Death Penalty
Of 900 people on death row in California since 1978, only 13 of them were executed. These executions still served a purpose because the death penalty deters crime. Even so, these are very lengthy delays, which is why the death penalty should not be gone, but it needs to be changed to be more efficient. Although some people believe the death penalty may cause innocent people to be executed, the death penalty should remain in place because it deters crime, it costs less than life in prison, and the system could be made to work better.
The death penalty does deter crime. “One particularly good study, based on data from all 50 states from 1978 to 1997 by Federal Communications Commission economist Paul Zimmerman, demonstrated …show more content…
Longer periods of time in isolation can cause extreme depression and even psychosis. Prisoners who spend even longer in solitary confinement are drained of both their humanity and sanity. They turn into blind animals. They endlessly pace their cells, smear the sides of their cells with feces, and even engage in self-harm. This sounds much worse than being killed by injection, slowly rotting away in prison with no hope of getting out. This is what people against the death penalty don’t know and it might change their mind if they …show more content…
There are long delays before executions, which makes the sentence crueler than it is. California is probably the state with the largest amount of criminals on death row, but they have few executions actually taking place. By the time they are executed, it undermines what the sentence is supposed to be for, which is saving lives and deterring people from committing murder. The reason people want the death penalty removed is because they think it violates the 8th Amendment. It is because they think it is a cruel and unusual punishment. This is not necessarily true, but the lengthy delays before their inevitable death helps influence the thoughts of the people who are against life in prison, but for life without
Of 900 people on death row in California since 1978, only 13 of them were executed. These executions still served a purpose because the death penalty deters crime. Even so, these are very lengthy delays, which is why the death penalty should not be gone, but it needs to be changed to be more efficient. Although some people believe the death penalty may cause innocent people to be executed, the death penalty should remain in place because it deters crime, it costs less than life in prison, and the system could be made to work better.
The death penalty does deter crime. “One particularly good study, based on data from all 50 states from 1978 to 1997 by Federal Communications Commission economist Paul Zimmerman, demonstrated …show more content…
Longer periods of time in isolation can cause extreme depression and even psychosis. Prisoners who spend even longer in solitary confinement are drained of both their humanity and sanity. They turn into blind animals. They endlessly pace their cells, smear the sides of their cells with feces, and even engage in self-harm. This sounds much worse than being killed by injection, slowly rotting away in prison with no hope of getting out. This is what people against the death penalty don’t know and it might change their mind if they …show more content…
There are long delays before executions, which makes the sentence crueler than it is. California is probably the state with the largest amount of criminals on death row, but they have few executions actually taking place. By the time they are executed, it undermines what the sentence is supposed to be for, which is saving lives and deterring people from committing murder. The reason people want the death penalty removed is because they think it violates the 8th Amendment. It is because they think it is a cruel and unusual punishment. This is not necessarily true, but the lengthy delays before their inevitable death helps influence the thoughts of the people who are against life in prison, but for life without