Should The Death Penalty Be Allowed In The United States?

Should the Death Penalty be allowed in the United States? What are some pros and cons of the death penalty? Some believe that the death penalty is a clever idea, however; I feel the death penalty is a very harsh punishment. The paragraphs below will explain in detail why I am against the death penalty. The cost of having criminals on death row versus life in prison, the mentally ill criminals, and the unfairness to the criminals. For instance, it is unfair to the criminals in which the evidence against them is weak and in which it was an accident. Executing a person who could possibly be innocent is morally wrong and inhumane. I believe that for the criminals to die in such a public and painful way is cruel and unusual. It is not an effective way of handing out justice. The death penalty can also keep the victim’s families stuck in an angry stage of grief. Moreover, the death penalty might bring the opposite of what survivors of crime most need; accountability, healing and closure. Those criminals have family and loved ones too. Some of them even have a wife and children, why should they suffer by seeing or knowing that their loved one is being sentenced to death?
Next, The mentally ill criminals should not be put on death row because they have been diagnosed with a mental health issue.
Some of them are not even competent enough to stand on trial nevertheless know what they did. I feel that those criminals who are mentally ill should have a chance for rehabilitation. For example, instead of being put on death row, those with a mental illness should be sent to a mental hospital. Mental illnesses are medical conditions that disrupt a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. There are some serious mental illnesses and they include major depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and borderline personality
disorder. On the other hand, there has been those who claim that the cost of putting those on death row is greater than life in prison. Those who are in favor of the death penalty claim that it costs more for those to be in prison for life rather than be put on death row. More than a dozen states have found that death penalty cases are up to 10 times more expensive than comparable non-death penalty cases. The most rigorous cost study in the country found that a single death sentence in Maryland costs almost $2 million more than a comparable non-death penalty case. Before ending the death penalty, Maryland spent $186 million extra to carry out just five executions. A similar study showed that California has spent over $4 billion extra for the death penalty since 1978. In conclusion, I feel that the death penalty should be abolished. The reasons I feel that the death penalty is not a good thing are as follows; the cost, the mentally ill criminals, and the unfairness. Amnesty International believes that "The death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights. It is the premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the state in the name of justice. It violates the right to life...It is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. There can never be any justification for torture or for cruel treatment." Killing human life is morally wrong under all circumstances.