Argument Essay in favor of abolishing the death penalty with lists "Reasons For Abolishing the Death Penalty"

Essay by Denni541College, UndergraduateB, January 2003

download word file, 16 pages 4.4 3 reviews

Downloaded 575 times

Reasons for Abolishing the Death Penalty by Nanette Fleming

There are many things that I don't agree with in today's society, but out of all the wrong doings that take place, I believe the death penalty is the worst of them all. I am strongly against the death penalty because it violates God's rules, costs the tax payers too much money, prisoners could be wrongly convicted, and it is cruel and unusual punishment.

The first reason why I do not support having the death penalty is that it violates religious beliefs. Many religions, such as my own, Catholicism, follow the rules that God sent to us through the Ten Commandments. One of the most important of those then states, "Thou shall not kill." If you are executing an individual, that clearly violates this commandment. Murdering any person, no matter what the individual has been convicted of, is a mortal sin.

Therefore, anyone who aids in executing people will be punished by God. I believe that religious beliefs, such as the Ten Commandments, are the corner stone for our law system. Executing someone shouldn't be made an exception to the God's rule.

My next reason against the death penalty is that the tax payers waste too much of their money with the death penalty in place. The average death penalty case is appealed three times. This means that the tax payers must pay for the same trial to be heard three times. This is a very expensive practice. Also, the average convicted murderer spends 12 years on death row. If supporters of the death penalty are positive enough to kill the person for committing the crime, shouldn't the supportes be confident enough to execute them in a timely manner? Why spend the tax payer's money keeping these inmates in jail for...