Capital Punishment
Is taking the life of a human being an appropriate punishment for a convicted murderer? A life for a life, an eye for an eye, is that really the way our society should punish people for capital murder? Yes, I believe it is appropriate. The death penalty can deter people from committing crimes, it costs less than housing them in prison, and it is a punishment that fits the crime. All of these reasons help shape my beliefs on capital punishment. Opponents of the death penalty say that this is a cruel punishment, but as long as the punishment fits the crime I believe the death penalty is acceptable. If the death penalty was used in regularity then it could be used as a tool to prevent murder. Murderers would think twice about killing if they thought their own life was at stake. If convicted murderers were not given the death penalty and could only be given life imprisonment, what would stop them from killing again? What punishment could you give someone worse than life imprisonment? If a prison guard came to somebody's room with a life sentence there would be nothing to stop the criminal from committing another murder. Without a death penalty the only thing that they could do would be to tack on ano
Some people might say that the death penalty desensitizes society of the value of human life. I wish we could live in a place where the idea of murder wouldn't even enter into the mind of someone, but unfortunately we don't. I disagree with this because the people who don't understand the value of human life, are the people who are committing these terrible crimes in the first place. Executing hardcore criminals could save billions of dollars in taxpayer money. According to the 1987 Stanford University survey, at least 23 Americans have been wrongly executed in the 20th century (martinez). When proponents of the death penalty are asked this question most respond with "even in the tragedy of human death there are degrees, and that it is much more tragic for the innocent to lose his life than for the State to take the life of a criminal convicted of a capital offense. In conclusion, I believe capital punishment is needed in our society as an appropriate form of punishment. Think for a second that if somebody stole dollars from you, wouldn't you want the same thing to happen to them? Part of the reason that I do believe in the death penalty is that I believe in a life for a life and an eye for an eye. If there wasn't, than the only other suitable punishment would be a life sentence. This is definitely one of the bad things the death penalty can bring, and to be honest there isn't any good argument for it. However, this will not be true if we cannot tackle the other issue of limiting appeals. Capital punishment is an issue that will never go away, and society will never decide one way or the other which side it is on. "(martinez) I would have to agree with this statement because it goes back to my point earlier that the death penalty is not a cruel punishment, it is the criminals who committed the act of murder in the first place. This does not include money for upkeep and constructions of new prisons or the numerous appeals spent in the court systems. (martinez) Limiting appeals and carrying out the death penalty within a reasonable amount of time is the only way that we can save taxpayer money.
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Acceptance Essays
