Capital Punishment Essay, Research Paper

In society today there are murders committed everyday. And everyday the people

who commit these crimes are found guilty in a court of law and sentenced to like

in prison. Some even get chances for parole. What the courts should do is take

every murderer, give every one of them the death penalty, and follow through

with it. The death penalty should be legal in all 50 states and carried through

when given out as a sentence. Gary Gilmore faced a firing squad at the Utah

State Prison on January 17, 1977. There have been 55 murders in that state

during 1976. During 1977, in wake of the Gilmore execution, there were 44

murders: a 20 percent decrease. As you can see, the execution had some effect on

the murder rate in Utah. There are very few proven facts about capital

punishment deterring crime at this time. This is so because capital punishment

is not used enough to actually have an effect on people. It is a fact that of

all murder sentences that 38 percent get the death penalty. If that 38 percent

only 0.1 percent are executed. If we use the death penalty more often and

actually carry through with it will have an effect on the crime rate in the

country. People will see that finally we have justice in this country and if

they do this, there is a large chance they are going to be caught and they are

going to receive the death penalty. We also need the death penalty in this

country because if we execute the murderer that person has no chance to ever

kill or harm another person again. The person will never have a chance for

parole and there will never be a risk of this person ever ruining another

family?s life. It is not fair for a murderer to get life in prison. The

murderer still can have a life, not much of one, but they do have one. He or she

can still communicate with their families. The victim of the murder cannot. The

victim?s family will never be able to see there loved one again. Another thing

with life in prison is that the murderer may have a chance for parole. If they

feel that the murderer is rehabilitated and ready to enter society again they

just let him or her out of prison. Anybody can seem rehabilitated but go back on

the streets and murder another person if not more. There are very few

disadvantages of capital punishment. The first and probably top reason is that a

person can be wrongfully accused and sentenced for a murder. The innocent person

is charged with murder and sentenced to the death penalty although they did not

commit the crime they are accused of. This unfortunately is the biggest

disadvantage of the death penalty. Another disadvantage has to be if somebody

killed another person in self defense. Let us say there is a man or woman in

your house that you don?t know. He or she comes up and tries to grab and harm

you in some way. In the nightstand, you keep a handgun. You are able to get to

the gun and shoot the perpetrator and he or she dies. Should this person be

charged with murder? No, this is an act of self defense where the victim if the

shootings was endangering the life of the shooter. The death penalty should be

established in all 50 states. The crime rate would go down if all states had the

death penalty because people would see murderers being executed and if they do

this they will be sentenced to death also. There is no doubt in my mind that

crime would go down. Also, there would be no chance that the killer would ever

get the chance to kill again. With society being the way it is today, with kids

killing in schools and people shooting or stabbing other people for drug deals

gone bad, capital punishment needs to be established and carried out. They will

see that if they do this they too will receive the death penalty and the too are

going to suffer the consequences that go along with committing murder.