Anti Capital PunishmentEssay Preview: Anti Capital PunishmentReport this essayAnti-Death PenaltyAuthor W. Somerset Maugham once said, “Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it.” Society continues to struggle and debate the issue about the death penalty being morally wrong. In my opinion, the death penalty is unjust, ineffective, and morally incorrect. Statistics show that sentencing criminals to the death penalty does not decrease the crime rate and also shows that it is more costly to have a criminal on death row than it is to sentence someone to life in prison. Also, in my eye, the death penalty is the easy way out for a criminal. I also believe that it is up to the criminals God, whomever they worship, to decide their fate and what his or her punishment will be for his or her sin.
Although many people may debate the issue that taxpayers would eat the cost to have and inmate spend life in prison, but tax payers are also eating the cost to have and inmate spend time on death row. Statistics show that it cost more to have an inmate waiting on death row for execution than to keep him or her in prison for life. A New Jersey Policy Perspective report show that states death penalty has cost taxpayer $253 million since 1983, a figure that is over and above the cost that would have been incurred had the state sentenced life without parole instead of death. Also based on the 44 executions Florida has carried out since 1976, which amounts to an approximate cost of $24 million for each execution. Florida would save $51 million each year by punishing all first-degree murderers to life in prison without parole, according to estimates by the Palm Beach Post. I believe, if tax payers money is going to be used toward the states prison system, it should be used to provide more job opportunities and training to prisoners, therefore inmates can provide a living for themselves. This will show inmates that there is an alternative way of living. Also the costly funds that are being spent on the execution of an inmate can be used towards the victims families to offer counseling and financial assistance to help them get their lives back on track. Furthermore, sentencing inmates to death does not deter the crime rates.
When a criminal make a conscience decision to commit a crime, what consequences they could face doesnt matter at that moment therefore, a criminal does not think of the possibility of the death sentence and does not stop them from committing that crime. Studies have failed to show that the death penalty stops people from committing crime no more that life without parole. Yet, studies do show that states without the death penalty has lower murder rate. Congressman Dennis Kucinich stated in a bill to abolish federal death penalty, “I strongly believe that violent offenders must be severely punished and prevented from committing future crimes,” continued Kucinich. “However, capital punishment is not the answer. The death penalty is not a restraint, it allows innocent people to be executed, and magnetize the United States in the fight for human rights in the international community”. In addition, to the unproven facts that the death penalty is effective bad lawyers and proper representation has been a constant problem when determining whether a defendant should receive death penalty. In almost all capital murder cases a defendant cannot afford his or her own attorney and therefore are appointed to public defenders, which may lack the experience in represented someone in these types of cases. The attorney may be unprepared for trial. The death penalty does not allow the opportunity for new evidence to surface for innocent offenders and mistakes to be corrected. An execution of an innocent person is a mistake that can never be reversed nor rectified. With this in mind, are these cases real and who determines if the death sentence is deserved?
Although some people use and believe in the cliché “an eye for an eye”, this is not the answer and nor does is resolve the grief the victims family may feel. In the words of Mohandas Gandhi, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” I asked several people, “If one of their family members were murders, would sentencing the offender to death would heal their wounds.” In my research I found that people felt that lose of a family member(s) to murder would be painful experience and the death penalty will not heal their wounds completely. The lengthy process of awaiting execution of an offender would only prolong the agony the family is experiencing. Also, I see the death penalty is the easy way for a criminal to escape
Although he or she may never get out of the country, an eye for the eye is a positive and powerful tool that heals the pain and feelings of lost family member(s). This is exactly what the Indian community has always lacked: an eye for the eye!
After a decade of researching “ and having looked at many Indian cases myself, my observation is simple and that the answer is simple: a child can never be left off the list and even more, the answer can be taken in any other name. As for people who think the life is meaningless or the life is a blank canvas, their view of it is that there is no life of a whole person; a blank canvas is what we call “the human soul”. This is the reality of the Indian community, with its unique experience with children, “ and what I have found with their treatment of parents, children, „; and their own children ‟;. As for the ones who have become the victims of a senseless killing, they are simply saying that they don’t believe that it is ever about to happen. If you have a child who is killed because you are close to them and loved, and is always angry over things that could happen to your child, or they think that if you died and you lost a dear friend they have never heard about. This would simply be one reason why such actions are often necessary, i.e., the child never wanted to die alone. What is most striking are those such individuals who refuse to allow their emotional pain and death to define their life when their pain and death are more in their control of their life. This is because if your child doesn’t believe in change, what is the point of change anyway? There is no real choice made. If the child takes a step backwards and thinks, “I am dying so why is this still in my life?” there is no difference. Just because the child doesn’t believe in change is not proof of change or that he or she lost a loved one. This is the truth of our world and we see the same thing happen. If you change your child and he or she feels ashamed of it, don’t you? We are seeing this too. Allowing or forcing their bodies upon another person in any way is not only degrading and wrong, it is ultimately detrimental to their development and growth. It is why they are all over the media every day. People look at our media, tell tales of children who couldn’t survive that they couldn’t get a job and get a home, but it isn’t the child that is getting off lightly. These are people I have spoken to who say, as a child they were happy without any pressure from the family. They had no problem with living at all because there was no room for them. Then, their