The Need For Capital Punishment Essay, Research Paper

The Need for Capital Punishment

ENGLISH SPEECH

Imagine yourself in a room, 12 feet long by 6 feet wide. You’re sitting

on a metal bed bolted to the floor with a thin foam cushion. The only other

things in the room are a table and a chair, a sink and a toilet. There is no

window, only a small faint light on the ceiling. You spend all of your time in

this room, you have no choice. This is your dining room, your den, your bedroom

and your bathroom. You are allowed to read and write letters in this room. You

cannot entertain guests in this room, you must go somewhere else for that, in a

room with a mesh screen for you to sit behind, where you are constantly watched

over. Even though this is your bathroom, it has no shower stall or bathtub, but

once a week you are allowed to leave this room to take a shower. Your days are

spent inside this room reading, thinking and worrying. You aren’t in any

ordinary room, you’re in a cell on death row. A cell reserved for people who

were sentenced to death for committing a crime. Death could be by firing squad,

lethel injection, the gas chamber or electric chair. Chances are you’ve been in

this room for many years and will be for many more. Your lawyers have began the

lenghthly appeal process. Once all the appeals have failed, it soon is time,

and you will be moved to a holding cell. There you will be offered your final

mean, of your choice. Your last visitors arrive, first your lawyer, your family

members and at last a preist who prays with you. You take your final glance

around the room, as you are lead to another room close by, the execution room.

A few prison officials are present to witness your execution. In a matter of

moments it’s over.

You could have been Gary Gilmore, Ted Bundy or Charles Brooks, all

famous serial killers. Maybe you were the first women to die by lethel

injection, Marcie Barfield, or the first women to die by the electric chair,

Martha Place. Whoever it was well deserved this punishment, in fact, some

readily accepted it in comparison to spending the rest of their lives in a jail

cell, but many people who did deserve the death penalty did not recieve it.

In August 1969, seven people died at the hands of a serial killer

including eight month pregnant acress Sharon Tate. This was the result of a

bloody rampage by Charles Manson. Manson, who believes he is the reincarnate of

god, is elible for parole this April.

Between 1976 & 1977 David Berkowitz terrorized New York City killing 6

woman and wounding 7 more. Berkowitz, A.K.A Son of Sam, a mail man, took the

orders to kill from his dog Sam, and is now serving 25 years to life in jail.

Between 1978 and 1991 Jeffrey Dahmer murdered and raped the dead bodies

of 15 young men, cutting of their body parts and storing them in serveralplaces.

When the police raided his house the found a human head in the fridge, 3 heads

in the freezer, a human heart in the refridgerator freezer compartment, a blue

barrel jammed with body parts and bones, 2 skulls in a computer packaging box, 3

skulls and some bones in a filing cobinet, 2 skulls in a kettle and a penis and

some hands in another kettle.

These criminals and many others are sitting in a jail cell. These sick

psychotic people who took the lives of others get the luxery of cable T.V. They

are permitted 15 magazines, 25 books, 4 newspapers, 15 personal letters and a

bible. They are allowed to participate in weightlifting, leather work and

learning to use an IBM computer. They can also study to get a University degree,

all using public tax money. They are allowed to smoke. God help us that a

Sadomistic, Necro philliac should have to go through nicotine withdrwel. Many

of these men, like Charles Manson, are eligible for parole after 20 years. What

happened to an eye for an eye?

Then there’s the other side of the story. Who are we to kill murderers?

Doesn’t that make us just as bad as them? Aren’t we still breaking one of the

commandments? Isin’t years of being locked up torture enough?

In 1992 Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to 1050 years in prison, but didn’t

get to serve his sentence. He got his own death penalty when he was beat to

death in prison, but many other murderers and pedophiles are sitting in a jail

cell, watching cable T.V, and planning their escape.