Death Penalty Argument

After 12 years on death row, Jonah Garrison is put to death by the electric chair for a murder he claims he did not commit. Whether Jonah committed the crime or not, he suffered the death penalty for the actions that had been committed. The officials that executed Jonah believed he did not commit the murder and that he was an innocent man. Jonah’s family is distraught by their loss while the prosecuting family, the family of the murdered victim, no longer believe that Jonah deserved the death penalty and are now affected by the two deaths in which they are now involved. Although this is a fictional story, it accurately portrays the majority of death penalty cases that cascade throughout our country today. The death penalty has such a …show more content…
Although the death penalty may persuade some individuals to feel that our society is becoming a safer environment, in reality, it is decomposing the lives of those who are involved in the given crime, these individuals being law enforcement officials, the family of the criminal who is on death row, and the family of the victim who was involved in the original …show more content…
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, death row cases cost about $1.26 million while cases that are not related to the death penalty cost about $740,000, that is a $520,000 difference. The Death Penalty Information Center also says that it costs taxpayers $90,000 more to maintain a death row inmate than a normal inmate. From these statistics we learn that it costs exceedingly more money to house a death row inmate than an ordinary inmate.(The Death Penalty Information Center) Law enforcement officials are directly affected from these costs because the penitentiary in which they work at has to fulfill these costs, leading to a decrease in pay to the workers that work a difficult job to care for these inmates. In addition to a lower pay, there are cuts to equipment and training that these officers would have otherwise. In Sunday debate: The death penalty, the author talks about how law enforcement in Connecticut experienced some layoffs, a decrease in training opportunities, and cuts in equipment due to the bulging expenses of housing death row inmates. The people who are protecting society from the ones they arrest shouldn’t be affected in this manner, it is as though they are being punished for protecting the innocent from the criminally active (Sunday Debate). Not only do law enforcement officials suffer a loss financially due to the death penalty, but they also suffer