The recent decision of Congress to not interfere with the sentencing and execution of Troy David arose many concerns among American citizens. Because each state creates it's own laws towards capital punishment, citizens are seeking regulations at the national level.
Since the beginning of the human race, various forms of murder have been socially acceptable to use as punishment in an attempt to deter criminals. I do not believe that the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for grave criminal offenses because it is costly, hypocritical, and does not deter criminals.
Many argue that keeping criminals in prison for many years is costly, but this is not always the case. In fact, since we now use different forms of execution, killing these criminals is more costly. We once used forms of hanging, stoning and lynching to perform the death penalty. However, these have now taken the definition of “cruel and unusual” punishment and have now become socially unacceptable. They have been replaced by electrocution and lethal injections. The cruelty of the electrocution chair process is that many criminals do not die the first time, and must keep repeating this process over and over again. The lethal injection is very expensive, and it would be more economically beneficial to keep these criminals incarcerated for years.
Showing that killing people by killing people is wrong is extremely hypocritical. It turns into a constant cycle of, “I’m going to kill you because you killed them, and you killed them because they killed that person.” It is uncivilized and unnecessary.
The death penalty does not effectively deter criminals. Often, many would rather be put to death than having to deal with the choices that they have made every day for the rest of their lives. Many criminals who are put to death do not regret their decisions, whereas those who have had to deal with the consequences and their conscience do regret.
I do not agree with the death penalty and do not believe that it is effective as punishment because it is costly, hypocritical and does not deter criminals.
I agree that under some circumstances the death penalty is the wrong solution. There have been multiple instances in our history when a person is put to death for a crime it turns out they did not commit. I also think though, that if there is undeniable evidence that a person is guilty of a crime such as murder, it is ridiculous to keep them in a prison. Many prisons in the state of Texas give the prisoners so many luxuries like free food, air conditioning, and television, that prison is not really a deterrent for criminals any more than the death penalty is. I think that in cases where a known killer is tried, the death penalty is the only reasonable way to go. The electric chair may seem a bit inhumane at times, because it sometimes takes multiple tries to do its job, but it does get the job done; lethal injection is also a questionable method due to its cost, but bullets aren’t that expensive and neither is euthanasia. Why not get rid of the murderers in our country the same way we dispose of unwanted animals? In most cases, the animal is likely to have done much less wrong than the person being charged, and neither euthanasia nor a bullet to the brain seem terribly cruel and unusual to me. Both are quick and fairly painless, certainly more so than death by electrocution. I don’t see why, if disposal is so easy, we should have to pay for the upkeep and entertainment of criminals across the state.
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