The death penalty should not be legal because it does not deter crime. According to Michael Radelet and Traci Lacock, a professor and a student of Sociology at University of Colorado-Boulder, a 2008 survey showed that 88% of U.S. leading criminologists believe that capital punishment does not deter crime (501) and that less than ten percent of criminologists think that the death penalty is a more effective deterrent than LWOP (503). In fact, not only do experts believe capital punishment does not impede murder but data also shows that the death penalty entices crime. A 2007 study revealed that murder rates in states with the death penalty were 42% higher than murder rates in states without it (502). According to the Death Penalty Information
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From 1976 to 2011, the California state government spent more than four billion dollars on trying to enact the death penalty (Death Penalty Focus 1 of 2). A 2015 study shows that in Washington, the defense team of a capital case costs about three times more than a non-capital case and the prosecution costs up to four times more (DPIC Costs of Death Penalty 1 of 7). North Carolina spends 2.2 million more on a capital case than it does on a LWOP case (Bakken). This shows massive differences in the trials alone. From 1997 to 2015, Washington used 120 million dollars in capital related costs but only had five executions, equaling a rate of 24 million dollars per execution (DPIC Costs of Death Penalty 1 of 7). The cost of a LWOP sentence is only 25,000 to 40,000 dollars per year per person which equates to an average of 1.625 million dollars for every fifty years of incarceration (Bakken). In California, if all death sentences were changed to LWOP sentences, the state would save 170 million dollars per year (DPIC Costs of Death Penalty 2 of 7). This shows that capital punishment is much more costly to the state than LWOP. The reason that capital cases cost so much is due to the amount of appeals available and increased incarceration costs for death row inmates. Death row inmates are kept at a higher security level and more money is necessary to keep it so (Bakken). A death sentence costs much …show more content…
because it is widely unsupported and unusual in the world today. According to Baird and Rosenbaum, The Universal Declaration of human rights started the anti-death penalty movement in Europe (28). The 1980s brought about more opposition with Protocol No, 6, which made abolition of the death penalty normal in the E.U. All members of the European Council, the Ukraine, and South Africa discard capital punishment as a result (34). As more European countries and American allies prohibited the death penalty, America felt more pressure do so itself but has not so far. In 2004, the UN passed the Resolution Supporting Worldwide Moratorium on Execution, a hold on the use of capital punishment, with 76 members signing it (34). Even though it was a document holding all UN members accountable, the United States ignored it and continued its executions. Now, more than half of all countries in the world have abolished the death penalty for all crimes or regular crimes (35). These measures taken by global parties show massive dislike of the death penalty around the Earth. America has also seen some drop in capital punishment popularity. According to Baird and Rosenbaum, in 1998, 300 executions were performed but only 143 were performed in 2003 (35) and in 2004, 62 percent of Americans believed that capital punishment did not deter crimes (32). Because the death penalty is globally unusual and unsupported, it should be nullified in the
From 1976 to 2011, the California state government spent more than four billion dollars on trying to enact the death penalty (Death Penalty Focus 1 of 2). A 2015 study shows that in Washington, the defense team of a capital case costs about three times more than a non-capital case and the prosecution costs up to four times more (DPIC Costs of Death Penalty 1 of 7). North Carolina spends 2.2 million more on a capital case than it does on a LWOP case (Bakken). This shows massive differences in the trials alone. From 1997 to 2015, Washington used 120 million dollars in capital related costs but only had five executions, equaling a rate of 24 million dollars per execution (DPIC Costs of Death Penalty 1 of 7). The cost of a LWOP sentence is only 25,000 to 40,000 dollars per year per person which equates to an average of 1.625 million dollars for every fifty years of incarceration (Bakken). In California, if all death sentences were changed to LWOP sentences, the state would save 170 million dollars per year (DPIC Costs of Death Penalty 2 of 7). This shows that capital punishment is much more costly to the state than LWOP. The reason that capital cases cost so much is due to the amount of appeals available and increased incarceration costs for death row inmates. Death row inmates are kept at a higher security level and more money is necessary to keep it so (Bakken). A death sentence costs much …show more content…
because it is widely unsupported and unusual in the world today. According to Baird and Rosenbaum, The Universal Declaration of human rights started the anti-death penalty movement in Europe (28). The 1980s brought about more opposition with Protocol No, 6, which made abolition of the death penalty normal in the E.U. All members of the European Council, the Ukraine, and South Africa discard capital punishment as a result (34). As more European countries and American allies prohibited the death penalty, America felt more pressure do so itself but has not so far. In 2004, the UN passed the Resolution Supporting Worldwide Moratorium on Execution, a hold on the use of capital punishment, with 76 members signing it (34). Even though it was a document holding all UN members accountable, the United States ignored it and continued its executions. Now, more than half of all countries in the world have abolished the death penalty for all crimes or regular crimes (35). These measures taken by global parties show massive dislike of the death penalty around the Earth. America has also seen some drop in capital punishment popularity. According to Baird and Rosenbaum, in 1998, 300 executions were performed but only 143 were performed in 2003 (35) and in 2004, 62 percent of Americans believed that capital punishment did not deter crimes (32). Because the death penalty is globally unusual and unsupported, it should be nullified in the