Capital Punishment: A Flawed Policy

Essay by hedalynn22College, UndergraduateB+, June 2010

download word file, 4 pages 0.0

Downloaded 25 times

Hunt � PAGE �1�

Capital Punishment: A Flawed Policy

When one thinks about the world we live in and all of the rules we have to live by, some rules come to mind that we don't necessarily agree with. We wish that things were different, and we don't think we should have to follow policies that we don't have any faith in. Capital Punishment is a very controversial topic that many debate over every single day. Should it be legal to sentence someone with the death penalty for a crime that person committed? In the U.S. today, Capital Punishment is legal is thirty-eight states across the country, including Texas for example. Some agree with it and some don't, and it is a concept that will be fought over for many, many years to come. Although it is not legal in all states, the death penalty is a policy that is flawed and unjust and should be discontinued immediately.

With the economy we live in today, our nation needs to spend its money wisely, and although many wouldn't realize it, the amount of money it costs just to sentence a criminal to death is ridiculous! A New York study estimated the death penalty cost conservatively at three times that of life imprisonment (Freedman 48). The reality is that, in a time of fixed or declining budgets, those dollars are taken away from a range of programs that would be beneficial (Freedman 48). In California, which houses the nation's largest death row, it costs about $137 million annually to maintain the state's death penalty system (Lain 9). "In Florida, each execution runs the state $3,200,000- six times the expense of life imprisonment. California has succeeded in executing just two defendants since 1976, but could save about $90 million per year by...