The death penalty seems like something that has been on the borderline for a long time.

Should there be a death penalty or not? Well keeping the murderers and criminals behind bars is

much better of a punishment than killing them. A very unexpected fact is that the statistics show

that the states that do not have the death penalty have lower crime and murder rates than the

states that do have the death penalty. It is cruel and unusual punishment to kill anyone under any

circumstances. Everyone has their own opinion but seriously the death penalty is just wrong and

completely inhumane.

Killing someone who has killed another person is just letting the criminal off the

hook. If people put the criminal behind bars they will have to deal with killing someone and

living in a prison for the rest of their lives. Another fact is most countries in Europe do not have

the death penalty and it seems like they are doing quite well (Stearman). Again the countries that

do not have the death penalty have lower crime rates than those that do have the death penalty.

So why doesn’t the United States change its policies? Americans should just do what our allies

are doing and drop capital punishment. People need to think about what harm the death penalty

is doing to the U.S. A lot of people don’t really care what happens to the criminals and it really

shows how inconsiderate some people can be (Contreras and Matthews). Why don’t people just

care more? It is their country. More facts also show that the death penalty can cost some innocent

people their lives. There were 4,459 people executed in the U.S between 1930 and 1999.

Roughly 12% were later found, with the use of new DNA technology, to be innocent

(sks.sirs.com). Twelve percent of 4,459 is 535 people. All of those people got killed even though

they did nothing wrong. Does the American government really think that having a deterrent that

doesn’t even work is really more important than people lives? It really seems that the death

penalty is doing more harm than good.

The death penalty is put in place to deter people from doing horrible acts of

violence. Statistics show that states that refrain from having the death penalty have lower crime

rates than states that choose to exercise the death penalty. Also some tactics for administering the

death penalty are quite shocking. A map shows the five main types of execution. Seven states use

the electric chair, three states use a firing squad, two states use hanging, five states use gas

chambers and 34 states use lethal injection (deathpenaltycurriculum.org). How crazy is it that

some states still hang people? Hanging people was done in the 1800’s. It should be long gone by

now. States that have dropped capital punishment have seen substantial drops in murder rates

since 2006 (sks.sirs.com). It’s really quite ironic because the death penalty is supposed to make

criminals want to stop doing crime, yet it seems by having the death penalty it is just making

them want to commit more and more crimes. Capital punishment doesn’t seem to be working out

very well does it? The death penalty should be banned already if people would stand by their

word! Most of the time when it is put to a vote the voters say they will vote it out then just

chicken out and vote to keep it (Wooten). If the government really followed through with what

they said they would do then the death penalty would be gone already. The voters and our state

legislators really need to be a lot more confident in what they believe in and keep their word. The

voters just need to step up and do what they want.

Killing someone in any situation is completely wrong and is cruel and unusual

punishment. The 8th amendment of the U.S Constitution, Article Five of the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights, and the European Declaration of Human Rights deem that the

death penalty is “cruel and unusual punishment” (Kerrigan). All of Europe has essentially

abolished the death penalty. So why shouldn’t the United States do what Europe is doing? Most

of the European countries have lower murder rates than the United States does anyway. It seems

to have worked for the Europeans pretty well. The death penalty can be sometimes looked upon

as “revenge deterrence and reformation” (Homans). But a lot of experts believe that life in prison

is a lot more hurtful to criminals than letting them off the hook and giving them death (Homans).

Revenge should be a step no one should ever take because it is extremely wrong. The death

penalty is unconstitutional in many ways and should be abolished as soon as possible.

It really seems with all the facts that the death penalty should just go! Keeping the

criminals who deserve to spend life in prison should get life in prison. All the statistics are there

that the states and countries that do not have the death penalty have lower crime rates than states

or countries that do. It is cruel and unusual punishment to kill anyone under and circumstances. It

is really murdering someone when the government kills someone under capital punishment. It is

just like what the criminals themselves are doing is killing people. Capital punishment has no

need to be here any longer. It has really overstayed its welcome. Now the death penalty really

needs to be put to death.