Life In Jail
Life in Jail or No Life at All
Neumann University
Death is a very emotional topic and hard thing to deal with no matter what. Knowing the person or having it be a friends acquaintance you still always feel a little bit of sorrow. Everyone has someone that they love so it is hard to pick the right and the wrong sides of stories. If someone 's husband was being sentenced to the death penalty, the wife would be heart broken, but the wife of whom her husband may have killed would be thrilled to see him executed. That is why most say it is all about revenge and getting back at someone. The feelings that some people may get when talking about the death penalty though can be very different. Sometimes people want revenge on another …show more content…
human for doing something wrong, but then some people put everything together and realize how wrong of a thing it truly is. The anger fills some people so they want it to be an eye for an eye; in all honesty what gives the average citizen the right to execute somebody else. "I have concluded the death penalty is wrong because it lowers us all; it is a surrender to the worst that is in us; it uses a power - the official power to kill by execution " (CUMO, 2011)
Having death by execution is not even humane as in a society. Things like this should have been eliminated many years ago. Killing another person just to prove a point is a horrible thing. Taking away a life is not right at all. It is unfair and inhumane. Leaving the criminal in jail for life without parole would be such a better thing for everybody. If they were in jail they would never be causing any trouble or taking more money from us by using the death penalty. Killing is not the only way to keep them from ever harming or doing wrong again. The prisoners may not like that they are going to die and leave everything they have behind, but the prisoners are going to hate being stuck somewhere for the rest of there lives knowing they have no change of getting out. "To most inmates, the thought of living a whole lifetime behind bars only to die in a cell, is worse than the quick, final termination of the electric chair or lethal injection" (Cumo, 2011). Seeing this be a main factor it shows that the criminals would rather be executed, then spend a dreaded life in prison. The people should want the prisoners having what they want the lest, and they rather be sentenced to death then to be left in a jail cell. Also by doing what they want lest their are not any killings of fellow citizens. This makes it better for the people so that they do not have blood on there hands like the prisoner did. A general misconception of the cost of the death penalty versus life in prison is that instead of being spiteful and wanting people to get what they deserve by losing their life, people could be saving all that money that it takes to kill someone.
"The death penalty is much more expensive than life without parole because the Constitution requires a long and complex judicial process for capital cases". The process before being executed is much longer. In fact "Some prisoners have been on death row for well over 20 years"(Death penalty.org, 2008). This time on death row can vary, but usually it is more then 10 years (Death penalty.org, 2008). During that time of waiting on death row more and more money is being spent looking into the case to make sure everything is perfect and correct information is there. The amount of money spent on the person that is getting executed is over thousands more by the time the process is done. Executions cost "$2 million per person vs. $500,000 for life in prison without parole. If the death penalty was replaced with a sentence of life without the possibility of parole, which costs millions less, more money, could go for things citizen really need. In fact; "the money saved could be spent on programs that actually improve the communities in which we live"(Death penalty, 2008). There are so many good things we could use the extra millions of dollars on including "education, roads, police officers and public safety programs, after-school programs, drug and alcohol treatment, child abuse prevention programs, mental health services, and services for crime victims and their families". All of this should be way more important in the grand schema of things. The state of California alone "could save $1 billion over five years by replacing the death penalty with permanent imprisonment." Having regular prisoners is so much cheaper. "California taxpayers pay $90,000 more per death row prisoner each year than on prisoners in regular
confinement"(anti death penalty, 2011). The problem with this is that money is not all that matters to some people. The death penalty is not all that bad of an idea. Some people do terrible things so they get something terrible done back to them. The eye for and eye saying is what this penalty is like. You are doing wrong to the person because that person did wrong. Plus they have no way of doing anything else horrible for the rest of their life. If they went into prison they could always hurt someone else in there, but not if they were executed. In some cases many could even see themselves wanting it to be done. If a family member was ever the case many minds would be spinning with anger and revengeful ideas, but that is not right. The crazy people that kill all these children and do terrible things definitely don 't deserve a life. But being in prison for the rest of eternity doesn 't really count as having a life. They are locked in without any hope of being let out to do normal everyday things, like even eat a home cooked meal. Another reason the death penalty is not the right answer is because there’s always a chance that the life taken was not the one that was meant to be. "It is believed that at least 23 people were wrongfully executed in the United States during the twentieth century" (Death Penalty, 2008)"There are many things that can cause an innocent person to have taken the fall, some of them include wrongful convictions, eyewitness error, government misconduct, junk science, and snitch testimony and false confessions”. (Death penalty, 2008) Everyone tries to either help out a family member or a buddy at some point, so people take it upon themselves to make a false confession. With all these things that can go wrong should we really be risking somebody 's life. "There have been five people killed on death row each year, for seven years starting from 2000-2007”. (Cuomo, 2011) That is way to many people that are being murdered, as citizens doing that we are no better. People must be wondering if some of the citizens are innocent. There were in fact 18 cases where DNA played a substantial factor in establishing innocence. (Death Penalty, 2011) Imagine finding out a loved one was put on death row and executed for something that they truly never did. This can be prevented from ever happening again by simply choosing to leave the wrong doers in jail for life without any probation.
Citizens are growing every day together as a great society and having the death penalty is like being back in the old days when someone gets their hand chopped off for stealing. If society is growing there are some things that need to be let go of, and death by execution is one of them. It is not a humane thing to do to people. It in fact makes the good citizens just as much killers as they are. As people ordinary people of society we have no higher power than anyone else in our community; we are all-equal to each other and deserve equal treatments. Besides the fact it 's not right, there is always that chance of being wrong. To execute the wrong person is something that should never even be considered. Do not risk killing the wrong person instead of just putting them in jail forever so if something shows up saying there innocent they can enjoy the rest of the life they deserve to have. Plus the fact that life in prison with no parole is thousands of dollars cheaper than sentencing someone to death row and having them executed. With all of these factors it should be a no brainer to say that the Death Penalty has got to go.
References
References Anti death penalty information. (2011, June 20). Retrieved November 12, 2013, from End the Death Penalty website: http://www.antideathpenalty.org/reasons.html Cuomo, M. M. (Ed.). (2011, October 2). Death penalty is dead wrong: It 's time to outlaw capital punishment in America - completely Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ Death-penalty-dead-wrong-time-outlaw-capital-punishment-america-completely-article-1.961087#ixzz2kU21 CinQ. Retrieved November 12, 2013, from Daily News website: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ death-penalty-dead-wrong-time-outlaw-capital-punishment-america-completely-article-1.961087 The High Cost of the Death penalty. (2008, March 27). Retrieved November 12, 2013, from Death Penalty website: http://www.deathpenalty.org/article.php?id=42 Innocence and the Death Penalty. (2008, March 27). Retrieved November 12, 2013, from Death Penalty website: http://www.deathpenalty.org/article.php?id=49 Sharp, D. (1997, October 1). Does the Death Penalty Cost Less Than Life in Prison. Retrieved November 12, 2013, from ProCon.org website: http://deathpenalty.procon.org/ view.answers.php?questionID=001000
Neumann University
Death is a very emotional topic and hard thing to deal with no matter what. Knowing the person or having it be a friends acquaintance you still always feel a little bit of sorrow. Everyone has someone that they love so it is hard to pick the right and the wrong sides of stories. If someone 's husband was being sentenced to the death penalty, the wife would be heart broken, but the wife of whom her husband may have killed would be thrilled to see him executed. That is why most say it is all about revenge and getting back at someone. The feelings that some people may get when talking about the death penalty though can be very different. Sometimes people want revenge on another …show more content…
human for doing something wrong, but then some people put everything together and realize how wrong of a thing it truly is. The anger fills some people so they want it to be an eye for an eye; in all honesty what gives the average citizen the right to execute somebody else. "I have concluded the death penalty is wrong because it lowers us all; it is a surrender to the worst that is in us; it uses a power - the official power to kill by execution " (CUMO, 2011)
Having death by execution is not even humane as in a society. Things like this should have been eliminated many years ago. Killing another person just to prove a point is a horrible thing. Taking away a life is not right at all. It is unfair and inhumane. Leaving the criminal in jail for life without parole would be such a better thing for everybody. If they were in jail they would never be causing any trouble or taking more money from us by using the death penalty. Killing is not the only way to keep them from ever harming or doing wrong again. The prisoners may not like that they are going to die and leave everything they have behind, but the prisoners are going to hate being stuck somewhere for the rest of there lives knowing they have no change of getting out. "To most inmates, the thought of living a whole lifetime behind bars only to die in a cell, is worse than the quick, final termination of the electric chair or lethal injection" (Cumo, 2011). Seeing this be a main factor it shows that the criminals would rather be executed, then spend a dreaded life in prison. The people should want the prisoners having what they want the lest, and they rather be sentenced to death then to be left in a jail cell. Also by doing what they want lest their are not any killings of fellow citizens. This makes it better for the people so that they do not have blood on there hands like the prisoner did. A general misconception of the cost of the death penalty versus life in prison is that instead of being spiteful and wanting people to get what they deserve by losing their life, people could be saving all that money that it takes to kill someone.
"The death penalty is much more expensive than life without parole because the Constitution requires a long and complex judicial process for capital cases". The process before being executed is much longer. In fact "Some prisoners have been on death row for well over 20 years"(Death penalty.org, 2008). This time on death row can vary, but usually it is more then 10 years (Death penalty.org, 2008). During that time of waiting on death row more and more money is being spent looking into the case to make sure everything is perfect and correct information is there. The amount of money spent on the person that is getting executed is over thousands more by the time the process is done. Executions cost "$2 million per person vs. $500,000 for life in prison without parole. If the death penalty was replaced with a sentence of life without the possibility of parole, which costs millions less, more money, could go for things citizen really need. In fact; "the money saved could be spent on programs that actually improve the communities in which we live"(Death penalty, 2008). There are so many good things we could use the extra millions of dollars on including "education, roads, police officers and public safety programs, after-school programs, drug and alcohol treatment, child abuse prevention programs, mental health services, and services for crime victims and their families". All of this should be way more important in the grand schema of things. The state of California alone "could save $1 billion over five years by replacing the death penalty with permanent imprisonment." Having regular prisoners is so much cheaper. "California taxpayers pay $90,000 more per death row prisoner each year than on prisoners in regular
confinement"(anti death penalty, 2011). The problem with this is that money is not all that matters to some people. The death penalty is not all that bad of an idea. Some people do terrible things so they get something terrible done back to them. The eye for and eye saying is what this penalty is like. You are doing wrong to the person because that person did wrong. Plus they have no way of doing anything else horrible for the rest of their life. If they went into prison they could always hurt someone else in there, but not if they were executed. In some cases many could even see themselves wanting it to be done. If a family member was ever the case many minds would be spinning with anger and revengeful ideas, but that is not right. The crazy people that kill all these children and do terrible things definitely don 't deserve a life. But being in prison for the rest of eternity doesn 't really count as having a life. They are locked in without any hope of being let out to do normal everyday things, like even eat a home cooked meal. Another reason the death penalty is not the right answer is because there’s always a chance that the life taken was not the one that was meant to be. "It is believed that at least 23 people were wrongfully executed in the United States during the twentieth century" (Death Penalty, 2008)"There are many things that can cause an innocent person to have taken the fall, some of them include wrongful convictions, eyewitness error, government misconduct, junk science, and snitch testimony and false confessions”. (Death penalty, 2008) Everyone tries to either help out a family member or a buddy at some point, so people take it upon themselves to make a false confession. With all these things that can go wrong should we really be risking somebody 's life. "There have been five people killed on death row each year, for seven years starting from 2000-2007”. (Cuomo, 2011) That is way to many people that are being murdered, as citizens doing that we are no better. People must be wondering if some of the citizens are innocent. There were in fact 18 cases where DNA played a substantial factor in establishing innocence. (Death Penalty, 2011) Imagine finding out a loved one was put on death row and executed for something that they truly never did. This can be prevented from ever happening again by simply choosing to leave the wrong doers in jail for life without any probation.
Citizens are growing every day together as a great society and having the death penalty is like being back in the old days when someone gets their hand chopped off for stealing. If society is growing there are some things that need to be let go of, and death by execution is one of them. It is not a humane thing to do to people. It in fact makes the good citizens just as much killers as they are. As people ordinary people of society we have no higher power than anyone else in our community; we are all-equal to each other and deserve equal treatments. Besides the fact it 's not right, there is always that chance of being wrong. To execute the wrong person is something that should never even be considered. Do not risk killing the wrong person instead of just putting them in jail forever so if something shows up saying there innocent they can enjoy the rest of the life they deserve to have. Plus the fact that life in prison with no parole is thousands of dollars cheaper than sentencing someone to death row and having them executed. With all of these factors it should be a no brainer to say that the Death Penalty has got to go.
References
References Anti death penalty information. (2011, June 20). Retrieved November 12, 2013, from End the Death Penalty website: http://www.antideathpenalty.org/reasons.html Cuomo, M. M. (Ed.). (2011, October 2). Death penalty is dead wrong: It 's time to outlaw capital punishment in America - completely Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ Death-penalty-dead-wrong-time-outlaw-capital-punishment-america-completely-article-1.961087#ixzz2kU21 CinQ. Retrieved November 12, 2013, from Daily News website: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ death-penalty-dead-wrong-time-outlaw-capital-punishment-america-completely-article-1.961087 The High Cost of the Death penalty. (2008, March 27). Retrieved November 12, 2013, from Death Penalty website: http://www.deathpenalty.org/article.php?id=42 Innocence and the Death Penalty. (2008, March 27). Retrieved November 12, 2013, from Death Penalty website: http://www.deathpenalty.org/article.php?id=49 Sharp, D. (1997, October 1). Does the Death Penalty Cost Less Than Life in Prison. Retrieved November 12, 2013, from ProCon.org website: http://deathpenalty.procon.org/ view.answers.php?questionID=001000