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Monique Els
Ms. Gardner
English 10H 2
1 May 2014
A Life for a Life
In 1976, the United States made the tough and controversial decision to reinstate the death
penalty in capital murder cases. The death penaltycurrently a lethal cocktail of pentobarbital,
Pavulon, and potassium chlorideis administered into the convicted criminal by an injection
into the arm. The death penalty is an issue that highly impacts our society because murder is
illegal, but an exception is made when it comes to executing a convicted killer. This issue
remains, and will always remain, controversial because all murder is supposed to be outlawed,
even if the person being killed is a murderer. 18 states across the United States have outlawed the
death penalty because of petitions and arguments from unhappy citizens. In the age of terrorists
and serial killers, capital punishment is a necessity for the Unites States; it rids the country of
having one more killer in jail, it deters crime, provides closure for the people who knew and
loved the victims, and, most importantly, serves justice.
Admittedly, guiltless citizens have been executed; it is predicted that at least 27 innocent
individuals have been wrongfully executed, and there are many more that have been executed or
are on death row. FBI specialists believe that these innocent individuals have been wrongfully
convicted of crimes because of manipulated hair evidence or faulty fingerprinting machines.
Kirk Bloodsworth, an innocent man who was convicted of murder and put on death row,
explains that, 142 of [them] have been exonerated from death row. Thats 142 innocent people
who were saved, some at the last minute. This evidence proves that 142 individuals lives were
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put on the line for crimes they did not commit. Unfortunately, 27 individuals were not lucky
enough to be exonerated. As Spencer Hsu, a journalist for the Washington Post, puts it, an
examination of past criminal cases has, uncovered as many as 27 death penalty convictions in
which FBI forensic experts may have mistakenly linked defendants to crimes with exaggerated
scientific testimony. The United States has executed the amount that fills an entire classroom
full of innocent men and women, and there are undeniably more. To summarize, individuals who
oppose the death penalty believe it must be abolished to ensure that another innocent individual
is not wrongfully put to death. However, there is a reason why these people are found guilty:
evidence proved they are guilty. The individuals who were convicted of 1
st
degree murder and
sentenced to death had many years, some up to 30 years, to appeal their sentence. Year after
year, these people stood in front of juries; year after year, these people were found guilty. If an
individual is repeatedly convicted of the same crime, in front of different juries, it is highly
unlikely that the person did not take part in the crime. Individuals who are continuously
convicted of cold blooded murder should be executed to decrease the risk of another murder by
their hand, in or out of jail.
Undoubtedly, innocent individuals have been executed when they did not actually commit the
crime. Nevertheless, it has been proven that the death penalty actually deters crime. In a research
he conducted over 26 years, Michael Summers, PhD, MBA, and a Professor of Management
Science at Pepperdine University, states that, each execution carried out is correlated with about
74 fewer murders the following year. This results in 74 lives spared the following year with
each execution that occurs. According to Carol Williams, a journalist for the Los Angeles Times,
1,214 men have been put to death in the last 34 years, and the annual amount of executions
has gone down nearly every year since 1999. This information proves that fewer people are
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committing crimes worth the death penalty because people are deterred by it. A person will think
twice before breaking the law if he / she knows others are being executed for the same crime.
In addition to crime deterrence, the death penalty allows closure for the victims family and
friends. When a community loses a loved one because of another persons actions, they are
bound to hold grudges; having the person responsible for the loss of the loved one have the same
fate, it allows closure and the idea of what goes around, comes around. To illustrate, there are
many communities who have lost loved ones due to irrational killers. These communities, when
interviewed, often say that they would prefer the killer be executed than live out his or her life
comfortably in jail because they believe that the when the killer sealed the fate of the victim, the
murderer also sealed his or her own fate. Mark Klaas, father of Petalumas Polly Klaas, states
that, people who have witnessed executions are grateful for the experience(qtd. in Alferis)
because it finally puts their loved ones at rest in their minds. The people close to the victim
finally have the chance to rest easy after the killer has been executed because they know that the
murderer has gotten what they deserve and cannot harm anyone else. Occasionally, individuals
on death row have even apologized and pleaded to die, because they finally feel remorse for their
actions. These people understand that what they did was wrong. For example, Jeffery Dahmer, a
known serial killer, sex offender, and cannibal, apologized to the families of the boys he sexually
assaulted, killed, and dismembered days before he was bludgeoned to death in jail by another
inmate. Dahmer is one of many killers who have apologized for their actions before being killed.
As a result, the death penalty provides closure for the people close to the victim and relief for the
ones who regret their actions.
Finally, the death penalty serves justice to those who deserve it. The death penalty upholds
the historical idea of an eye for an eye: if you kill someone, you get killed. Many supporters of
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the death penalty, including Greg Dobbs, a journalist for the Denver post, believe that the
justice of death for murderers still outweighs everything else. These supporters also agree that
very few crimes justify capital punishment, but slaughtering [people] in cold blood is one of
them (Kay). This means that capital punishment serves justice to those who most deserve it: the
ruthless killers. An example of a callous terrorist is Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, also known as the
notorious Boston Bomber. The families of the three victims who were slain on that gloomy April
morning during the annual Boston Marathon, along with millions of Americans, are actively
searching for the death penalty in Tsarnaevs upcoming trial. He fits the bill for the death penalty
perfectly: premeditation, motive, and opportunity. Tsarnaev, if given the death penalty, would
get what he deserves and justice will be served: anything less than the death penalty will be too
good for someone who killed three individuals and injured over 200 more all in the name of
putting fear in the American people. Therefore, the death penalty should stay so that justice can
continue to be served to those barbarous murderers.
In conclusion, the death penalty prevents further crime by the same individual; it prevents
further crime from happening, provides closure to those who need it, and serves justice. The
death penalty protects society from killers by demonstrating a clear and severe reaction to serious
crimes. If it were to be removed, there would be no threat hanging over a possible killer, and
there would be nothing preventing a psychopath from fulfilling his unnatural desires. The death
penalty needs to stay so that the world can continue to show criminals that there are major
consequences for major actions.


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Works Cited
Alferis, Lisa. Does the Death Pentalty Provide Closure to Victims Families? KQED News.
N.p., 5 Nov. 2012. Web. 7 May 2014.
Bloodsworth, Kirk. "My Case Shows the Need to Abolish the Death Penalty." McClatchy -
Tribune News Service. 05 Jul. 2013: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Dobbs, Greg. "State Inmates Convicted of Murder Deserve Their Fates." Denver Post. 17 Mar.
2013: D.4. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Hsu, Spencer S. "At Least 27 Death Penalty Convictions May Be Faulty." Washington Post. 18
Jul. 2013: A.1. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Kay, Jonathan. "The Ashes of the Dead." National Post. 01 Feb. 2014: A.18. SIRS Issues
Researcher. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Summers, Michael. Does the Death Penalty Deter Crime? Death Penalty. N.p., 13 Mar. 2013.
Web. 4 May 2014.
Williams, Carol J. "Woman's Execution Could Signal Shift in U.S. Thinking." Los Angeles
Times (Los Angeles, CA). 24 Sep. 2010: AA.1. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.



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