2,943 prisoners are currently on death row. Of those, only 60 are in a federal prison for infamous acts of murder. Capital punishment, or more commonly known as the death penalty/sentence, is a government type of punishment for committing capital crimes. Currently, the number of people on death row is high and is continuing to rise. Attorneys state that capital punishment is not justified for humans, even though it is. Capital punishment is a better choice than receiving a life sentence in prison.
Although the death penalty can be looked at as a gruesome act, it’s simply an experiment that has been proven successful. While those opposed might say that it’s an experiment that never should’ve happened, that is not so. The courts are stating that if criminals are convicted of life, they will learn their lesson, but this isn’t always the case. According to David Von Drehle from Time magazine, in 2015, a guy known as Thomas Knight was executed after being on death row for almost 40 years. He was sentenced to death row in 1975 after he kidnapped, robbed, and murdered a couple in Miami Beach. He stabbed a guard to death with a shank- which is any type of item that can be sharpened to a point- five years later, while he was still in prison (Drehle). This is the death penalty at its …show more content…
Those who oppose will argue with saying how executions harm those being executed. “Torture is defined as an act where pain and suffering is inflicted upon a person, whether it be mental or physical (White Paper).” So unless that person is being harmed on purpose and is suffering, they are not being tortured. While there have been some cases where criminals like Thomas Knight are being harmed and are in pain, that rarely happens. Capital Punishment should not have pain and suffering coming from their executions, even though sometimes it accidentally happens. Even though there are good sides to capital punishment, it can also have a