Against The Death Penalty
Those who favor the death penalty would argue that violent criminals whom have committed violent crimes deserve to be put to death and that they should die for their crimes. However, with some research one can see that putting criminals to death might not be the best solution after all. The death penalty has been a hot topic of debate for years now. It seems that everyone has an opinion on it one way or another. Some of these include: the death penalty is not an effective deterrent, it is applied unfairly to minorities, several innocent people have been on death row and later found to be innocent and set free, and the death penalty, in most cases, costs more than life in prison.
Advocates of the death penalty argue that it is a good form of punishment because it shows potential criminals that committing a crime can bring about dire consequences.
English: Total number of executions carried out in...
Death penalty statutes in the united states
English: Paying the death penalty for crime - garr...At first this seems like a reasonable argument and it seems to make sense, but there is plenty of evidence that suggests otherwise. One reason that the death penalty is not a deterrent, is that most murders are committed in the heat of the moment, out of anger or other strong emotions, according to Time magazine in a article called," Must this man Die?" In fact, premeditated murders make up a very small part of total murders committed; less than 10 percent. Obviously someone who kills another person in a fit of rage is not thinking about the consequences at the time. Someone who kills another person like this is not going to be deterred by the death penalty.
Further evidence that proves the death penalty is not a deterrent, is the fact that several states with the death penalty have higher homicide rates...