Innocent people that were convicted and put to trial have died …show more content…
John Donahue claims that “There is not the slightest credible statistical evidence that capital punishment reduces the rate of homicide.” One of the many reasons for capital punishment is because it is supposed to help decrease the crime rate in the United States taking the worst criminals from the streets. Not only is there no actual statistic that can prove that the death penalty is decreasing crime there also is no known statistic that it increases it either. On the death penalty information cite it is believed that “A 2009 study found that 88% of the nation’s top criminologists believe the death penalty is not a deterrent.” The known experts in the field of crime have determined that the crime rates have not decreased with the increase in the number of people on death row. However, opponents may say that even though crime doesn’t deter crime the horrible people on death row are no longer alive and are unable to hurt more people. While this is true giving criminal's life in prison can have the same effect as the death penalty. Not only is the death penalty repulsive the fact the crime rates aren’t affected in a positive way by the death penalty doesn’t help achieve one of the goals of capital …show more content…
Cornell law states that "In 1976, the Supreme Court held that the mandatory death penalty violates the Eighth amendment to the Constitution." The Supreme Court believes that each state should be able to decide whether the death penalty should be allowed in their state boundaries. Even though the supreme court believes this the death penalty is a violation of the eighth amendment because it prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. The death penalty is cruel and unusual. Capital punishment is unusual because most developed countries in Western Europe have abolished the death penalty, but the United States continues to implement it. An example of how the death penalty is cruel is because in 2014 in the state of Arizona Joseph Wood was given a lethal injection it took him nearly two hours to die witnesses said that “he gasped and struggled to breathe for about 1 hour and 40 minutes.” In many cases people have gotten the wrong doses for the .However, most opponents could say that the person that was violated or murdered got their human right taken away, so they don't deserve human rights either. People should not get to pick and choose who deserves to live and die it is within every person's right to live no matter what the crime