Death penalty creates hypocrisy and financial burden

The debate about whether the death penalty should be practiced or not is one that is largely spoken about throughout America. For years, people have constantly been going back and forth between which overpowers the other: the morality of not killing a human life or the feeling of a so-called “justice.”

The death penalty should be hereby banned, and the answer can be found by simply looking at some hard-standing facts. If one looks at the United States Constitution, many people can argue that the death penalty is a clear violation of it. It is forbidden by  the Eighth Amendment that “cruel and unusual punishments [are to be] inflicted” on Americans. The murder of another human being should be considered a cruel and unusual punishment, to say the least, so why would the government commit such a hypocrisy?

The Court has ruled that the death penalty does not violate the Eighth Amendment, but the more this nation grows as a mature society, the more its people are beginning to doubt that the Court made the correct ruling.

Another reason many people are in favor of the death penalty is for the feeling of vengeance they believe they will gain after having the person put on death row. The pain that the families of victims of people put on the death penalty feel is no doubt unimaginable and is in no way being invalidated. Knowing that families will want justice is clear and understandable. Nonetheless, laws forbidding the act of murder, whether the killer is doing it in the name of revenge or not, continue to exist. Therefore, why should the government go to these ends as punishment? The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “When fighting monsters you must take care not to become one yourself.” Nietzsche’s words should be remembered during those circumstances.

One other factor that must be looked at when contemplating whether to support the death penalty or not is the sickening yet very real fact that innocent lives could be murdered. Ernie Chambers, a Nebraska state senator, spoke about the 150 people that had been removed from death row in the past few years due to false accusations and proven innocence. The senator continued this argument by adding that with “this many people conclusively proved by DNA evidence to be actually innocent, there is no escaping the conclusion that innocent people have been executed” by their own government. Even worse, when Chambers spoke about some prosecutors in the government, he said that they “knew that there were defendants who were coerced into entering a guilty plea to a crime they had not committed.”

Many times, whenever the topic of being for or against the death penalty has been discussed, people that do not oppose it stand by their opinion because they say that they do not want their tax money feeding and taking care of those who have committed heinous crimes. However, Richard C. Dieter, former director of the Death Penalty Information Center, gathered enough information to prove that it would cost more to put someone on death row than have them on life imprisonment. Richard verified this when he said, “as every prosecutor, defense attorney, and judge knows, the costs of a capital case begin long before the sentence is carried out. Experienced prosecutors and defense attorneys must be assigned and begin a long period of investigation and pre-trial hearings. Jury selection, the trial itself, and initial appeals will consume years of time and enormous amounts of money before an execution is on the horizon…”

Giving sentences, such as life in prison, rather than ordering execution of the defendant will be less expensive.

Frank Thompson, a former superintendent of the Oregon State Penitentiary and a someone who was once in favor of putting defendants on death row, had his views completely changed when he executed two men on death row. “It will be hard to bring an end to the death penalty, but we will be a healthier society as a result,” Thompson said.

The banishment of such a cruel and unethical penalty must be done so immediately in order to save money, spare the lives of those who are innocent, and keep society’s morals intact.