Assignment 16- Will Gregory

What is capital punishment really accomplishing?

​Imagine this, someone you love is murdered. Someone in your life is killed in cold blood. You would be left devastated, empty, and searching for a way to somehow right this wrong that has been done. Once the killer is caught how would you react? You’d want justice for this wrong but how could justice really be served. You’d want this person to feel the same pain, feel the same suffering that you feel. You’d want them to pay with their life to balance out the life that they took from you. This understandable mentality is the reason that capital punishment still exists in our country, however the falsehoods surrounding it are the reasons it should be eradicated.

​To counter the argument that they “don’t deserve to live.” If you want them to be punished, why give them the easy way out? Ignoring all moral aspects of capital punishment, isn’t that what it is? It’s saving the murderer from life in prison. It’s saving them the guilt, torment and pain that is felt after committing a murder and is contradictive to the claims that capital punishment is what a murderer deserves. If someone takes a life, shouldn’t they have to pay for it? Being executed for their crime is not the best way to do so. With capitol punishment, the real people being punished are the loved ones of the convicted criminal. Going back to my opening hypothetical, do you want them to suffer the way that you are suffering? They didn’t kill your loved one.

Capital punishment has seemingly always existed. In both history and religion, government ordered executions for crimes have been continuitywithin all societies throughout all of history, but that doesn’t make it right. Whilst one might think with the remarkable societal progression our country has made in the last century alone, this deplorable government action would no longer exist, but sadly it does. Since 1976, 1465 executions have been carried out in the US. It is currently legal in 31 of our 50 states, including Kentucky(DPIC).  

​Capital punishment just isn’t right. Yes, it is in place to bring justice for murder, but is truly just murder itself shielded under a different name. It’s supporters claim it is an eye for an eye or a life for a life, but this primitive mentality cannot be allowed to dictate how our government behaves. While this killing is without malicious or careless intent, it is murder just the same. While the life that the government is taking may belong to a terrible person, that life is not within the right of the government to take. A government’s purpose is to keep its inhabitants safe and the institution of capital punishment is by definition in opposition to this. 

​Other arguments in support of the issue claim that execution by lethal injection as opposed to life imprisonment saves money. This claim is just false. Yes the chemicals themselves used in lethal injection do not approach the cost of life imprisonment, but the cost of the trial most certainly does. The average cost of the defense in a federal death case is $620,932 and many inmates sit on death row for decades at a time at a price of $137,102 per year, $90,000 a year more expensive than regular inmates. Non-Capital trials are on average ¼ of the cost of trials where the death penalty is sought. When combined with these extra expenses the cost of delivering the death penalty is in the millions, far outweighing the cost of life imprisonment (DPIC). Even if life imprisonment were to be more expensive, can you put a price on a life?

​Whether you subscribe to a certain religion or not, life is sacred. Life is priceless no matter what terrible deed has been committed. The authority to take a life simply does not belong to humans, which is entirely why murder is illegal in the first place. If we allow that power to remain under the Governments jurisdiction we are no better than the murderer. So what if keeping them alive is costly, any life is worth it. 

To conclude we must do something about this. We cannot go in living our lives ignoring this. Admittedly rates of the death penalty have seen a decrease within the last few years but we cant stop there. 2,817 inmates remain on death row awaiting their fate. Not only are we wasting our taxpayer dollars by keeping them there but by not eradicating our country of this heinous death penalty we are murderers ourselves. Our politicians need to set aside their agendas and put an end to something that has plagued our nation for far too long.