My Opposition Of Capital Punishment

If every person went about their day as they have their entire lives tomorrow we could all expect that there would be 45 murders, a sexual assault case every 107 seconds, and 10,000 burglaries. According to a statistical study published on a government ran FBI web page there will be 38,400 violent and nonviolent crimes all in the span of 24 hours. There are millions of ways one can break the law but in the US only 41 are deemed worthy of the capital punishment. However, I feel that absolutely no criminal should face the atrocious death penalty no matter the severity of the case.

In no way does any party benefit from the implementation of the death penalty. Most feel the saying, “An eye for an eye” is perfectly fitting for a criminal they deem worthy of the death penalty. If this is so then shouldn’t someone convicted of assault be assaulted? Or a rapist raped? What most overlook is that the entire saying goes, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” and in that case is it perfectly fitting for a case that flirts along the lines of capital punishment. The capital punishment is a premeditated murder and when bestowed upon murderer only leads society to mimic the murderer. If such acts are evil in themselves, they do not become good because they are done by the authority of the government.

Also what kind of example is set when our government seizes the lives of others when they commit a crime? Giving the government the power to take someone’s life is taking too much power from the people they are supposed to serve. The fact that the government can take an individual’s life is a direct violation of their constitutional rights. The declaration of independence states that as a citizen we have unalienable rights and among those are the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. What makes it ok for the government to impart the capital punishment when it is one of our “unalienable rights?”

Many argue that the capital punishment will rid our prisons of inmates and help to cut cost since there will be less prisoners to care for. However, this is entirely wrong. Placing a prisoner upon death row also accompanies with it 24 hour suicide watch, which almost triples the day to day cost of prisoner’s life. It takes a prisoner placed upon death row an average of 15 years for the sentence to be carried out. Many of these commit suicide before they can be lethally injected. Even a lethal injection is barbaric. There is no way to humanely take an individual’s life. All the preparation it takes to immolate one murderer is often more than it took for the initial murder to take place.

Despite contrary belief, the capital punishment benefits no one and should be abolished.