Capital Punishment Essay, Research Paper

Is it right to administer the death penalty to people who commit murder? Although this question is not one that can be easily answered, I have a very strong opinion on this issue. According to the eight amendment to the constitution of the United States of America, cruel and unususal punishment is unconstitutional. It claims that “excessive bail shall not be rewuired, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments has no place in American society. The death penalty is an inhumane way of destroying the sanctity of human life. The death penalty should be eliminated and replaced with an alternate method. As long as a person is imprisoned he or she is kept off the streets. That is really all that matters. Whether or not we impose the death penalty is not an issue of safety. If we use imprisonment for life, he or she will be confined and unable to commit another crime. Therefore, we should choose the more humane option and preserve the lives of these humans. It makes sense that the criminals should be kept locked up for life as a punishment for their malicious acts.Also, punishments are supposed to stop people from committing crimes and show others what could happen if they commit a crime of the same degree. The government should realize that by instilling the death penalty, all they are doing is creating the thought that killing is all right. If the government uses killing as a form of punishment people will start to see killing is all right and when they feel something is wrong killing may automatically be the solution.

Furthermore, the death penalty is not supposed to be a form of punishment, but it is supposed to make the criminal suffer. This idea is very paradoxical. The methods we use now to administer the death penalty are quick enough so that there is no suffering. This new form of killing is painless and quick. In contrast, life imprisonment is long and painful. The killer would be forced to sit in prison for life thinking about the crime that they have commited. It would be more painful for someone to have to live with the fact that he or she committed a crime rather that run away from it.In addition, the death penalty is not constitutional or moral. Granted the government needs places to put new criminals and the death penalty definitely makes space for other convicts, but still, taking someone’s life is not the answer to this problem. The cost of keeping a criminal in jail is about the same as having him or her executed. Money should not even be an issue, since the death penalty is extremely costly. Taking the life of anyone is wrong, and no crime is horrible enough for someone to lose his or her life for. Although these criminals deserve to suffer, they do not deserve to die. Rather than kill mailicious murderers, the law enforcement department can imprison them for life. Murderers should be put away for life, but not deprived of the life they were given.