We live in a country that accepts the death penalty, the killing of someone when they kill someone. Growing amounts of people believe that the death penalty should be abolished. Conflicting views on the issue make it hard for a person to take a stand. Who gives the government a right to play God? It costs more to execute someone that to keep them in prison for life. On the other end of the spectrum the enforcement of the death penalty keeps killers off of the streets forever. The fear of being put to death for a crime committed would deter the act of the crime. Right?
             The death penalty is morally incorrect. Why do governments kill people to show other people that killing is wrong? Would society allow rape as the penalty for rape or the burning of arsonists' homes as the penalty for arson. Every time we execute someone, we sink to the same level as the common killer. What is the difference between the state killing and an individual killing? The end result is the same.... one more dead body; one more set of grieving parents, and one more cemetery slot. Every time we execute someone, we are desensitizing the value of human life. The death penalty is not now, nor has it ever been a more economical alternative to life imprisonment.
             A study by the New York State Defenders Association showed that the cost of a capital trial ALONE is more than double the cost of life imprisonment. They also concluded that a death penalty case costs approximately 42 percent more than a case resulting in a non-death sentence. Since 1976 the United States has spent 700 million dollars in it.
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