According to the Death Penalty Info Center, on April 1, 2017, 2843 criminals were on death-row. The death penalty is a way to stop a criminal from harming other people again, but it does not make anything better. Ever since the beginning of time, some form of the death penalty has been in effect. In the 1800s, people would all gather in the middle of town and watch criminals get decapitated and even though it is now more humane, enforcing the death penalty is the easy way out for criminals and should not be enforced.
The death penalty has been around for centuries. The very first recorded case was from the 16th Century BC, when a man sentenced was required to take his own life due to his nobility. The death penalty was enforced in many ways, …show more content…
There are currently 31 states who have the death penalty, including Indiana. One of the main arguments for supporters of the death penalty is the cost and funding. The main basis for this idea is that it would ideally be cheaper for the United States population to have the death penalty in order to eliminate some of the taxing required to house those charged with crimes in a prison cell. There is also the reasoning that it would cost more to house a 20 year old criminal for life in prison without parole, than to just give that person the death penalty. Using age as a way to justify the death penalty is wrong though. The goal of having the death penalty is to be able to have an “eye-for-an-eye” scenario. But where would the justice be in that? It certainly would not be fair for the 20 year old to be sentenced to death, when a 50 year old, who has been charged for the same crime, is getting to live in a cell. Using that same reasoning to say that it would be cheaper to end a younger life than house them, that 50 year old would be living in a prison cell because their life is about half over. When accounting for age, they also have to account for when the execution will actually happen. On average, it takes about 10-15 years from sentencing for a death row inmate to be executed. Many older inmates tend to die from natural causes before their execution date even arrives. Money is a big issue in the death penalty for more ways than just that. According to deathpenaltyinfo.org, every case where the death penalty is sought, the cost for the trial is extremely higher than the average day-to-day case. When someone is on death row, they can try to appeal the decision two or three times depending on how they were convicted. Every time they do this, it costs more money for the paperwork, lawyers, and courts. With that being said, there really can’t be a lower cost than to just sentence
The death penalty has been around for centuries. The very first recorded case was from the 16th Century BC, when a man sentenced was required to take his own life due to his nobility. The death penalty was enforced in many ways, …show more content…
There are currently 31 states who have the death penalty, including Indiana. One of the main arguments for supporters of the death penalty is the cost and funding. The main basis for this idea is that it would ideally be cheaper for the United States population to have the death penalty in order to eliminate some of the taxing required to house those charged with crimes in a prison cell. There is also the reasoning that it would cost more to house a 20 year old criminal for life in prison without parole, than to just give that person the death penalty. Using age as a way to justify the death penalty is wrong though. The goal of having the death penalty is to be able to have an “eye-for-an-eye” scenario. But where would the justice be in that? It certainly would not be fair for the 20 year old to be sentenced to death, when a 50 year old, who has been charged for the same crime, is getting to live in a cell. Using that same reasoning to say that it would be cheaper to end a younger life than house them, that 50 year old would be living in a prison cell because their life is about half over. When accounting for age, they also have to account for when the execution will actually happen. On average, it takes about 10-15 years from sentencing for a death row inmate to be executed. Many older inmates tend to die from natural causes before their execution date even arrives. Money is a big issue in the death penalty for more ways than just that. According to deathpenaltyinfo.org, every case where the death penalty is sought, the cost for the trial is extremely higher than the average day-to-day case. When someone is on death row, they can try to appeal the decision two or three times depending on how they were convicted. Every time they do this, it costs more money for the paperwork, lawyers, and courts. With that being said, there really can’t be a lower cost than to just sentence