capital punishment paper

Joshua Page
English 1102
J. Bridges
5 May 2014
Capital Punishment: Saving Tax Dollars Since Day One
Federal incarceration costs the United States 39.4 billion dollars a year. Capital punishment is ultimately the main deterrent for heinous crimes given its permanent outcome. Murderers and rapists have to be punished for the crimes they have committed and should pay the price for their wrongdoing. Having the death penalty in our society is humane; capital punishment gives the closure that families need to move on.
Capital Punishment is cheaper in the long run. Murderers and rapists get three warm meals a day; they have time to waste, and have a place to sleep just because the taxpayers fund these facilities. Murderers on death row do not deserve to get a place to stay. They, the murders and rapists, deserve to get their life taken away from them because of the atrocious crimes that they have committed. Currently the national average income is $44,321.67; which is a little over half of what it costs to house a prisoner for a year. Yes, it costs a little over $85,000 dollars a year to house a prisoner in a medium security facility. Many Americans will never even see an income of $85,000 dollars a year (Chatham: Newstex). The opposition argues that capital punishment takes far too long for the price to actually take precedent. Currently in costs around $175,000 dollars to execute a prisoner after all court costs and sedatives are administered. The return on this “investment” is great because the correctional system gets another bed for a prisoner. Also, they take a habitual offender out of the system. By doing this, the correctional system makes the world a safer place and the judicial system sets an example to all offenders. Moreover, the press that the death penalty gets does cast a bad light on the sentence, but according to research it prevents heinous crimes. Ever since 1994, the violent crime rate has dropped from 51.2 crimes per 1,000 people to 15 crimes per 1,000 people (Godoy). This significant decrease has truly lead made an impact in and out of the nation’s prisons.
Additionally, there also has been the problem of overcrowding in prisons and jails. The opposition states that this can be solved by simply building more prisons. Having more prisons or jails built may help solve a short term problem, but capital punishment effectively stops the draining of money from taxpayers to house heinous habitual murderers. A recent plan to build onto an existing prison facility would cost around $60,000 dollar per cell for fifty cells. The plan would cost over three million dollars and require taxpayer money to only house fifty inmates (Walters).
The opposition also argues that capital punishment is not only morally wrong, but also defeats the purpose of the legal system. The legal system is in place in order to provide evidence to help or hinder the accused’s case. This, in the legal systems point of view, never goes away. Now, when someone is sentenced to death and in turn executed, it is irreversible. No evidence that could ever surface could change the verdict or bring the accused back to life. Lawyers and federal attorneys alike, argue that it is wrong to strip the accused of the right to protest their verdict (Carroll). The judicial system sees this point of view in a different light. They, the judicial system, sentences based on the evidence they have at that time. The death penalty can be overturned, but just because someone does not agree with it does not mean it should completely go off the table.
Now many proponents of the death penalty claim that it is more humane than a lengthy stay in prison, twenty years or more. Prisoners from a French prison stated that they would rather be condemned to death rather than “being cooked slowly under a flame” (Godoy). These comments were made after the abolishment of capital punishment which was tabled thirty nine years ago. This, at the time, was a major step for France, but now it has started to backfire. The French people are upset at the lengthy prison sentences being issued because of the price they have to pay to imprison he accused. Studies by the French Human Rights Commission call the prisons “inhuman” and “a dishonor to our Republican institutions” (Carroll). Even though all prison throughout the world are not like this now, they could become like this if the facilities fill up at a faster rate.
The convicted who are on death row come from all types of race. The national death row population is 3,103, split with 3,040 men and 63 women. The ethnicity is much more varied; 43% are whites, 42% blacks, 13% Latinos, and 3% are other races. “The total executions since 1976 are 1,354”( Death Penalty Information Center), which seem to be a lot, but in all reality, it is a small number compared to the 3,103 inmates still on death row (Amnesty International). Regardless of their race, many believe it is best to rid them of the world they took advantage of. With the statistics above, it proves that any race can be put on death row, and the death penalty is not racist. Several countries use the death penalty, including China, Iraq, Iran, U.S.A., and Saudi Arabia. In the United States, eighteen of the states do not allow the death sentence. The eighteen states and territories are Alaska, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia. These states and territories say it is inhumane to kill someone, but as many believe in the other thirty two states, the murders should be put to death.
The opposition claims “only two percent of death row inmates are executed” (Forni, Raymond, Townend). The reason that this is relevant is because having this many people on death row drains the taxpayer 's money. Today more than 75 inmates on death row have sat more than 20 years. If an inmate has been on death row for over 20 years then the accused needs to be executed because that person is draining the taxpayer 's money. In May of 2010, a recent study on the death penalty found that 60 percent of the US supports the death penalty for a person convicted of murder (Gallup). With that amount of people supporting the death penalty, there should be no problem putting murderers to death because the majority approves of the death penalty.
Lastly, some will argue that the death penalty needs a major overhaul in order to continue to be effective. The most recent wide spread changes to the death penalty occurred in 2002. On June 20th the Supreme Court ruled six to three to abolish capital punishment for the mentally retarded. Four days later, a ruling was made that a jury only, not a judge decides whether or not a capital case gets the death penalty (Valentine). This major overhaul added in addition safety points in order to protect the accused. Capital punishment is a very serious, and permanent, sentence and takes time to complete. In the long run money will be saved, people will be safe, and our judicial system will have more time for more cases. Statistics do not lie, the American people do not oppose capital punishment, so why should the heavy sentences stop being handed down just because a few people say it is immoral and unethical. The French are a prime example; capital punishment has been abolished; now prisons are in a state of disrepair. This problem is not because of an influx of prisoners but because of the high risk and maximum security prisoners no longer being executed. Tax dollars are and still can be saved be continuing to keep capital punishment. Capital punishment deters crime!

Works Cited
Carroll, Mary. "Capital Punishment in Law, Politics, and Culture." The Booklist 95.4 (1998): 376. ProQuest. Web. 5 May 2014.
"Facts about the Death Penalty." Death Penalty Information Center. Death Penalty Information Center, 13 Nov. 2013. Web. 2 May 2014.
Forni, Raymond, and John Townend. "Counter Point: Two Views of Capital Punishment." Europe.401 (2000): 13-5. ProQuest.Web. 1 May 2014.
"GALLUP DAILY." Gallup. Gallup Inc., 20 Nov. 2013. Web. 4 May 2014.
Godoy, Julio. "RIGHTS: DEATH PENALTY MORE HUMANE THAN LENGTHY STAY IN PRISON." Global Information Network: 1. Jan 22 2007. ProQuest. Web. 3 May 2014 .
“Median Household Incomes: Down 0.5% in 2012.” Chatham: Newstex, 2013. ProQuest. Web. 4 May 2014.
"U.S. Death Penalty." Amnesty USA. Amnesty International, 2013. Web. 4 May 2014.
Walters, Steven. "Prison Plan Estimated to Cost $60,200 Per Cell." Milwaukee Sentinel: 0. May 26 1992. ProQuest. Web. 4 May 2014 .
Valentine, Victoria. "Questions: Richard Dieter on the Death Penalty." The New Crisis Jul 2002: 11. ProQuest. Web. 3 May 2014 .

Cited: Carroll, Mary. "Capital Punishment in Law, Politics, and Culture." The Booklist 95.4 (1998): 376. ProQuest. Web. 5 May 2014. "Facts about the Death Penalty." Death Penalty Information Center. Death Penalty Information Center, 13 Nov. 2013. Web. 2 May 2014. Forni, Raymond, and John Townend. "Counter Point: Two Views of Capital Punishment." Europe.401 (2000): 13-5. ProQuest.Web. 1 May 2014. "GALLUP DAILY." Gallup. Gallup Inc., 20 Nov. 2013. Web. 4 May 2014. Godoy, Julio. "RIGHTS: DEATH PENALTY MORE HUMANE THAN LENGTHY STAY IN PRISON." Global Information Network: 1. Jan 22 2007. ProQuest. Web. 3 May 2014 . “Median Household Incomes: Down 0.5% in 2012.” Chatham: Newstex, 2013. ProQuest. Web. 4 May 2014. "U.S. Death Penalty." Amnesty USA. Amnesty International, 2013. Web. 4 May 2014. Walters, Steven. "Prison Plan Estimated to Cost $60,200 Per Cell." Milwaukee Sentinel: 0. May 26 1992. ProQuest. Web. 4 May 2014 . Valentine, Victoria. "Questions: Richard Dieter on the Death Penalty." The New Crisis Jul 2002: 11. ProQuest. Web. 3 May 2014 .