The Ineffectiveness and Unfairness of the Death Penalty

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The Ineffectiveness and Unfairness of the Death Penalty Crime and punishment are two categories that are always associated with one another. They have become subjects of numerous scientific research studies and literary works. Philosophers from all times have reflected on the relationship of crime and punishment. These two categories can be compared with two bowls of the same scales. It is good, when they complement each other, but if they are skewed, it causes negative consequences. Among all possible punishments, the death penalty is the most extreme, and likely, the most ineffective and unfair type of punishment for any crime. However, there are many proponents with opposing viewpoints to this. To begin with, capital punishment cannot be economically justified. At first glance, it may seem that maintaining a life-term prisoner is more burdensome for taxpayers. However, according to Richard C. Dieter, the cost of a death penalty may amount to or even surpass the expenditures of handling less severe punishments for similar cases. Actually, the imposition of capital punishment requires complicated and numerous trials which can take a great amount of time. During this period, the defendant remains incarcerated and his maintenance is paid for with taxpayers’ money. Additional pre-trial time is needed to impose a death sentence as well as the involvement of more experts, more attorneys and additional trials (Dieter). All of these procedures require additional expenditures which make a death trial a costly venture. The second argument that speaks against the efficiency of the death penalty is its obvious immorality and contradiction to all norms of humanity and justice. Execution is actually a judicial murder, and murder definitely goes against proclaimed values of human life, even if it involves the life of a murderer. Stated succinctly, the death

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