Anti-Death Penalty

The death penalty, also known as capital punishment, is where an individual is put to death by the government for a crime they have committed. The death penalty is an ineffective and cruel response to a violent crime. The "eye for an eye" mentality will never solve anything. A revenge philosophy certainly leads to an endless cycle of violence. It is important to send a message to society that striking back at your enemy purely for revenge will always make matters worse. We teach children very early on that two wrongs don’t make a right. Why then does this not apply to our own government? In 2002, Ray Krone was the 100th condemned American to be freed from death row through DNA evidence after serving 10 years for a murder he didn’t commit. Krone was accused of killing and sexually assaulting Phoenix bartender Kim Ancona in 1991. The death sentence was based off a testimony by a dental expert who matched bite marks on the victim with Krone’s teeth. But, in 2002 new DNA testing showed that the saliva on the victim’s tank top did not, in fact, belong to Krone, but to Kenneth Phillips, who is currently serving prison time for an unrelated sex crime.

The number stands at over 142, and still counting, of wrongly convicted people sentenced to death by the government. Even DNA evidence can’t guarantee we won’t execute innocent people. If someone is convicted and later found innocent, you can release them from prison, but not from the grave. We have an imperfect justice system where innocent defendants are given minimal legal attention by often lesser qualified individuals. Some would blame the court system, not the death penalty itself for the problems but we can’t risk mistakes. The death penalty does not prevent others from committing murder. No reliable study shows the death penalty prevents crimes. Homicide rates are higher in states and regions that have the death penalty than in those that do not.

Most people don’t realize that carrying out one death sentence