Listed in the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution is the right to not have cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. The amendment was written to keep American citizens from receiving excessive punishments. There is a lot of debate though as to what cruel or unusual punishment means. Today, this right is being disenfranchised by the death penalty. The most basic human right is life and no one should have that taken away from them. The death penalty is the most obvious example of a cruel and unusual punishment. There are too many negatives that the death penalty has to say that it is effective. The chance that someone on death row is innocent, the racial biases that have been shown when convicting someone to death row, and the costs of a death
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Life without parole. Nobody wants serial killers and rapists walking free after only serving a couple years and life without parole almost completely guarantees that. Also, the criminals that do get off early when sentenced to life without parole are let out at least 25-30 years later. At that point they would be old men and women anyway. It also allows for mistakes to be corrected and it costs a great deal less. The costs that are spent in keeping the death penalty are extremely high. The cost of keeping one inmate on death row is $90,000 per year. The inmates are also kept on death row for 10-15 years before their execution. Overall, every execution has a total price of around $250 million, which could be spent on more pressing matters. Alone, the state of California could save $1 billion in taxpayer money over the next five years if they eliminate the death penalty and replace it with life without parole. The United States are in bad company with other countries that have the death penalty. We ranked fifth in the world for most executions coming behind China, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. These countries are the ones who don’t care about their citizen’s rights and how many of their own people they kill. We, as Americans, shouldn’t want to be like these other
Life without parole. Nobody wants serial killers and rapists walking free after only serving a couple years and life without parole almost completely guarantees that. Also, the criminals that do get off early when sentenced to life without parole are let out at least 25-30 years later. At that point they would be old men and women anyway. It also allows for mistakes to be corrected and it costs a great deal less. The costs that are spent in keeping the death penalty are extremely high. The cost of keeping one inmate on death row is $90,000 per year. The inmates are also kept on death row for 10-15 years before their execution. Overall, every execution has a total price of around $250 million, which could be spent on more pressing matters. Alone, the state of California could save $1 billion in taxpayer money over the next five years if they eliminate the death penalty and replace it with life without parole. The United States are in bad company with other countries that have the death penalty. We ranked fifth in the world for most executions coming behind China, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. These countries are the ones who don’t care about their citizen’s rights and how many of their own people they kill. We, as Americans, shouldn’t want to be like these other