Death Penalty (Essay Sample)

When our country was first founded its people brought with them the laws that had governed Britain for centuries. The death penalty was one of the things that were brought to this new world just as it had been in the old. In the beginning days of our country there were many crimes punishable by death and death was metered out by hangings and firing squads often as public events. As our country began to change however the crimes which we claimed to be punishable by death began to dwindle and be gradually taken from the list. As our society became more modern other countries, beginning with Venezuela in 1863 (Guernsey 125), to find that the death penalty was immoral and unjust, that it violated the dignity and rights of us as human beings. The United States however, the leader of many countries around the world, still keeps this system.
The death penalty has been and always will be a crime committed by the American criminal justice system. It is more expensive than life without parole, condemns yet another family to suffer, sends innocent people to death row, and gives a hypocritical view of the right to murder. The death penalty has been abolished in Michigan for all crimes save treason since 1846 (Greenhaven Press Inc. 14) and must stay that way.
Proponents of the death penalty claim that killing a murderer deters others from committing murder. They claim that knowing that a death penalty is possible keeps criminals from killing. Why is it then, that the states with the highest rate of executions also have the highest murder rates (Guernsey 61; Amnesty International, 1)? States that continue to use the death penalty have other problems with the deterrence factor as well. A prisoner could spend anywhere from 7-12 years on death row going through appeals processes before they can be killed (Guernsey 30-33). During this appeals process many of them have their sentences commuted to life in prison. Less than 1% of the criminals charged with a capital crime and sentenced to death actually get put to death (Guernsey 61). And that is only fewer than 1% of the criminals originally sentenced. Many murderers are sentenced to life in the first place. Yet this less than 1% of death row inmates is supposed to deter criminals from murder? They have a 99% or greater chance of not being killed but they are supposed to worry about that 1% chance?
Life without parole is the typical sentence given to a murderer who beats the death penalty. On average an inmate who spends 40 years in a prison costs the system (and us as taxpayers) $750,000 to $1.1 million. A criminal convicted of murder, given a capital trial, and sentenced to death costs the system (and taxpayers) an average of $2-$3 million (Greenhaven Press, Inc. 19-20). A capital trial requires a jury that is willing and able to convict a criminal to death. This, on average, takes at least twice as long to find as a jury for a non capital case. The trial is then carried out in two long drawn out parts as well. A conviction phase and a sentencing phase (Guernsey, 29). Once a defendant is found to be guilty their case, in many states, is then automatically appealed. During the appeal process, which could take years, they are sitting on death row which costs $90,000 more per year than if they had been housed in a regular prison cell (Guernsey 32) at an average of 9 years that’s approximately $810,000 just in housing fees. If the appeal is denied the defendant has the opportunity to continue to appeal.
Each of these appeals costs taxpayers more money while they are also paying the cost of that criminal being on death row. If the defendant’s sentence is commuted to life without parole at any point during their appeals the taxpayers now must pay the $750,00-$1.1 million that is costs to house them in a regular prison for the rest of their life on top of the millions they’ve already paid for the capital trial. Since only 1% of criminals sentenced to death are actually put to death that means that in 99% of those cases the taxpayers are paying millions for a capital trial and then a million more to then house the defendant in a prison for the remainder of his life. And all this for no reason. If the defendant were sentenced to life without parole in the first place (if there was no death penalty) it would save the taxpayers millions of dollars per year on capital trials (Greenhaven Press, Inc. 20-21).
In many states the method of choice for executions is lethal injection. This is done by inserting needless into the arms of the condemned prisoner and intravenously injecting poisons and anesthetic into their bloodstream (Amnesty International 9). This process is, by law, to be done by a physician or doctor however the act of killing a human being is in direct violation of the code of ethics adopted by medical professionals to save lives and harm none (Amnesty International, 10). If done improperly this procedure can cause serious problems. If the poisons are put into the bloodstream before the anesthetic the prisoner will suffer incredible pain as they take effect. All forms of executions can have problems and can cause unbearable pain for the prisoner before they are actually killed. Prisoners can take many minutes to die from lethal injection, gas chambers or the electric chair. Their bodies are often difficult to behold after such methods as electrocution and their slow death can be painful to watch for their families.
Families of the victims often say that they deserve justice. They claim that they can only find closure if the person who murdered their family member is put to death. The way to closure is through acceptance and moving on with your life. No not necessarily forgiving the person who hurt your family in this terrible way but accepting that it happened. Nothing that is done, not forgiving them or killing them is going to bring back the one that is lost. Instead all that will happen is another family will be doomed to the same fate as the victims’. Just because their son or daughter or father or anything is a murderer does not mean they love them any less than the victims’ family loved the one who was killed. They still feel the same pain and loss at the death. Yet victims’ families speak of closure and justice. Who will give the criminals family closure and justice? Simply because the one to kill their family member is being paid to do so by the government, which was ordered to do so by a judge and jury, they will never be able to find the supposed ‘closure’ that the victims family claims is found only through vengeance and retribution. How then are they to come to terms with this?
The family of a inmate on death row may be forced to sit in a room and watch their loved one die right before their eyes while the victim’s family cheers and celebrates beside them (Greenhaven Press, Inc. 136). The family of the victim may claim that they are happy because the murderer has finally gotten what they deserve and yet is their loved one any less dead? Is their life any less changed? The answer is no. Yet for the family on the other side of the crime their loved one wasn’t dead but now is. Their lives were changed by their imprisonment but are now changed even more with their death. So yet another family is forced to suffer a painful, devastating loss and nothing is gained. The victim has not been helped, they are already dead; the criminal has not been helped, he is also dead. And the families are now simply left to pick up the pieces of their lives and try to put them back together.
In the years since DNA testing has become popular more than 200 inmates have been pulled from death row because they were found to be innocent (Guernsey 71). 200 people that the criminal justice system found to be guilty and almost killed. 200 people that have lost perhaps decades of their lives and will never be the same again. These people have been taken from their families, their jobs, their lives and put in front of a group of their ‘peers’ who are told they are murderers, child rapists and serial killers. Many of these could even be high profile cases covered by the media. In those cases even if these people are found completely innocent through DNA their lives will never be the same (Guernsey 72-73). Millions of people have been told they are one of the worst kinds of criminals and no amount of apology or DNA can take that from their minds. These innocents spent years of their lives with the worst kinds of criminals thinking all the while that all it would take is maybe one more jury and they would die for a crime they never committed.
These 200 were saved from a death that was in their future but what about others from before DNA testing? What about others whose cases were botched or whose evidence was wrongly examined? How many innocent people have already been or will be killed because something didn’t go right? In a system presided over by human beings who are naturally flawed it is on...