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This country is determined to prove that killing someone under certain circumstances is acceptable, when in all reality there can be no explanation for the taking of another human life. Killing is murder. It is as simple as that. There have been so many different controversies surrounding this debate, but the basic fact remains that killing is morally and ethically wrong.
So now I hope to persuade you that capital punishment is an abuse to humanity that only brings the society down to the same level as the criminal and doesn’t discourage people, it is more expensive than life imprisonment, and there is a risk of executing innocent people.
Capital punishment is what I consider, “the legal” punishment of a criminal. Although this form of punishment has been used for thousands of years and will probably remain, it does not give us the right to take a human life for what that person did.
The most common argument in favor of the death penalty is that it is a deterrent. Which has no effect on people. Rates have shown that states without capital punishment have homicide rates below the national average. In state-by-state analysis, it has been shown that in the last 20 years the homicide rates, in which the death penalty is permitted, have been 48% to 101% higher than states without the death penalty. Also the study of homicide rates has risen and fallen proving that the death penalty has no effect of deterring criminals.
A second argument on the death penalty is the cost. Our tax money goes into the execution of criminals. The death penalty is much more expensive than life without parole because the Constitution requires a long and complex judicial process for capital cases. This process is needed in order to ensure that innocent men and woman are not executed for crimes they did not commit, and even with these protections the risk of executing an innocent person cannot be completely eliminated. If the death penalty was...