Used Arguments For The Death Penalty example essay topic

The death penalty is one of the most debuted subjects in America today. And why not? Its better to get rid of our criminals by killing them, that " ll teach them, right? Well I'm here to pose the facts to you so that you can decide what is the better method Well lets take a look at the facts here.

One of the most used arguments for the death penalty is that it is cheaper then keeping someone in prison for 40 years. you would think that cause it usually takes about 15 years for a person to be executed on death row. It dose look cheaper then keeping in someone and feeding them, housing them, providing for them and in some cases educating for the rest of their lives. That's what many people think is the truth but in reality it isn't. When a jury sentences a man or woman to death then there is a long appeals process that goes on.

It is set into the constitution a minimum constitutional safeguard, which protects an inmates right to have appeals and not just be executed. And because of that there is a delay between conviction and execution. This time in between is where the appeals take place and a lot of money is spent. In an example: in New York a man called Robert Schulman was on trial for capital murder.

He was convicted in 1999 and the trial cost New York taxpayers, $2.16 million. His trial was 3.5 times greater then a typical murder trial when the death penalty was not sought after. That is double the amount that it would cost for him to be in prison for 40 years at $30,484 a year. And in 1999, the New York Dally estimated that costs involved in capital murder cases could reach a total of $230 million before the first person ever gets executed. Another argument given for the death penalty is that it gives closure for the grieving families. So how the death of the man / woman that committed this against their family member will make it better.

In some case this is true and the family is satisfied with their death. But more likely then often there is no closure to what they feel. So the death of that person could have made no difference and all that will still be there. Another thing is the small chance that this person may be innocent. Sometimes our system fails and makes innocent men / woman be sent to death for crimes they did not commit. Only recently has there been a breakthrough in DNA and now it can be used in cases to prove guilt or innocence.

Past cases where there was no DNA evidence used have been exonerated because it turned out that the blood found at the crime scene was not the convicted ones blood. Another way that a person could be sent to jail would be that the he / she did not have equal representation at there trial and lost because of that This means that there might be people on death row that are innocent but can't prove it with DNA or they just didn't get a fair trial. The system is not always right as I said above and here's another reason why. If you were to send someone to death then they would go through the appeals. When going through the process there is a chance that he / she could get out on some technicality. They would have a greater chance of getting out of jail through the appeals process then when a person has a life sentence.

One more reason would be that the death penalty scares people into not committing violent crimes on the assumption that they would get death if they did it. Now there could be some people that this actually be true for but it is not always. Mot of the time a violent crime like murder is committed in the heat of a moment. Maybe the spouse found his / her spouse in bed with a lover and got caught up n the moment. Not every murder can be prevented by just the fear of death.