Capital punishment should never be sanctioned

Essay by kyumiloveHigh School, 11th gradeA, March 2003

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Capital punishment is the most severe form of corporal punishment as it is requires law enforcement officers to kill the offender. Also, capital punishment is one of the most controversial topics in the world. Some campaigns to eliminate capital punishment have now been accepted and more and more nations in the world are starting to abolish that cruel punishment. I am strongly against the death penalty because it violates religious beliefs, may wrongly convict the accused, it costs a lot of money and most of all it doesn't deter crimes.

The first reason why I do not support having the death penalty is that it violates religious beliefs. Many religions such as Christianity, follow the rules that God sent us the Ten Commandments. One of the most important of those states, "Thou shall not kill". If you executed an individual, that clearly violates this commandment. Murdering any person, no matter what the individual has been convicted of, is against God's rule.

Buddhism and Hinduism also have the rule that strongly forbids taking people's lives away. Therefore, anyone who aids in executing people will be punished by a higher power. I believe that religious beliefs are the corner stone of one nation's constitution. Executing someone shouldn't be made an exception to the religious beliefs.

Another reason against the death penalty is that capital punishment costs too much money. According to a study by the New York state Defenders' Association, it costs up to three times the amount to keep a prisoner on death row that it would to keep them in prison for the rest of their lives. The expense comes from the long drawn out appeals process that we are giving our criminals. The average death penalty is appealed three times. This means tax payers have to pay for the...