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Elena Little
English 101
10/27/14
Argumentative essay
Should the Death penalty be allowed?
Human life is a precious thing. We are all born to do amazing things; making mistakes
we grow up and are learning. We all have these great and horrible experiences that make us who
we are. Now nobody really understands why, but we are all here essentially for a reason and
though we all have our ideas as to what that reason might be, who are we as humans to decide no
matter what the circumstances if someone should live or die? With there being two sides to every
story, the death penalty takes someones life whether they deserved it or not. Should humans be
able to decide if someone should live or die? Now that is the question, there are pros and cons
but at the end of the day everyone really just wants the same thing; the world would be a better
place with less or no serial killers, murders, rapists, etc.
In todays society many people believe that people should essentially pay for what they
have done, an eye for an eye in that sense. We have all felt loss, but to lose someone close to
us, to a murder, well that can be tough. From personal experience, last summer on August 24,
2013, my brother was in California doing some work for a friend, and through a series of
unfortunate events was shot, he died on the scene. To this day being over a year later the shooters
have not been found, anyone in this situation would give anything to have them be found and
essentially put to death for what they did. Im not here to tell you the sad sob story about my
brother, the point is that for some families its revenge, they want to feel closure, knowing that the

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offender is no longer out there gives them peace, and they can finally try to move on. Kent
Scheidegger, JD, Legal Director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, in a National Online
Youth Summit of the American Bar Association said, "The death penalty serves three functions.
First, for some crimes any lesser punishment is inadequate as a matter of basic justice... Second,
an executed death sentence absolutely guarantees the killer will never kill again. A life sentence
does not. There are many cases of people killed by murderers who were paroled, escaped, killed
within prison, or who arranged murders from within the prison... Third, I believe that an
effective, enforced death penalty deters some murders." As stated before, there are many pros to
the death penalty. The death penalty ensures that the killer will never kill again, getting the
murders, rapists, serial killers, etc. off the streets is important for everyday life. We as a society
want to live in a world with little or no darkness and people need to live there everyday lives
feeling like they can be safe in the place they grow up. There are people who live in fear of the
outside world and what does that say about a human race that lives in fear of going outside. It is
the dutys of the justice systems to protect people from bad situations, to make us feel safe, and
to essentially serve justice. The death penalty, though it takes someones life, reduces not only
the chances of the offenders to strike again but in general, the rate of murders goes down. Also
the death penalty is the only way that justice can really be served. Taking the life of the person
who killed many reduces murders; thats fact. Supporters of the death penalty say parole, or
escape in prisons, gives the offenders more chances to kill again and again. Going back to what
Scheidegger said, There are many cases of people killed by murderers who were paroled,
escaped, killed within prison, or who arranged murders from within the prison. Even if you give
someone a full life sentence for what they have done without the death penalty, that doesnt stop
them from killing within the prison, eventually taking another persons life.

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There are 32 states in the US that allow the death penalty, the number of executions since I tried
adding a lot of facts, later when I talk about just how much California spends I added even more
after revising to help back up the cause of the wrongfully accused cases
1976, is 1,389 as of October 2nd 2014, there are many cases where one was put to death
for a murder or a rape later to find out they never did anything wrong, wrongfully accused.
According to a team of lawyers 7,482 defendants who were given death sentences between
1973 and 2004 and death row exonerations during that time (Maron, Dina F). Though these
people were never put to death, being on death row means they were on their way. What if they
were to put them to death? Before finding out they never did anything wrong? What does that
say about our society? All of them were wrongfully accused. On average, 4.1 percent of
criminal defendants who are sentenced to death are falsely convicted (Maron, Dina F). All
throughout our lives as humans we are taught that murder is wrong, on the simplest of terms
capital punishment is taking the life of another. Many anti-death penalty supporters would say
that the death penalty is inhuman and hypocritical for the way that supporters think that the only
way to punish someone who took the life of another is to take their life. The American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU), in an Apr. 9, 2007 said, If [capital punishment] is immoral in
principle, and unfair and discriminatory in practice... No one deserves to die. When the
government metes out vengeance disguised as justice, it becomes complicit with killers in
devaluing human life and human dignity. In civilized society, we reject the principle of literally
doing to criminals what they do to their victims: The penalty for rape cannot be rape, or for
arson, the burning down of the arsonist's house. We should not, therefore, punish the murderer
with death... Capital punishment is a barbaric remnant of uncivilized society." It is inhuman for a
society to take away the chance for someone to change, it is taught that people have the ability to

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change and that people make mistakes so when is it our right as a human race to decide whether
a person should live or die? Denying them that chance to change? The death penalty is
hypocritical. We are trying to stop the killers, serial killers, rapists, etc. by doing the acts they
do? As said before by The American Civil Liberties Union The penalty for rape cannot be rape,
or for arson, the burning down of the arsonist's house. We should not, therefore, punish the
murderer with death. No one really deserves to die, certainly people should be punished for the
acts of wrong they did but not the extent of death. Anti-death penalty supporters, and even
relatives of the victims would agree in long term that they dont want the offender dead, in fact
they are uncomfortable with the idea of the death penalty because living in prison is hell in its
self. There are other forms of corpal punishment that doesnt include the death of someone, for
example life imprisonment with minimal food, facilities, and little or no freedom for years.
Families of the victims like the idea that the offender has to live with themselves for what they
done, gives them a sense of peace, allowing them to move on. Other anti-death penalty
supporters argue that the death penalty cost much more money than keeping someone in
confinement. In California alone, there is over $4 billion in death penalty costs since 1978, $1.94
billion--pre-trial and trial costs, $925 million in automatic appeals and state habeas corpus
petitions, $775 million in federal habeas corpus appeals, and $1 billion in costs of incarceration.
Though times of changed it doesnt deny the idea that the United States is spending way too
much for people on death row, for appeals, and to actually kill someone. Those prices compared
to just keeping someone in confinement, though still high, are drastically different. California
could save $1 billion over five years by replacing the death penalty with permanent
imprisonment (The High Cost of the Death Penalty). Compared to California taxpayers pay
$90,000 more per death row prisoner each year than on prisoners in regular confinement. (The

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High Cost of the Death Penalty). By choosing life imprisonment over the death penalty we
could save so much money. Then the extra money could go to things like building schools for
special needs kids, or houses in third world countries for people in need, and other things in
general. Others argue that the death penalty doesnt bring the dead back to life, the justice system
may kill someone for killing others but it doesnt bring back the life that was lost to the families
of the victims. Reality is the families of the victims just want their son, daughter, father, mother,
cousin, whoever it was to be revived and that is impossible. Death is a part of life, but we as
humans should not be able to decide when it someones time to die because what does that say
about our society?
There is no escape to the fact that there are people in this world that have a desire to kill,
to do horrible things. We as humans cannot deny this, just like there is no escape to the fact that
disagreements are just going to happen, according to Wayne C. Booth effective communication
means listening to what the other person has to say(1). With that said we have to create an
understanding. This life we are given is full of disappointments, and people filled with hate, but
it is not always bad. The problem with the death penalty debate is that no matter what, you cant
please everyone, lots of people disagree initially and lots of people agree. There will always be a
disagreement about this issue. The nature of this discourse is essentially that denying someone
the right to live will always be wrong but letting someone live for taking the life of another is
also essentially wrong. We can all agree that this world is filled with crime, and people dying,
everywhere we go, every second of the day, someone is killed, or shot, or run over for that
matter, but when it comes to the death penalty at the end of the day we can all agree that we want
less serial killers, murders, rapists, etc. and essentially that is the answer to this question. So
should the death penalty be allowed? This disagreement is ongoing. All we as humans know, is

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that crime is inescapable, its the unexplainable truth. There is going to be people in this world
with the human nature to be evil.
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