Human life is too valuable for us to be killing simply for the sake of vengeance or deterrent – Everybody has a right to live, be it the victim OR the murderer. A violation of that right should not result in another violation. Two wrongs don’t make a right. – Innocent people are likely to at some point receive the ultimate punishment – for a crime they have not committed.
This is unacceptable and can be backed up with statistics from the USA (130 people since 1973 have been convicted of crimes they have not done and have been freed from Death Row.) These statistics do not highlight the stress and terror these people would have felt for being innocent. – Two families will grieve, not just one. Surely that isn’t worthwhile. – Death is the ultimate punishment. A criminal will have no chance to show remorse, or to turn their life around.
Surely everybody deserves a second chance? – No other punishment fits the crime as well as the death penalty – a shoplifter is not burgled as punishment, a sexual offender is not raped as a punishment. Why should the murderers have such a more different penalty? – Yes it’s a deterrent, but at what cost? There is also no guarantee that crime numbers would decrease, only that conviction levels will. The cost of implementing each trial with the care it deserves and the cost of each execution outweighs any potential gain. -And after all, does it really make us a civilized community that we like to insist we are?
The Essay on Crime and the Death Penalty
... relation between crime rates with death penalty states and crimes rates without. Even though the death penalty seems like a favorable punishment for people who have ... twice about it. Of course, hiring more police officers will cost a lot of money, but that will only be temporary. ...
