Should The United States Abolish Death Penalty?

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Capital punishment is a very controversial topic in today’s society and many American states are asking themselves whether they should abolish death penalty or keep it. The Death Penalty has a long history. The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) (2016) shows that while 19 states have abolished the death penalty in the United States, currently, there are 31 states that still implement the death penalty in their legal process. The New York Times article, “California Today: Why Californians Kept the Death Penalty” reveals that although Califonia has had a progressive streak during the election day, many people still voted to keep the death penalty (McPhate). This makes California one of the states that still practice death penalty.
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This occurs because the right to fair trials is sometimes ignored. In a situation where an innocent person is put to capital punishment, the court commits a crime by killing an innocent person. Compared to other sentences, capital punishment does not people a fair chance to prove their innocent, where if found innocent, the wrongfully convicted people can be released. On the other hand, capital punishment is an irreversible process. In addition, although it is true that capital punishment might deter criminals from committing heinous crimes and might help restore a society back to its peaceful state, it has been statistically proven that capital punishment fails to deter crime. The deathpnalty.org article “The death penalty fails to deter crime” argues this assertion saying, “Moreover, states without the death penalty have much lower murder rates. The South accounts for 80% of US executions and has the highest regional murder rate”. This proves that states that have abolished capital punishment have fewer murder rates compared to states that still implement the practice, hence showing that anyone who commits a crime would not be deterred by capital punishment. On the other hand, it shows that abolishing capital punishment might be more beneficial to a society as it might lower the rates of crime in that …show more content…
Consequently, the victims’ families will be faced with the burden of constantly waiting to see what the final verdict will be. This process might take a long time and prevent the victims from moving on with their lives. Also, in most cases, the families of the victims are usually against the death punishment. The Death Penalty Information Center (2016) published a story of one of the victim’s family saying that watching the execution left them with horror and emptiness, confirming that Capital punishment only continues the violence that has a powerful, corrosive effect on society. Therefore, it is clear that even after the long process of sentencing and appeals, the victim’s families never really get closure but are only exposed to more horrors. Instead of capital punishments, states should look for other alternatives that are known to deter crimes, less costly, and that fully restores the justice in a society. Capital punishment is immoral and makes the court criminals since they are the ones who provide the

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