The Death Penalty is a tricky topic to go after. Before I start it I have to say that I have no idea how it must feel to have a loved one murdered. I pity anyone who has experienced this and can maybe understand feeling the same way about killing the bastard who did such a thing if I were in their shoes.
Throughout America there is an ongoing controversy over the death penalty. Many believe that those who murder, rape, and abuse children deserve to be put to death. It is a very engrossing argument and one that I will avoid. The main question before going into this is whether or not you believe it is right to kill a human being? If you do, do you believe it is morally right to kill a human being if he is of no threat to you? It is a question of morals, and passion usually quells morals.
In this society we have evolved our methods of killing these criminals to the point that we have reached the process of 'Lethal Injection'. The process involves four steps. First, the prisoner is strapped down and read his rites while getting stabbed with the first two needles. Two are needed for this second step since the first sometimes gets jammed up. These needles contain 500 milligrams of Sodium Thiopental. The second step is injecting the prisoner with this solution, which knocks him out cold for half a minute to a full minute. Immediately after this the injector injects the prisoner with 100 milligrams of Pancuronium Bromide, which cause paralysis and stops breathing. Finally, an injection of Potassium Chloride causes a mass cardiac arrest in the prisoner and he's finally deemed 'dead'. The problem with this lies in a study of executions found in the medical journal called The Lancet. They found that within 49 executions that 43 of the prisoners had lower doses of Sodium Thiopental than required by law, and that 21 of the prisoners were more than likely awake and concious. This means that they felt suffocation and their hearts stopping, creating a mass pain that they endured until their final moments. The worst part? They found that the method of lethal injection administered to humans failed to meet the standards of putting down animals!
Fine, but they're gone now. This execution caused a deterrance in crimes, right? Wrong. In 1999 a study found that the murder rates in death penalty states were higher than those of non-death penalty states (5.5 in death penalty states, whereas it was 3.6 in non-death penalty states). Also, in 2004 they found basically the same thing! A rate of 5.1 compared to non-death penalty states murder rate of 2.9! Why did it have no deterrence? Because murder happens mainly for three personal gains.
1) Passion. This is when you come home and find your spouse sleeping with another person. In a fit of rage you grab a gun and shoot them both. Since you're filled with passionate rage you can't control your emotions and can't reason. That's why it's called 'losing it'.
2) Profit. This is for significant monetary gain, and most of these murderers are convinced that they'll never be caught. The examples for this would be a hitman or members of a mafia.
and finally, 3) Compulsion. These are the sick bastards that are mentally unstable. Take the BTK killer, Jeffrey Dahmer, or John Wayne Gacy. They killed and then hid the bodies, knowing fully well that what they did was wrong, yet they weren't able to control it.
So now we know that the deterrence factor is null for the vast majority of cases, so let's turn to the most abhorrent part of the death penalty.
Information provided by the Death Penalty Information Center states that since 1973 there have been 121 people convicted of murder who were later released due to information showing their innocence. One such case was of Alan Gell, who was accused of murderand sentenced to death by lethal injection. He spent five years fighting for his life and finally got wide publicity when information that the people who had accused him were the actual murderers. With this information out the state looked into his case and asked for a retrial. This took two more years, and he was still on death row. What did the state find? On the day of the murder Alan Gell was already in jail because he hotwired a car. Infor-fucking-mation that could've been found within thirty minutes caused this man to be locked up for seven fucking years! Think about that!
He's not the only one either! Remember that 121 were let off, imagine how many were too late to be saved. Killing a human being for any reason is wrong, but imagine having a man killed who is later found to be innocent.
Not to mention that the whole system is mixed up. Take Gary Ridgway for instance. He killed 48 people and received life in prison, compared to David Hocker who killed one person and was executed a day after his trial. Oh yeah, I forgot. DAVID HOCKER WAS MENTALLY HANDICAPPED! He didn't understand what he did. I'm not saying we should let these people go, but don't kill them. Lock them up. Who cares if Tookey Williams wrote childrens books and issued an apology? He killed four people including a little girl. Don't kill him, but let him spend the rest of his life thinking about what he did just like the rest of the murderers.
I know what some of you are thinking though. What about the cost? Well, statistically it costs two million dollars to execute one person when adding in all the expenses compared to the cost of life in prison, which is roughly 500 thousand dollars per person.
A human being is a human being. Killing a human being is not morally right. Even if we agree that those who murder deserve to be murdered we fall into a dangerous setting. See, when that day comes when we know, without any doubt, that we sentenced an innocent man to death we will all become murderers. Until the day we know for sure that a man is guilty or innocent I plead that we stop this barbaric act. Let the sick bastards live locked behind bars for the rest of their lives away from the public.
Thank you for your time.
