Pros And Cons Of The Death Penalty

Not only is the death penalty far from a deterrent to major crimes, there are also vastly superior ways to deal with criminals in the justice system. The NC Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty states that “In a 2008 survey, police chiefs from across the country (United States) ranked the use of the death penalty at the bottom of a list of effective crime fighting tools.” (Failure to Deter Crime). If the people we trust to keep us safe from heinous criminals fail to see the value in the death penalty, then why should the government validate the form of so-called “justice”? According to The Death Penalty Information Centre, Louisiana consistently maintains the highest murder rate in the United States, with 10.8 murdered per 100,000 citizens in 2013 , while also backing the death penalty; on the contrary the state of Iowa regularly produces the lowest murder rates in the country, with 1.4 murdered per 100,000 citizens in 2013, opposite to Louisiana, Iowa has abolished the death penalty.
As aforementioned, states in the United States with the death penalty do not produce lower murder rates, the NCCADP assures this by putting forward that, “most people on death row committed their crimes in the heat of passion, while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or while suffering from mental illness.
They represent a group that is highly unlikely to make rational decisions based on a fear of future consequences for their actions.” (Failure to Deter Crime), it can be very obviously noted that the notion of the death penalty deterring crime can be completely discredited. All the while, a form of justice is more than necessary to punish, and hopefully correct the worst of criminals, and life without parole is the answer, Death Penalty Focus vouches “The sentence (life without parole) is cheaper to tax-payers and keeps violent offenders off the streets for
good. Unlike the death penalty, a sentence of Life Without Parole also allows mistakes to be corrected.” (Alternatives to the Death Penalty). Moreover, the criminal justice system is meant to reform hardened criminals, which is exactly what a life sentence is designed to do,conjointly, a life sentence retains criminals from the rest of society, keeping society safe from their harmful path as they seek reform throughout their life. It is an inescapable truth, that the death penalty has nothing to do with deterring murder, and is far from the best option to deal with heinous criminals found within the justice system, with life without parole presenting the best option to reform criminals as well as protecting society from them: it can be said conclusively that the death penalty is an ineffective form of deterrence which is replaced easily, with more effective forms of justice.