Essay against the death penalty. 5 pages with work cited

Essay by swilson6College, UndergraduateB+, May 2012

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The Death Penalty

As long as human beings have had the capacity to think and make decisions, there have been good and bad actions made by people toward one another. The way society treats these actions varies by time period, location, and situation surrounding the deed. Bad deeds have had a huge spectrum of punishments, and today, in this country, the worst a man can earn is the death penalty. It is, by definition, the punishment of execution, administered to someone convicted of a capital crime. If one is going to discuss this topic they must first understand what this means; someone is having their life taken away because of an action to society. The death penalty is wrong and should be abolished by the American Government, because it does not accomplish the intended goals of deterring criminals or saving lives, and has a negative economic and financial effect on communities practicing it.

First and foremost, we must view the victim of this harsh system of punishment, the inmate. It is simply irrational and ridiculous to consider the fact that besides the advancement in technology, human beings are still killing one another over crimes to society. However, if society today deems a person a menace or harm to the people in the community in which they live in, jail isn't enough and they turn to the death penalty. The idea is that not only will they save lives potentially ended by this criminal, but also others will be scared or deterred not to make crimes in fear of loosing their own life. Recent studies have supported opinions against this idea; after all even President Obama had stated in his latest memoir that the penalty "does little to deter crime". Although he is now a supporter of ending the...