Death Penalty Research Paper

Submitted By dpchrestman
Words: 829
Pages: 4

10/1/12 Against Death Penalty

Should the United States have death penalty? In my opinion, the United States should not have the death penalty due to lack of money, racism, and violation of international human rights laws. Sixty one point eight percent has voted yes to death penalty and the rest has voted no (justicflorida.com).
The death penalty is somewhat racist. African Americans are twelve percent of the United States population but forty-two percent of them are on death row. Blacks are fifty percent of murder victims each year but eighty percent of death penalty victims are white and only fourteen percent are black (CAMPAIGN TO END). Other than racism, some religions forbid the death penalty.
The cost for a single person would be two million dollars for free council for defense and maximum security on a separate death row wing (Reasons to Be Against). In 2011, California alone had spent more than four billion on capital punishment since 1978. Death penalty trials are way more expensive then life in prison. California currently spends one hundred eighty-four million dollars each year and is on track to spend one million in the next five years. Those who cannot afford a good legal representation will not end up on death row (deathpenalty.com). Over ninety percent of defendant charges cannot afford an experience criminal attorney, they are forced to use inexperienced, overwhelmed, underpaid lawyers (CAMAPIGN TO END). Our government is already in debt by millions, people should not have to pay more on taxes for the execution of other people.
Murder rate in the United States is six times that of Britain and five times that of Australia, neither country has the death penalty (Reasons to Be Against). Texas and Oklahoma have the top two murder rates and have the most number of death row inmates. In 2003, their numbers have increased both higher than nationals average. An updated version of the death row inmates would still be Texas but now it’s Virginia coming in second (Newport). Since 1990, thirty countries have abolished the death penalty. The United States has more than three thousand-two hundred people on death row. In 1976, when the death penalty was reinstated, more than one thousand and two hundred people have been executed, over thirty five percent of that in Texas alone. The death penalty was down sixty-four percent in 2005, down from a high of eighty percent in 1994. The lowest number of executions was in 2006, the lowest number people have seen in thirty years (CAMPAIGN TO END). Statistics show that the death penalty rate is going down and will continue to decrease throughout the near future.
If people were put in jail for what they did for the rest of their lives instead of the death penalty, they would have to deal with the consequences and will have to suffer in jail rather than being deceased and free elsewhere. People know that it is not okay to kill and that it is against the law. Being for the death penalty shows the public that it is okay to be killing people in a difficult situation (Reasons to Be Against). Life without parole sentences is cheaper to taxpayers and keeps violent offenders off the street for good. Life without parole allows mistakes to be corrected by the jury (deathpenalty.com).