I have not made a final decision of how I feel about capital punishment because of the amount of controversy surrounding the subject; I'm caught somewhere in the middle of being for or against it. On one hand, I support the death penalty because it's important to get death row inmates out of court and prison systems. The death penalty solves the problem, even though the prisoner will stay on death row while appealing his/her conviction — draining American taxpayers of large sums of money. I also feel that in some situations the crime of murder is so heinous that the guilty party deserves to be put to death. I like the death penalty because it is cheaper than keeping the guilty one in prison, but I would need to see the numbers to compare. My last reason for being for the death penalty is a killer should be killed.
             In contrast, there are reasons I'm against the death penalty. Does capital punishment really deter crime? I feel that we should not put a person to death just so the person can be a deterrent to others who may commit crimes. And does a killer really think about that before murdering someone? I also have on my conscience that "thou shalt not kill" is the seventh commandment and killing would be a sin against God, but then again I am not in the jury box, or doing the final deed. I have some further thoughts on capital punishment. I think that capital punishment is far from being cruel and unusual punishment. And in my mind, you should be killed for any degree of murder. I don't believe that the death penalty discriminates against minorities because no matter what color skin you can make the choice to commit or not to commit a crime. I also think that we should believe strongly in our court system and know that it has the ability to make the decision of guilt or innocence, and if someone is on death row there should be no doubt in the fact that they belong there.
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