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Martin Luther King, Jr once said, “An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.” So why does the Death Penalty exist? According to CNN, since Capital Punishment was reinstated in the US in 1976, over 1500 people have been executed. This number is substantial, and yet, many citizens aren’t informed about its risks and effects. The Death Penalty is degrading the American legal system and should be abolished immediately to protect civilians, whether innocent or not. No one deserves to suffer the cruel and unusual punishments that we consider typical for first-degree murder in today’s society.
The number of people exonerated after their executions are tragic. A study featured in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences claims that one in every 25, or 4.1% of people on death row are innocent. Since 1973, CNN states that only 144 death row inmates have been exonerated. 1.6%. Unfortunately, this leaves a whopping estimated number of undiscovered, innocent victims trapped in the legal system, awaiting death. These statistics prove the unreliability of American courts’ hearings. It is simply logically inept to allow such a permanent punishment as death, to be forced onto so many of those who are innocent. One life lost, one botched execution, one wrongly convicted victim, and Americans should have stood in outrage to demand change. The Death Penalty should have been outlawed a long time ago. How can we continue to support this method of punishment when it has undeniably caused suffering to innocent citizens and families? We can’t. The Death Penalty is not only cruel but proves time and time again that its tragic costs outweigh its few benefits by vast quantities.
Executions are not only terribly tragic for those who are wrongly convicted, but they are often a terrifying, uncomfortable experience for guilty inmates as well. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, lethal injections are by far the most common form of execution in the US. However, they often cause the inmate, “unnecessary pain and indignity,” according to Britannica. In 2014, an inmate named Joseph Wood was executed by lethal injection. After the IV was inserted, it took him one hour and forty minutes to die. According to witnesses, he appeared to suffer and gasped 640 times before he was pronounced dead (Death Penalty Information Center). Countless other cases have occurred where prisoners are forced to endure extreme pain before their deaths. It is estimated that 3.15% of all US executions are botched, or failed in some way (Death Penalty Information Center). This evidence unquestionably proves that Capital Punishment violates the eighth amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, defined as “torture, deliberately degrading punishment, or punishment that is too severe for the crime”(Dictionary.com). We cannot continue to allow this to be sanctioned; it is inhumane and inefficient. Jeanne Woodford said, “There comes a time when you have to ask yourself if a penalty that is so permanent can be available in such an imperfect system.” No person, guilty or innocent, deserves to go through the dreadful executions that have become so common today. Although most people on death row have committed terribly heinous crimes, I think that there are much more efficient, practical, and humane ways to deal with their behaviors.
Finally, despite the fact that 33% of Americans support Capital Punishment (Death Penalty Information Center), it is clear that much of the population is uninformed about its consequences on our economy and society. Despite the common belief that it is cheaper to execute a prisoner and remove them from the legal system, this actually costs much more than alternatives. Florida spends $51 million per year on Capital Punishment above what it would cost the state to punish first-degree murders with life in prison without parole. It is estimated that each execution costs the state about $24 million (Death Penalty Information Center). Perhaps the reason most people support the Death Penalty is that it discourages violent crimes. However, this is not true. Despite the Southern US being responsible for 80% of nationwide Capital Punishment, its murder rates are also the highest. And the Northeast, responsible for a mere 1% of executions, has the lowest murder rate (Death Penalty Information Center). In addition to this, according to statistical and anecdotal evidence collected by the Death Penalty Information Center, it has been concluded that Capital Punishment does not discourage citizens from committing first-degree murder, or cause murder rates to drop. A 2009 poll by DPIC also found that police officers considered the Death Penalty the least effective crime deterrent, saying that it was generally a waste of taxpayers’ money (Death Penalty Information Center). This proves that Capital Punishment is profitless and harmful towards the population, and needs to be outlawed immediately to protect citizens’ lives and discontinue the misuse of our country’s tax-money, which could be alternatively be funneled into rehabilitation programs or used to improve the quality of prisons.
Overall, the Death Penalty benefits no one. It causes an irreversible loss for families whose members are wrongly convicted. It causes suffering and fear for the many inmates that become victims of botched executions. It causes no decrease in murder rates, and it causes us to waste our tax money on a practice that is not only inhumane, but unconstitutional. We must abolish Capital Punishment and prevent it from causing further loss in this country. If we don’t, we are only encouraging suffering to continue as a legal, ethical practice when in reality, the Death Punishment is undeniably inefficient and terribly cruel. As Robert A. Heinlein once asked, “Under what circumstances is it moral for a group to do that which is not moral for a member of that group to do alone?” It is never humane to kill people to show that killing is wrong. Those who support the death penalty are going against their own policies. We must speak up and show them that there are other ways to deal with murder. Albert Einstein said, “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.”
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