Should Death Penalty Be Abolished In The United States?

In 2012, only twenty countries official executed criminals. Of that list, China was the leader, followed by several Middle Eastern countries, and then The United States, with forty-seven executed in one year. While only thirty-seven states in the United States execute criminals, it is a significant part of the justice system and thus causes heated debate and controversy in politics. While many maintain that capital punishment use useful and necessary, there is little evidence to defend it and, it reality, it has no place in rational and decent society. The death penalty should be abolished in the United States because the justice system is flawed, executions do not deter crime, and the cost is too great.
No justice system is perfect and the American justice system has, time and time again, been revealed to be severely flawed. The death penalty is unique in that it is …show more content…
In a popular 2007 study, economist Naci Mocan, found that the fear of the death penalty deters three to eighteen homicides a year and, thus, is a profitable element of the justice system (Studies). While Mocan 's findings are reflective of the opinions of many Americans, there is an overwhelming amount of evidence in opposition to them. Sociologist Michael Radelet and attorney Raci Lacock conducted a survey in 2009 and found that eighty-eight percent of criminologists believe that the death penalty does not lower the murder rate or deter any crime (Recent, 505). There is, in fact, little evidence of a cause and effect relationship between crime rates and capital punishment. Economists John Donohue and Justin Wolfers, in an article for Economist 's Voice, makes this claim and postulates that, "The view that the death penalty deters is still the product of belief, not evidence"(Donohue, 5). Because of this, the death penalty does nothing by reduce the number of dangerous criminals in