Crime is a major problem in our world today. Some people in our country live in fear that they will be the next victim of a crime; they could be robbed, raped, or even murdered. There are so many theories on how to stop crime. One of the theories is the use of the death penalty as a deterrent. There are a lot of issues that surround that idea that make the use of the death penalty just as bad as the accused committing murder. It is very contradictive, inconsistent, and unethical. Although some people believe that the death penalty deters crime, there are many arguments against it. For example, the costs are extremely high, racism is involved, and there are innocent people on death row to list a few.…
The death penalty is set in place to punish individuals for the most violent crimes. Its purpose to keep the death penalty legal was to deter people from doing these horrible crimes. That attempt has failed terribly. According to a report conducted by the National Research Council, it was said that we could not depend on the death penalty to deter the effect of murder rates. “Claiming that the death penalty has a deterrent effect on murder rates are fundamentally flawed and should not be used when making policy decisions” (Radelet & Locock, 2012).…
Moreover, there is a tremendous contrast of price tags between capital punishment and a life sentence without parole. In some cases, the costs of executing a defendant triples the regular cost of life in jail. For the reason being there are extended procedures, higher cost of trials and heavier lawyer fees, an upsetting and excessive amount of money taken from the pockets of taxpayers. That is to say it is estimated to cost three million dollars for the average death penalty and by eliminating it and opting for life sentences would save hundreds millions dollars annually in which can then be devoted to other areas such as healthcare or education. Despite the price we pay for the sustenance of the system, it does not impede crime rates and contrary…
Recent years, capital punishment has been a focused problem and heated discussion among countries in the world. In the legislation system, capital punishment is the highest and cruelest punishment to criminal offenders. Nowadays, more than 100 countries have abolished death penalty, but some of the other countries still keep and implement capital punishment, such as America, which it is rare that using death punishment in developed countries. Actually, American government restored capital punishment in 1976 and executed more than one thousand people until now. In the United States, only thirty six states have capital punishment, while the others do not have death penalty. Some people think America should not have capital punishment because capital punishment does not conform to civilization. However, America should continue to use the death penalty because capital punishment…
In his article Why The Death Penalty Needs To Die, Gillespie mentions that in California alone, $4 billion dollars was spent on administering death penalty cases between 1980 and 2012. That is a lot of money that was wasted on something so useless. In Here's Why We Need to Kill the Death Penalty, Senator Daylin Leach states how unaffordable it is to process, try, and carry out a death penalty sentencing. So much money is spent on the death penalty. Billions and billions of dollars are spent just to have the death penalty. The country is in debt enough as it is. The average case costs about $740,000. With cases that aim for the death penalty it costs around $1.26 million. It costs $90,000 dollars more in taxpayer money to manage a prisoner on…
The death penalty uses an unnecessary amount of America’s budget. The amount of money we spend on the death penalty could be put to better use. “Death penalty cases are much more expensive than other criminal cases and cost more than imprisonment for life with no possibility of parole. A study in Kansas indicated that a capital trial costs $116,700 more than an ordinary…
My data/evidence: According to a California Assessment of Costs by Judge Arthur Alarcon and Prof. Paula Mitchell, the cost of the death penalty has cost the taxpayers of California over $4 billion since 1978. They also calculated a savings of $170 million per year if the Governor was to commute the sentences of those remaining on death row to life without parole. That would be a savings of over $5 billion over the next 20 years for California alone.…
The cost to execute a person is much more than it costs to put the person in prison for life without a chance of parole. In California, a study shows that death penalty trials are more than twenty times as expensive as putting someone in prison for life without the possibility of parole. California spends over $184 million on the death penalty each year, and many other states follow suit. If the death penalty is discontinued, the cash used on it could benefit the families tremendously. Families could use this cash to obtain counseling and other assistance to help them put their lives back together. Also, remaining cash can be used in other public assistance such as education, drug and alcohol treatment, and child abuse prevention…
Life without parole provides rapid, severe, and certain punishment. All judgement is not right, at times people’s judgments can be clouded or corrupt. For example, a judge could be more lenient with a defendant that only has charges of petty theft than against a defendant fighting against rape charge. The defendant could be innocent, but because he or she is charged with a more hated and heinous crime such as rape or murder, he or she could face bias or unfair punishment. Until the issue of discrimination in capital punishment is fixed the death penalty should be outlawed within the United States. Death row is the ultimate punishment for one’s immorality, therefore it is not right for those who are morally correct and innocent to be put to death just because of some peoples one-sided judgment. Instead of wasting millions of taxpayer dollars meaningless death, the american people should save to protect some of those essential services (such as education) that are now threatened with death from state budget cost. Life without parole could be a very effective alternative to capital punishment, that not only saves money, but also…
"The death penalty is much more expensive than life without parole because the Constitution requires a long and complex judicial process for capital cases". The process before being executed is much longer. In fact "Some prisoners have been on death row for well over 20 years"(Death penalty.org, 2008). This time on death row can vary, but usually it is more then 10 years (Death penalty.org, 2008). During that time of waiting on death row more and more money is being spent looking into the case to make sure everything is perfect and correct information is there. The amount of money spent on the person that is getting executed is over thousands more by the time the process is done. Executions cost "$2 million per person vs. $500,000 for life in prison without parole. If the death penalty was replaced with a sentence of life without the possibility of parole, which costs millions less, more money, could go for things citizen really need. In fact; "the money saved could be spent on programs that actually improve the communities in which we live"(Death penalty, 2008). There are so many good things we could use the extra millions of dollars on including "education, roads, police officers and public safety programs, after-school programs, drug and alcohol treatment, child abuse prevention programs, mental health services, and services for crime victims and their families". All of this should be way more important in the grand schema of things. The state of California alone "could save $1 billion over five years by replacing the death penalty with permanent imprisonment." Having regular prisoners is so much cheaper. "California taxpayers pay $90,000 more per death row prisoner each year than on prisoners in regular…
These obstacles make it almost impossible for the death penalty to ever be carried out. Typically, death row inmates end up dying due to other factors such as health complications rather than being put to death (Petersen & Lynch, 2012, p. 1270). Essentially sentencing someone to death, and placing them on death row is basically the same as a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The difference, however is that the sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole carries a significantly smaller price tag for tax payers. Furthermore, with violence rampant in prisons across the nation life in prison without the possibility of parole is not exactly living a comfortable life.…
Some people are against the killing of others for any reasons. Other people feel that certain crimes should be punished by death. The death penalty is a very controversial topic in the United States today and has been for a number of years, because people's life is at risk. The reviewing the numbers of facts prove that the death penalty should not be enforced. I think death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights. It violates the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is the ultimate cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment. It should be abolished in this country it's racial discrimination, the financial cost and barbarity.…
The human rights activist argues that the death penalty is inhumane and goes against all human rights. There have been many countries that have abolished the death penalty as Capital Punishment. China, Iran, and Iraq still apply Capital Punishment for political purposes, murder, drug trafficking, adultery, and witchcraft. In total, one hundred forty countries have abolished the death penalty because some criminals are influenced by the police interviewing. They are more likely to give a false statement and because they are ill and don’t understand what happened at the actual crime. Mental health influences 5-10 percent of capital punishment cases. This information is provided by Amnesty…
Some believe if they ban the death penalty the state can save millions. There are claims that the death penalty is more expensive than life without parole. The expense of capital punishment and life without parole is very contentious issue. A study done by the Sacramento Bee, argued that California would save ninety million dollars per year if it were to abolish the death penalty. Many opponents presently say that the cost of the death penalty is so expensive, at least two million dollars per case and say that we must choose life without parole at a cost of one million dollars for fifty years. JFA (Justice for All) estimates that life without parole will cost one point two million dollars through three point six million dollars more than equivalent death penalty cases. Life without parole prisoners faces on average of thirty or forty years in prison while the annual cost of incarceration in forty thousand dollars to fifty thousand dollars a year…
For the death penalty to be enforced there are many processes, which cost a lot of money, that take place over several years. The taxpayer, in most cases, pays all the costs of judges, attorneys, appeals, and courts over the whole course of the capital punishment trial. According to Michael Sage, a trial judge on a recent death penalty case, the cost will be three to four times more than the cost of a life-without-parole trial (“Cost”). In many states, the death penalty proves to be financially insufficient and negatively affects taxpayers through the cost of a death penalty trial. In Texas, a death penalty case costs an average of $2.3 million, which is about three times the cost of imprisoning someone for 40 years (“Facts”). The death penalty is much more expensive than life without parole because the Constitution requires a long and complex judicial process for capital cases (“High”). Even though the death penalty is much more expensive than life in prison without parole, with some changes to the sentencing of a death penalty it could be an efficient method of dealing with capital punishment.…