John Coffey's Arguments Against The Death Penalty

Unfortunately, our justice system is not always accurate and faulty cases slip through the cracks. Families of innocent people should not be made to suffer for the inadequacy of the death penalty. Capital punishment poses a large risk to innocent people and their families.courts can sentence murderers to life without parole, why not get rid of the death penalty? The death penalty is the most horrible punishment of execution that the united state of america has allowed. It seems that our government is being hypocritical when it states that capital punishment is allowable because, after all, the criminal did murder an innocent victim, and therefore should be killed. This is known as the "eye-for-an-eye, and tooth-for-a- tooth theory." The death penalty is morally wrong, very expensive, and

According to Julie Delcour, “The Cost of the Death Penalty Outweighs its Benefits to Society,” she states that death penalty cases are much more expensive than other criminal cases and cost more than throwing them in jail for life

The death penalty should continue to be legal because it is inexpensive. The death penalty makes for a good way for people to get the justice they deserve. In Texas the death penalty being legal makes sure that the people that commit heinous crimes pay. Texas does not suffer from political doubt, and certain cases are a no other answer that the death penalty. It cost the Texas Department of Criminal Justice $83 to execute a prisoner by lethal injection alone. The Attorney General alone donates 15% of his budget, to death penalty cases. Maintaining each death row prisoner costs taxpayers $90,000 per year. It cost more than $31,000 to keep someone in prison for a year. The most recent report is that only fifteen states have gotten rid of it all together. These states being Alaska, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Eliot Spitzer once said, “Our criminal justice system is fallible. We know it, even though we don't like to admit it. It is fallible despite the best efforts of most within it to do justice. And this fallibility is, at the end of the day, the most compelling, persuasive, and winning argument against a death penalty.” Many people in America are in favor of capital punishment because some crimes violate the moral codes of our society. Thus, they harken back to the Code of Hammurabi with the belief of “an eye for an eye”. In this case, they believe that when a person commits a terrible crime that person automatically gives up their right to live and should be put to death. Despite the majority of people believing this others are opposed to the

“‘Death sentences represent less than one-tenth of 1% of prison sentences in the United States…,’” (Von Drehle, 9). Furthermore, death row is just a small fraction of the criminal justice system and can not be based on that alone. For instance, what many don't take into account is the justice systems allows for many states, such as the populous state of New York, to ban the death penalty. (state laws, p1) Therefore, this is an outdated claim, due to our justice system changing and adapting to public beliefs. There may be a few wrongful convictions in the criminal justice system, however that does not make it cause more harm than good. In any system there are flaws, we cannot disregard all the good the justice system does. Although this system has flaws like all others, it is what safeguards our society's

A major way that the death penalty is flawed is shown in the amount of innocent people who are sentenced to death. In the U.S.A alone since 1973 130 innocent people have been sentenced to death(1) and in the last two years evidence has come up that indicates four men previously thought to be guilty may have actually been innocent and put to death(3). The death penalty is supposed to protect innocent people from killers, instead it murders them. And these are the people who have been discovered to be innocent! What about the ones who were not so lucky? A recent example of this is Richard Glossip a man who was sentenced to death based on a corrupt statement with no other evidence to prove him guilty (5). Is this something you think should be happening in 2015? A society where normal people are killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or maybe they can not afford good legal support so they get the death penalty compared to someone who may be able to afford a good lawyer and only get life. The fact of how rich you are to determine whether you live or die is not right, you must agree.

Obviously, the death penalty always ends in the loss of life, but these lives are sometimes innocent and sometimes have the potential for rehabilitation. The jury system rarely convicts people wrongly, so it is said. But, it happens often that criminals claim innocence; how many are telling the truth? The number of discovered false executions does not necessarily mean those are the only ones. Supporters may argue it is worth it, but isn't the loss of innocent life what we are all against? Some victims of violent crimes were in the hands of mentally ill or handicapped people. These mentally ill people that kill, do not usually kill out of a lack of moral grounding or "evil". These people typically either do not understand right from wrong or are unable to comprehend the possible outcomes the murder may have on themselves or others around them. Although most mentally ill people do not end up on death row, receiving instead long sentencing or treatment, the number of people who have been executed that were unknowingly mentally ill or had similar faulty thinking, and a potential for rehabilitation cannot be known. Also, capital punishment may normalize or rationalize murder. The death penalty sends a message to citizens; a message that says murder is not outrageous, unless the state is doing it as a sanction. This message helps to justify civilian killings of people believed to be deserving of death and may possibly even cause an uprise in vigilante style murders. This message also leaves an almost open air on what is wrong and provides no consistent moral ground for society to base their beliefs on. This does not mean that people will suddenly think murder is a favorable deed, but it may cause some to not realize how terrible it is. Joseph Summer wrote this in an article titled “Some Adverse Effects of the Death Penalty in History”: “…people learned 3 lessons from the government’s violent example: to use

How would you feel if you were on death row awaiting the inevitable? Would you feel as though you are deserving of this punishment or deserve the chance to live? As of January 1st, 2018 over 2,700 inmates are on death row. This means that they will be put to death at some point in the future. Many inmates are often on death row for more than a year which gives them time to reflect on what they have done and the pain it caused. Being on death row often prolongs the pain for the inmate. They spend their time in prison fearing the inevitable which for them is death. Today, we live in a society that is very divided on this issue. There are many in support of the death penalty, suggesting that it acts as a positive deterrent against future crime. There are also many

People argue that the death penalty is a good way to protect our population from these criminals that have done terrible things. While that may be true, life without parole still protects the population from these criminals as they will be in prison for the rest of their lives. Also, the price of a death penalty case is significantly higher than that of a life without parole case. A life without parole case typically averages at about $740,000 while a death penalty case averages at about $1.26 million. The death penalty also puts innocent lives at risk. Every one in twenty-five people on death row are actually innocent. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, 143 people have been exonerated. Sadly this is less than half the number of the people who may have actually been innocent. The death row inmate stated earlier, Jesse Tafero, who had a botched execution was later found to have been innocent (Time). An innocent man experienced an extremely painful death orchestrated by the government. Additionally, many people believe that the death penalty will stop future criminals from doing terrible crimes. However, the South has the highest execution rate in the US and they also have the highest homicide rate while the Northeast has the lowest execution rate and the lowest homicide rate (DPIC). The death penalty will not stop criminals from doing terrible

As we look at supermax prisons they are used to house many violent offenders to mainly keep them away from all other prisoners in solitary confinement like cells for a long period of time and most of them will never be released.  The main issue that Schmalleger and Smykla describe is the fact of a mental illness starting due to supermax confinement and where none previously existed in the past (2015).  The issue with that is it could get them out of a supermax prison, which I believe that is completely ridiculous because they were already crazy enough to commit the crime they did to get in there.  The other ways it does effect the person in prison is that it could lead to a bunch of different symptoms and possibly even suicide from being confined

In fact, a study done by the National Research Council, titled Deterrence and the Death Penalty, even went as far as stating that the claims supporting the death penalty are “fundamentally flawed” (2012). What is more important though, is to see if this can be observed in the real world today; and by no surprise, it can. In 2013, the FBI Uniform Crime Report showed that the Southern states had the highest murder rates, and the highest percentage of executions at 80%, whereas the Northeast has the lowest murder rates and only 1% of the year’s executions. So why does the South still have the highest murder rates even though they perform the most executions? One must assume that such extreme practices like the death penalty has to be unnecessary. If the cold-blooded killing of thousands does not lower premeditated murder, there is really no point (because let 's face it, the saying “eye for an eye” is childish and socially unacceptable). This same conclusion was agreed upon in a recent poll by almost 90% of the world’s criminological societies (Facts About the Death Penalty). However in all honesty, the argument against the death penalty doesn’t just stop at its redundancy, but also its

The death penalty is one of the most controversial topics in America today due to its turbulent nature. Capital punishment is highly debated and it encompasses a plethora of ethical, religious, political, and legal issues. Texas is one of the thirty-eight states in the nation that practices this form of punishment. (Naidoff, Caitlin) Although Texas is the state with the greatest number of death row sentences and executions, it has one of the highest crime rates in the entire nation. Therefore, the death penalty is ineffective because it does not diminish the incidence of crimes, take the life of innocent people, is racially unequal, costly, and alternative measure can be implemented

Some see the death penalty as the only means to extract justice for victims. Others see it as a morally reprehensible act where a second wrong is committed in order to make something right. With recent issues surrounding the death penalty in which execution hasn 't gone as planned sparking a nationwide debate, this is my outlook on why I 'm for the death penalty not only being abolished in the state of Texas but in addition to the entirety of the US..

Ever since the outset of the American Constitution, capital punishment has existed as a crime sentence in the United States. However, in recent decades, this topic has become highly controversial, as many states have dictated against the death penalty. Although states with this position on capital punishment are increasing, some states, such as Texas, have continued to edict this practice in their provinces. In the State of Texas, the sentence to death upon a person should not be permitted due to the fact it can wrongly convict a person, its court trial is highly expensive, and it brings forth an unjust treatment.

There is a very short explanation to why the big numbers plays part in this. Death penalty is flawed in many ways. Together with all the required appeals to execute someone actually costs more than a lifetime in prison. Think about how much money the government would save if they stopped executing people. Let us take Texas as an example. Each death penalty case in Texas costs taxpayers about $2.3 million. That is approximately three times the cost of imprisoning somebody in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years. That is crazy! The government could actually do something good rather than something flawed and hypocritical. Taxpayers complain about paying taxes. They should rather complain about what they pay taxes for. The money should be spent on good charities instead of sadistic killers. Although they are sadistic psychos, they are still human beings and we should all treat each other as we