times the cost of imprisoning a prisoner in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years. Support is widespread from the public for both speeding up executions by cutting off appeals and for making extra efforts to discover the falsely condemned. The majority of the statistics and comparisons indicated that the presence or absence of capital punishment did not visibly influence the rate of homicide. Capital punishment has been assumed by many as a cost-effective way to punish prisoners for the most serious of crimes. strialized nation that still uses capital punishment. Unfortunately, any effort to close the courts to repetitive appeals and last minute litigation creates an opportunity for innocent defendants to be executed.
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