The Death Penalty

There are many people that favor the death penalty as the proper punishment for certain crimes. Their list of reasons to support the death penalty is long. It includes the argument that the threat of the death penalty will prevent future crimes and murders. This argument, known as deterrence, does not hold water. There is not solid, conclusive evidence that the death penalty deters future violence. Many studies have been conducted but none have produced concrete results. Proponents of the death penalty argue that this is because of the sheer length of the full process, with appeals and delays. This argument has not been backed by conclusive data either. The death penalty does prevent that person from committing more crimes, but it cannot guarantee that it will prevent any one else from committing crimes. 


Another pro-capital punishment argument states that the death of the murderer is the only way to provide closure, solace and retribution to the friends and family of murder victims. While many victim's families may agree with this, there are also those that do not agree. There have been many cases where families did not favor the death of the criminal, merely that they be brought to proper justice - namely a life sentence in prison. Some people feel that the death penalty in this case is not murder, but a justifiable death. 


There are many people that oppose the death penalty. They do not agree that the death penalty for murders makes for justifiable murder. It perpetuates a cycle of violence, to respond to a murder, with another murder. Punish a murder with another murder in order to prevent murders...this is its own special kind of paradox. This is like screaming at someone to stop screaming because screaming is wrong. It would not make sense in that circumstance and it does not make true sense here. 

"What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say." - Emerson

This quotation applies perfectly to this death penalty paradox. The government is taking someones life before their time while saying that taking someone else's life before their time is wrong and should never be done. Which is the true message that will come across? 

Who gets to be the judge of which people deserve to live and which people deserve to die? How can you be sure that this power is perfectly fair and balanced? How do you know that there is no prejudice? How do you know that no one person has an advantage over another in this circumstance? How can you be sure that justice really is blind? How can you be sure that the person you are about to murder is actually guilty?

There are have been cases where innocent people were sentenced to death. How can this possibly be justified? It can't. This is always a possibility and the only sure way to prevent all innocent person from being unjustly executed is the abolition of the death penalty. The enormous amount of publicity that executions garner are not positive and it makes a complete spectacle out of the loss of human life. 

There has not been conclusive evidence that death penalty serves as an effective deterrent for future crime. Some studies find that it is, some find that it has absolutely no impact on crime and murder rates. Is this really something that we want to be experimenting with? Should we just keep executing people so that further studies may be conducted and conclude that the death penalty is not a deterrent for crime. 


This is not to say that murders and criminals that commit heinous crimes should be protected and set free. There are humane alternatives. The abolition of the death penalty would not cause crime rates to rise. In fact, there is evidence that shows it may even cause murder and crime rates to fall. Life imprisonment provides many more positive benefits over the death penalty. If the person is proven innocent, they can be released. They will also have a lifetime to come to grips with what they did, realize their mistakes and see their error of their ways. The death penalty may even be considered "an easy way out" in this respect. The death penalty used to be used to keep society safe from horrible criminals - to ensure that they could never escape and hurt again. This use is completely obsolete with the improvements in prison security. There is next to no chance that these criminals can ever escape. The death penalty will continue to be a controversial issue but there are better ways to punish criminals. There are better ways to help grieving families.