Last Meal Across America the death penalty, also known as capital punishment, is legal inthirty-one states and illegal in nineteen states (including DC). The first time the death penalty was used in America was in 1608, there were no prisons and the death penalty was the standard form of punishment at the time (ProQuest). Captain George Kendall was the first recorded execution in early America (ProQuest). Indiana has a state penitentiary that has used the death penalty on numerous occasions, the most recent being Timothy McVeigh in 2001 for his bombing in Oklahoma (ProQuest). The death penalty should be legal in all states because there are economic benefits as well as the fact that murderers deserve their fate. There are economic benefits
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One issue seen is the cost of convicting an innocent person.All the time that people are imprisoned for crimes they did not commit, and if they were to be sentenced to the death penalty they would be wrongfully killed. Samuel R. Gross in his article “The Cost of Convicting the Innocent” talked about Rafael Suarez who was wrongfully convicted in 1997 for the vicious felony assault even after another man had already pleaded guilty (Gross). The lawyer later interviewed the women who had called 911 as well as the second eyewitness, though both witnesses had said that Suarez had not attacked the victim, but had tried to break up the assault (Gross). It was also mentioned how a third witness told said lawyer that the victim said that he would “lie in court to get Suarez convicted” (Gross). Coincidentally, none of these witnesses were called to the stand and Suarez was sent to prison for five years, but was released after three years (Gross). This is a prime example of how a nationwide legal death penalty could end very badly. If this man was sentenced to five years for a crime he did not commit, what would happen if a person was condemned to the death penalty and wrongly executed? At that point the government would be no better than the criminals who commit the crimes themselves. There is no 100% trust in the United States legal system. Mistakes happen all the time, but with this punishment peoples’ lives are at stake, and not just their
One issue seen is the cost of convicting an innocent person.All the time that people are imprisoned for crimes they did not commit, and if they were to be sentenced to the death penalty they would be wrongfully killed. Samuel R. Gross in his article “The Cost of Convicting the Innocent” talked about Rafael Suarez who was wrongfully convicted in 1997 for the vicious felony assault even after another man had already pleaded guilty (Gross). The lawyer later interviewed the women who had called 911 as well as the second eyewitness, though both witnesses had said that Suarez had not attacked the victim, but had tried to break up the assault (Gross). It was also mentioned how a third witness told said lawyer that the victim said that he would “lie in court to get Suarez convicted” (Gross). Coincidentally, none of these witnesses were called to the stand and Suarez was sent to prison for five years, but was released after three years (Gross). This is a prime example of how a nationwide legal death penalty could end very badly. If this man was sentenced to five years for a crime he did not commit, what would happen if a person was condemned to the death penalty and wrongly executed? At that point the government would be no better than the criminals who commit the crimes themselves. There is no 100% trust in the United States legal system. Mistakes happen all the time, but with this punishment peoples’ lives are at stake, and not just their