The Pros & Cons Of The Death Penalty Essay, Research Paper

The Pros & Cons of the Death Penalty

by Dusty Craine

Due to the rapid increase in crime the past ten years and prison

overcrowding, more attention has been drawn to the opinion that something has to

be done to the United States Criminal System. We need to reevaluate the way we

treat people we are convicted of unspeakable acts of merciless slaughter or even

rape. The United States Justice System must be made solid again.

Most people have an opinion on this heated subject. Some say “we need

it” others say “the person pulling the switch would be no better than the person

in the chair.” We need to look at other options beside prison. There are too

many murderers running loose because the jails were full of shoplifters and gang

members. Some of these loose maniacs kill mere months later. For the sake of

argument lets look at the Pros and Cons.

The Pros:

There are many reasons why the Death Penalty should be used again.

There is too much money going into holding killers, rapists and psychos. It

cost more to hold one inmate one years than to put him through Harvard Law

School. These people knew what they were doing when they did the crime, give

them consequences. There is also the “eye for an eye” argument. Make them feel

what their victims felt. The punishment for murder right now is three square

meals a day, a roof over their heads, a bed to sleep in, very often activities

to do. That include Tennis, Weightlifting, or even Prostitutes. Lets change

the penalty for murder from country club to Death.

The Cons:

“What if the man is innocent?” That is the flip-side. Sure it is easy

for us to say If they murder, kill them too. But what if the man is wrongly

accused and convicted of murder. What if the man was sitting at home alone, and

therefore had no alibi. Why would we want to kill a innocent man? I even ran

across someone who said the only true justice is divine justice, she said God

will judge them. She said we had no right to establish guilt or innocence.

As you can see the Pros and the Cons are a convincing bunch. Me

personally, I think we need the Death Penalty again. I also believe we have to

change a few things in courts though. I believe the accused should speak on

his/her own behalf. Making Polygraph tests mandatory would also save alot of

time. I will now conclude this paper with the question “What do you think?”