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A Senior Seminar Editorial by Maureen Walsh, MHS 2010

Editorial of the Death Penalty: January 7, 2010

Although the death penalty is banned in many countries around the world, the United States is one country that allows it to remain. Whether capital punishment should remain as a punishment for crimes has been debated for centuries. Many people believe that horrific crimes deserve to be treated with the highest penalty. Others believe that the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment.

Capital punishment is expensive and is draining the country of money that could be put to another use. The death penalty is funded by the tax payers and by the state. It has been found that the death penalty costs about 1 million dollars to hold an inmate on death row for fifty years. These fees amount to about two million dollars per case, which averages to about 3 billion dollars in total a year. As more experts and attorneys are needed and at least two trials are provided along with high security and living conditions, this is more expensive than putting criminals in jail. These trials are long and appeals allow the criminal more time to prove their innocence, which allows the criminal more time in better facilities, and more money to keep them alive.

Some that are executed are later found to be innocent. We cannot be absolutely certain that criminals sentenced to the death penalty are truly guilty. As stated by Russ Feingold,

This is an error rate of one innocent person to every seven executed. A civilized society such as that of the United States should not be taking these chances.

Crime has not changed since the death penalty was put into effect. States that have the death penalty do not have lower crime rates than states without the death penalty.

Social science has discredited the claims that each execution deters a certain number of crimes. As stated by Grant McClellan, The states with the most murders; Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, Arkansas, and Nevada, all enforce the penalty where as the states with the least amount of murders; Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Massachusetts, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Rhode Island, do not have the death penalty.

The death penalty is not likely to change a person or lower the crime rate because a person usually commits a crime out of the heat of the moment when they are not thinking rationally. The death penalty may also be used as revenge for the murder of a loved one. This only provides a detour from grief and only brings the person down to the level of the criminal. Capital punishment should not be used in this way as we are punishing murderers in the way that they themselves punished their victims. The death penalty should be abolished as it is more harm than help to the United States and the world.