Death Penalty Research Paper
Is the Death Penalty necessary? The death penalty has been a controversy for many years, the question being if it’s ethical or not. The death penalty has been used for many years, and has been applied to different crimes. Recently, there has been a spike in abolishing the death penalty. The death penalty has been around since “the ancient Mesopotamian Code of Hammurabi (1760 BCE)” [Jeffrey Bowman, Tracy M. Dilascio] and where the first occurrence of the phrase “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” [Jeffrey Bowman, Tracy M. Dilascio]. Although “the state has repeatedly abused the death penalty” [Jeffrey Bowman, Tracy M. Dilascio], it is seen as a punishment that best carries out justice towards heinous crimes, such as murder and terrorism. If the death penalty were to be abolished, then the prisons will be overpopulated. This would later lead to more problems. Also, the price to keep someone in jail is high because tax payers have to pay for food and basic health care for convicts. And if the murderer is dead, then the victim’s family could have closure knowing that a killer is off the streets. Also, when other killers see that the State isn’t afraid to charge the death sentence, some might think twice about killing. There’s also no need to worry about people being wrongly convicted because DNA testing and modern crime scene forensics can accurately test the convicted person’s guilt and innocence [Joe Messerli]. Murder is a horrible act. Everyone agrees on that. It’s what we do to punish them is what we have a problem with. The death penalty has valid points though. The murder killed somebody, so how else should he be punished then to pay with his own life? We can’t just let them serve 20 years in prison and let them out on the streets again, that’s why sentencing murderers to the death penalty is the best in mind. For example, if a person were to kill another person, the victim’s family would not want the killer to go to jail for only a set