“In 1985, 13-year-old Karen Patterson was shot to death in her bed in North Charleston, S.C. Her killer was a neighbor who had already served 10 years of a life sentence for murdering his half-brother Charles in 1970. Joe Atkins cut the Pattersons' phone lines, then entered bearing a machete, a sawed-off shotgun, and a pistol. Karen's parents were chased out of their home by Atkins. Karen's mom ran to the Atkins home nearby, where Joe then murdered his adopted father, Benjamin Atkins, 75, who had worked to persuade parole authorities to release Joe from the life sentence.” This is one of the many reasons why the death penalty should be legalized. This example, along with numerous others, show that many murders do not learn from the crimes that they commit. One of the purposes that jail serves as is being a rehabilitation center for people who have committed crimes. If murderers have a higher risk of not learning from their past mistakes, what is the point of putting them in jail and risking the safety of others when we can just give them the death sentence. If we just end up putting everyone in jail who committed a crime such as murder, all we are doing is increasing the problem of overpopulation of jails. The United States leads the world with the highest rate of population in prisons. There are many problems which derive from overpopulation of prisons. One of the hardest felt problem by the people is the cost. Imprisonment cost much more that giving them the death sentence ($1.2-$3.6 million more), and it would be more logical to give a murderer the death sentence instead of putting them in jail when there are already so many cases in which the murderer is put in jail and he/she comes out with no change at all and goes back to their old ways (it would be like a waste of money). Another big reason why the death penalty should be legalized is because it doesn’t only serve the purpose as being a
“In 1985, 13-year-old Karen Patterson was shot to death in her bed in North Charleston, S.C. Her killer was a neighbor who had already served 10 years of a life sentence for murdering his half-brother Charles in 1970. Joe Atkins cut the Pattersons' phone lines, then entered bearing a machete, a sawed-off shotgun, and a pistol. Karen's parents were chased out of their home by Atkins. Karen's mom ran to the Atkins home nearby, where Joe then murdered his adopted father, Benjamin Atkins, 75, who had worked to persuade parole authorities to release Joe from the life sentence.” This is one of the many reasons why the death penalty should be legalized. This example, along with numerous others, show that many murders do not learn from the crimes that they commit. One of the purposes that jail serves as is being a rehabilitation center for people who have committed crimes. If murderers have a higher risk of not learning from their past mistakes, what is the point of putting them in jail and risking the safety of others when we can just give them the death sentence. If we just end up putting everyone in jail who committed a crime such as murder, all we are doing is increasing the problem of overpopulation of jails. The United States leads the world with the highest rate of population in prisons. There are many problems which derive from overpopulation of prisons. One of the hardest felt problem by the people is the cost. Imprisonment cost much more that giving them the death sentence ($1.2-$3.6 million more), and it would be more logical to give a murderer the death sentence instead of putting them in jail when there are already so many cases in which the murderer is put in jail and he/she comes out with no change at all and goes back to their old ways (it would be like a waste of money). Another big reason why the death penalty should be legalized is because it doesn’t only serve the purpose as being a