The Death Penalty Should Be Abolished Essays

Out of all developed countries in the western world, the United States is the only one that still executes its citizens. From 2007 to 2012 America executed 220 people, making it the fifth largest executioner behind China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq (Amnesty International). Why is the “land of the free” still upholding a harmful practice that other civilized countries have sworn off for decades? The death penalty in America should be abolished because the cost is impractical, it’s too random to be a deterrent for crime, and it endangers marginalized and innocent people’s lives. The state should not give people the right to legally murder others, especially when it costs as much as it does.
Forcing the state to try criminals with the death penalty is fiscally irresponsible. A study conducted by four Seattle University professors found that death penalty cases in Washington state cost taxpayers 50 percent more than cases where the prosecutor did not seek death (Collins 4). Across the board death penalty cases require more public funds for things such as trials cost, police department labor, pre-conviction jail expenses, and inmate personal appeals. The most expensive parts of the process are the criminal trials. The permanence of capital punishment and the liability the state has in the execution complicate the justice system. Trials where prosecution tries for the death penalty are clogged with bureaucratic red tape and require extra time and funds to complete. This is…