Death penalty makes little sense

James Abbott, police chief of West Orange, New Jersey once said, “Give a law enforcement professional like me that $250 million, and I'll show you how to reduce crime. The death penalty isn't anywhere on my list.” What he means is the death penalty does not stop people from committing violent crimes, and that there are so many other methods that would actually work. Yet, the death penalty remains a hotly debated topic. Some people argue that having the death penalty wastes tax dollars, that it’s morally wrong, and so forth, while others believe the death penalty enables criminals to reap what they so. However, after careful consideration of both sides of the issue, it becomes abundantly clear that the death penalty is, in fact, wrong for many reasons. The death penalty is wrong because the old topic of ‘an eye for an eye’ is a logical fallacy, because it shouldn't be up to a jury whether a person lives or dies, and because it's a complete waste of time and money.

Mahatmas Ghandi once said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind,” and what he meant was if we keep punishing those who we believe are cruel, we are no better than the criminals ourselves. Gandhi's comment speaks to the fallaciousness of the death penalty, which only perpetuates a culture and cycle of revenge. It's like what your mom used to tell you when you were younger, “Two wrongs don't make a right.” If we want to punish someone by death for murder, then that's just being a hypocrite. You want to tell someone they're wrong for doing something cruel and unlawful, but then you want to murder them for it? Where's the right in that? There is none.

In the end, we are judged by God. He's our creator and it shouldn't be up to a jury or a judge whether a person lives or dies, no matter what that person did. Just because someone does something cruel, doesn't mean they deserve death, even if they committed murder. Whoever punishes someone to death and whoever turns on that electricity is a murderer in my book. If you're murdering someone, then you should have to be judged and sentenced in a court of law just as a criminal would be. In short, the government enables itself to play God by deciding when, where, and how someone dies.

Nevermind playing God, what about tax dollars!? On average, according to deathpenaltyinfo.org, normal court cases cost around $740,000, while cases seeking the death penalty cost around $1.26 million. A state has to pay an increased $90,000 when a person is sentenced to death. That's a lot of money a state could use for better things, such as fixing roads, improving schools, defending ourselves against terrorists, giving soldiers raises, reducing the cost of tuition at college, and so forth. Furthermore, between 1979 and 2007, 200 cases were filed seeking the death penalty, 15 men were sentenced, but only 1 execution took place. In other words, a significant amount of time and money were spent on something that only happened once over 28 years. That’s 28 years of time and resources that could've been dedicated to finding missing people, saving abused children, or bettering our country. We shouldn't waste so much time and money on something that is immoral and unlawful. We should spend our country's money on finding the cure for cancer and use our time to fix problems within our country. So, the death penalty is obviously a huge waste of our time and money and shouldn't be offered anywhere in our country, ever again.

A lot of people like to argue that having the death penalty keeps serious crimes at bay because people know what could happen to them if they do commit certain crimes. People also like to bring up the fact that it is the victim in a crime family's right to want revenge or to feel that they should be sentenced to the death penalty. Ultimately, the death penalty does not keep crime at bay. According to deathpenaltycurriculum.org, states that didn't offer the death penalty had lower crime rates than ones that did; so much for correlation let alone causality. Although a victim's family's first thought may be to get revenge on the criminal who wronged them, that is not the best choice. As a mature society, we need to find better ways to respond to these horrible crimes instead of just ending someone's life. We need to show that any life, even a murderer’s, is precious and respected.

The death penalty is an immoral form of punishment and shouldn't be offered because the dated topic of an ‘eye for an eye’ isn't right, because it shouldn't be up to a jury whether someone lives or dies, and because it's a complete waste of time and money.

Although many people want it and many people don't want it, there is always a way to resolve things. I think we should get rid of the death penalty and just sentence the criminals to life in prison without parole. It may not be the revenge some families want, but it's wrong to murder someone. I think it's a great solution to this very heated topic.