Pro Death Penalty Essay

The death penalty should be kept as a punishment in our court systems. It should be kept because it helps crime rates drop, helps give closure, serves justice, and more. Even though it gives a great outcome to the system there are people who argue against it. People against say that capital punishment is not rite, innocent people get killed, and its cruel and unusual punishment; yet none of those facts are proven, in fact, there is prove against them. Ultimately the death penalty helps society feel better and be a better place. The death penalty prevents more murders in society by causing one that is deserved. This is because people get scared of giving up everything for nothing. They think twice before they take a life because they can be punished by getting their life taken. The death penalty stops most people from killing others over stupid things like money, arguments, etc. Most of the people that do commit murders either don’t care about there life, didn’t mean to, or have some kind of anger or psychiatric problem like being psychotic, schizophrenic, bipolar and more. Many people tried to prove that the death penalty prevented murders, but there attempts were inconclusive. In 1973 Isaac Ehlrich engaged in an analysis which results showed that for every criminal executed 7 lives were saved (MSU); only because people were scared of the death penalty and didn’t want to take a chance with there life. The many people that appose the death penalty say that the death penalty doesn’ t prevent murders, but causes them. Like criminologist William Bowers of Northeastern University says â€Å"Society is hurt by the use of the death penalty, this ups the likelihood of more murder.† (MSU) I think that this is an insane idea. Even if society was brutalized by the use of the death penalty, why would they ever even think of committing more murders. The more murders that they commit the more the state would have to sentence the death penalty thus making what they were brutalized by even worse. What about all the criminals in our prisons that are serving life sentences. Life imprisonment is the worst punishment next to the death penalty and without that there is nothing left to punish the inmates with. If the inmate knows that it can’t get worse than that they could kill guard and do whatever they wanted. When there is a punishment of death the inmates have to think that they are in jail and it’s not a nice place there but at least they are alive. Murder is very severe crime and can not be handled lightly. As stated by MSU when someone kills somebody they must be punished equally; as they should be for any other crime. This can be related to the saying an eye for an eye of course we don’t take it to as great extent as they did before. If a teenager steels something like a CD they will get a certain amount of community service. This is basically being forced to do volunteer work to pay back for what you would have stolen and extra hours as a punishment. In an act of murder the victim’s family gets extremely traumatized. The damage caused can never be fixed. If the victim was say caught in a crossfire some family members might be scared to go outside. They could have nightmares and much more can happen. If the murderer is put to justice and executed at least they will have some kind of closure and know that the murderer is not able to commit any more murders. New Media Mill states that only good has happened since the government reinstated the death penalty after the court case Gregg vs. Georgia (1976). Ever since it was reinstated murder rates have dropped in almost all the states from 30% to 65%. Today, about 70% of America is for the death penalty even though there are a few problems just as there is in any other system. The main problem is executing and innocent person. According to MSU there is no proof of any innocent person getting executed. It would be extremely hard to happen because of all the safeguards and appeals added in the 1970’s. Even if an innocent has been executed it is very rare. It wouldn’t be rite to try an stop the death penalty because of some unproven fact, that’s like saying there are innocent people in prison so abolish prison. There is no way you can be 100% sure which inmates are innocent and which ones are not, and you can’t re-investigate all there cases because that would take too much man power and time. The people that do get out of death row normally get out because of legal technicalities. If someone can be proven innocent the governor will grant them clemency. The other claims are usually just delaying tactics (MSU). This is way the court has the appeal system which allows the inmate to postpone the execution. According to statistics on New Media Mill it is more likely to take a guilty man off death row and put him in a normal prison for life than it is to execute an innocent man. People say that the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment if anything the system goes way too easy on the death row inmates. Some murderers kill people in the most brutal, disgusting, and unimaginable ways and they are executed by lethal injection. They get to die in there sleep without any pain or suffering. They die the way everyone wishes they die. In my eyes, that’s not considered a punishment comparing it to how some inmates have killed people. For example Michele Ross got the death penalty and was killed by painless lethal injection after raping and killing eight women. The people put on death row should be killed in a harsher way. According to MSU government isn’t giving cruel and unusual punishment by lethal injection, people should be happy that they are nice enough to execute the inmates so peacefully. I could understand people seeing it as cruel and unusual if the government banned lethal injection and left the inmates with a choice of the other four methods for execution which are hanging, gas chamber, firing squad, and electrocution which cause pain (MSU). When hanging the person drops with the noose around his neck so that it snaps his neck. Instant death doesn’t always happen so the person sometimes suffocates. Using the gas chamber they sit the person in a chair and fill the room until he chokes from the lethal gas. The firing squad gives a shot to the heart and kills the person in a few seconds or if the heart is missed the person bleeds to death. When being electrocuted the person is tied to a chair while they put 2000 volts of electricity through them. During lethal injection the person is put to sleep then paralyzed then given a liquid witch stops all function in the body. As you see execution can’t get much better than lethal injection. Cruel and unusual is when Ronell Wilson shot and killed detectives James Nemorin and Rodney Andrews in 2003 (Google News). Hopefully you know realize that the death penalty should be kept as a punishment in our court systems. It has helped crime rates in almost every state drop, it has given closure to many families, it has served justice, and more. There will always be people coming up with reasons why the death penalty should be stopped. Reasons like cruel and unusual punishment, that it hurts society, and more but in the end it is the main thing that stops people from going out of control and makes society a better place. Work Cited Google News. The Death Penalty. 2006. 11/25/06. http://news.google.com/news?q=for+the+death+penaltyMichigan State University. The Death Penalty. 2006. 11/21/06. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.msu.eduNew Media Mill. DPIC. 2006. 11/20/06. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org