Death Penalty Essay, Research Paper

Thousands will die. They are victims of senseless murder, but should the

murderous felons die as well? Capital Punishment is a major controversy.

Debating whether they receive execution or spend the rest of their ruined lives

rotting in a jail cell seems pointless. The government throws away these

human?s lives. We control the lives of these criminals and we should not waste

them. We should use the thousands of them to better our society. Rather than

capital punishment, the government should create work teams using death row

criminals to better our communities. The death penalty has been debated since

the beginning of humankind. Today a total of 94 countries and territories use

the death penalty for ordinary crime, including the United States. In the other

57 countries in the world, the death penalty no longer exists. In some of the 57

countries, capital punishment is only banned for ordinary crimes and still

effective for military crimes or crimes committed in exceptional circumstances

such as wartime (Doan, 2). Currently 34 of the states in the U.S. exercise

capital punishment. The most recent to abolish capital punishment was

Massachusetts, in 1984, and New York, in 1995, was the most recent to reinstate

it, according to the NAACP. During 1977 and 1994, Texas executed the highest

number of prisoners, a total of 85. As of 1996 there were 3,122 inmates on death

row. These convicts could help with government labor with a hope that they might

be free someday. Figures show that, with men, 80% decide in favor of the death

penalty, and women the vote was 74%.. White populations vote 81% for capital

punishment and blacks only 53% (Doan, 2). This information means that the

general public will resolve to end the lives of these killers. By offering an

alternative, these figures may alter themselves significantly. Those opposing

the death penalty would obtain some level of satisfaction with a work program

for death row inmates. ?More often than not, families of murder victims do not

experience the relief they expected to feel at the execution, says Lula Redmond,

a Florida therapist.? ( Brownlee 28). ?The United States is the execution

capital of the world. Now isn?t that something to be proud of?? Katie

Kondrat asks sarcastically in ?The Death Penalty a Just Punishment??. ?A

killer who is killed can not kill again, but a killer in jail until he dies also

can?t kill.? The well known argument against capital punishment remains as

the morality issue. Some say killing the murderer will not bring the victim back

to life. The U.S. needs a plan that will not execute but use the remaining

lifetimes in a positive manner. The common argument for capital punishment is

that it saves tax dollars, it decreases prison overcrowding and provides equal

justice. With the proposed plan, the government would save millions on not

having to hire road crews and other manual labor task forces. The monies

generated by the work provided should solve the prison crowding issue by freeing

up more funds to build and staff bigger prisons. ?Without severe punishment

the justice system says that a murderer?s life is more important than the

victim?s.? says Connie Sun in contrasting part of ?The Death Penalty a

Just Punishment??. A lifetime of service to the victim and his family may be

viewed as equal justice. What the Bible has to say about capital punishment

affects peoples view on it. The whole issue seems to stem from ideas of

morality. ?Men presume to claim things that are God?s alone. They even want

to decide over the life and death of people and nations,? says Eberhard

Arnold. ?They forget that it is the Lord who kills and makes alive.? (

Bruderhof 2). The New Testament is based on forgiveness. ?Father forgive them;

for they know not what they do,? states Luke 23:34 of the New Testament. The

Bible also contains the Ten Commandments, one of which states , ?Thou shalt

not kill?. From a Biblical standpoint, capital punishment remains unacceptable

to its followers. This is a strong argument for constructively using the life of

one who has killed by not repeating the same act twice. It contains an element

of forgiveness while still making the offender confess to the misery he has

caused others. We should make use of the murderers on death row. Punishment

should not come as three minutes of minimal physical and mental pain as in

execution. These killers should have to live with their guilt, and also do more

than eat up money from the government. The murderers would do such jobs as clear

roadway paths and clean up garbage. They would not be paid, they would be housed

and fed in the jails, and work in a organized ?chain gang.? The usual prison

guards will watch over the workers. One argument against this says that some

criminals would commit suicide. This argument is not logical since the workers

would die anyway, either by execution or deteriorating in jail. The criminals

might refuse to work because they possess a death sentence in execution, or life

in jail. As enticement, the felons will receive parole after a minimum of 20

years of service and extensive rehabilitation depending on the severity of their

crimes. Allowing parole will encourage hard work and commitment. The process of

training, organizing and disaplining these people will help the state government

to clean up roadways, dig sewer trenches, and make parks. The murderers will

work without pay and be kept in the prisons. The idea is beneficial to the

people and the budget because of the cheap manual labor. The government should

apprentice death row criminals rather than have them executed. Whether a man

should die now or die later should not be the focus of the capital punishment

debate. Working the death row prisoners to better communities and providing them

with counseling, food, and shelter is a logical, and deserving alternative to

capital punishment. Death row murderers owe the United States citzens whose

lives they have altered so permanently.

Brownlee, Shannon, et al. ?The place for Vengence.? U.S. News & World

Report 16 June 1997: 24-32 Bruderhof Foundation. ?What Others Say About the

Death Penalty.? http://www.bruderhof.org/issues/deathpen/thoughts/quotes.htm

1997 Doan, Brian. ? Death Penalty Policy, Statistics, and Public Opinion.?

Focus Spring 1997: 2 Kondrat, Katie. ?Death Penalty a Just Punishment?? 8

March, 1996 http://www-scf. edu/~mweaver/pa…5/iss6/editorial/faceoff.6.45.html