Dehumanization Of The Death Penalty Essay

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Ferguson, Baltimore, Milwaukee, and Charlotte have made a very short list in the United States of America. They have been all over the media, full of vibrant people, and they seem to all have a new glow to them. As reality sets in, the media coverage is of riots, the vibrant people appear to be out of a 1960’s history textbook rioting, and that new glow is the fire from locally owned business being looted. The most bizarre aspect of these 1960’s type scenes, is that most of the riots are in support of a guilty individual who died trying to evade or harm police officers. Today, police officers are often dehumanized by the media, and things like the death penalty are used to humanize murders. When my cousin, Officer Justin Sollohub, was killed in the line of duty, justice ran its …show more content…
Was the death penalty going to give closure to a life cut short? Critics of the death penalty, and those who typically humanize the criminals who are at risk of dying at the hands of the state, will point out that America kills more prisoners than any other country (Slow Death of the Death Penalty). While this may be true, there is not a lot of support to say that the accuracy of other countries numbers are accurate. Critics also say that it would be much more humane to give a murderer life in prison without parole, instead of the death penalty (Slow Death of the Death Penalty). However, as shown multiple times, “the death penalty acts as the ultimate retribution for the victim and his or her family and friends. In addition to being a retributive institution, capital punishment acts as a deterrence measure” (Gibson). Also, contrary to what many critics say about the death penalty as opposed to long prison terms, the evidence shows that as prison terms increase, it does not deter any more amount of crime (Gibson). It is almost as if, once the criminal decides to commit a crime, thirty years might as well be life

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