Why the Death Penalty Should Be Abolished Essay Example

The death penalty has been used in cultures as long as human history has been around, to sacrificing people to Sun Gods or for committing heinous crimes or to be used to burn someone alive at the Salem Trials for being a “witch”. The death penalty has been a staple punishment in society. Though, I believe that this over-dramatic weapon of mass destruction should be put to the guillotine and abolished. The death penalty is a cruel and disgusting penalty that should be removed instantly. 

On a moral level, the death penalty is wrong. According to deathpenaltyinfo.org (page 2) it states,” An average of 3.94 wrongly convicted death-row prisoners have been exonerated each year since 1973.” 4 people are a lot of people per year to be exonerated. When killing someone you run the risk of potentially killing someone innocent despite the amount of evidence brought against them. It is very possible and evidenced by this statistic, commonplace. Taking an unnecessary risk and killing someone instead of any alternative is morally wrong. Playing Russian Roulette every time you kill someone just isn’t worth it. Also, according to Staff Report, House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil & Constitutional Rights, 1993, with updates by DPIC Since 1973, more than 180 people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence. Considering most of the people who are released from death row are there for many years, it is nice that these people finally get the justice they deserve. While it is obviously not right that they would spend years in there, it is nice to see that these people finally get the justice they deserve. If we had the death penalty, most of these people wouldn’t get the justice they would not get this justice. They would have simply been dead before they could have ever been free of their crime in the first place. The death penalty is immoral and should be abolished, it also raises the question of can we kill someone. 

The U.S. Constitution states that every man has rights and has been amended multiple times to add on more rights. According to Just Mercy it states, “The death penalty is not about whether people deserve to die for the crimes they commit. The real question of capital punishment in this country is, do we deserve to kill?” When killing someone you deny them of their ultimate right, life. People don’t have the right to kill one another. Doing this, strips the other person of their rights forever. Another quote from Just Mercy states,” The death penalty can be imposed fairly only after carefully considering all the reasons why death might not be the appropriate sentence.” Most of the time, there are better sentences. With the number of new inmates in the legal system, it is impossible for each case to be carefully examined with a lens by everyone to find reasons to kill them. It is easier to simply abolish the system entirely. This combined with the moral reasons is why the death penalty should be abolished. 

A common point brought up by people who support the death penalty is that the death penalty saves taxpayers' dollars. They may be right that just straight up killing someone quickly would save taxpayer’s dollars, but according to the Dallas Morning News, March 8, 1992, it states, "The study shows that trials and appeals take 7.5 years and cost taxpayers an average $2.3 million per case in Texas. To imprison someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years costs about $750,000.” Texas has the most executions out of any state (deathpenaltyinfo.org) and in that state it takes 7.5 years. The argument that it saves money to kill someone not only disregards the amount of time it takes for trials to occur and the disgusting nature of killing someone easily for monetary gain. Not only that, but it’s also much cheaper just to lock someone in prison for 40 years than just straight up killing them.