Is the Death Penalty Effective?

Charles Cobb

English 112

February 16, 2017

Is The Death Penalty Effective?

        Since 1985, Gallup polls have shown that American’s are not in favor of the death penalty. Life is sacred; this is something that we are taught from an early age. When one does commit the act of taking one's life for any reason is one of the worst crimes to be committed and is the one of the few crimes punishable by death. This brings up the moral issue of how do we as a society prevent a murder from committing another heinous crime. Can we justify execution, death penalty or legal murder as some opponents of the death penalty would call it? So how do we go about deterring capital crimes?

        The main argument against the death penalty is that it in fact does not deter crime. North Carolina’s murder rates, in fact dropped after executions stopped. ("NC Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty", 2015) No one has been sentenced to death in North Carolina since 2006 and no executions have been carried out since 2012. Many criminologists have been studying this phenomenon in recent years and the majority of them has concluded this as well: death penalty does not lower murder rates. Society as well as the officials we elect are beginning to take notice of this.

        We also need to look at why and when homicides take place. Most murders are considered crimes of passion or in the heat of the moment. In criminal justice, the offender is punished based on the man's real of the crime or the guilt of the mind. This means that we punish them for their intent. When a crime happens in the moment or the person is mentally unstable or on drugs/ alcohol do they deserve to be sentenced to death or should they receive help? Many of these murders are career criminals just people who act in the moment. While these people must be punished, these people are not ones to commit more murders.

        Death penalty costs more than imprisoning someone. Comprehensive death penalty cases cost North Carolina 2.16 million more per execution that on a non-death penalty case compared to a life in prison case. ("DPIC", 2003) These extra costs come in from mandatory appeal processes and the time the person spends behind bars. Why spend more money and put a person behind bars if the conviction could possibly be overturned? I feel this is one of the strongest arguments against legal murder. It simply cost too much especially during the economic times were are under now.

        The American Civil Liberties Union points out that the death penalty is cruel and unusual. This can be argued because once a person is on death row, they are generally there for at least ten years. While on death row, they have little contact with family and are not allowed much time outside of their cell. Also, more poor and minorities are sentenced to death because of the costs associated with the defense. The due process of law is broken because it deprives the person sentenced of new evidence or new laws associated with sentencing.