Nicholas Kramarski The Death Penalty Debate: Taking the Pro Side.

There are a lot of things that can be taken into consideration when trying to decide what side to take on the death penalty debate. Money is not an everlasting commodity and the state should spend our tax dollars on the old, the young and the sick rather than long term imprisonments. However, in the United States the cost of executing someone over giving them life in prison is far higher. This is because of endless appeals being allowed in most states where the average time spent on death row is over 11 years (Clark). It is estimated that a capital case resulting in execution costs $3M-$4M, whereas the typical cost of keeping someone in prison is $25K-$30K a year or less than a million dollars for a typical life sentence (Clark). The states of Colorado, Kansas, Maryland, Montana and New Hampshire are all considering abolition due to the high cost of capital cases affecting their budget deficits (Clark). Furthermore, abolitionists will then turn to eliminate life without parole as well and will drive the appeals costs higher than death penalty appeals since there is no execution to end the process of a life without parole prisoner. (Michigan State University Comm Tech Lab and Death Penalty Information Center) Furthermore, when someone takes a life, the balance of justice is disturbed and unless that balance is restored, society succumbs to a rule of violence (Michigan State University Comm Tech Lab and Death Penalty Information Center). Although the victim and the victims families cannot be restored, they are the strong reason for witnessing the execution of their loved one's murderer as it provides closure for them and ensures that the murderer will not create any more harm. For the most cruel and heinous crimes, offenders deserve the worst punishment and that is the death penalty (Michigan State University Comm Tech Lab and Death Penalty

Information Center). Any lesser punishment would undermine the value society places on protecting lives. Robert Macy, District Attorney of Oklahoma City, described his concept of the need for retribution in one case: "In 1991, a young mother was rendered helpless and made to watch as her baby was executed. The mother was then mutilated and killed. The killer should not lie in some prison with three meals daily, clean sheets, cable TV, family visits and endless appeals. For justice to prevail, some killers just need to die. (Michigan State University Comm Tech Lab and Death Penalty Information Center) Moreover, society has always used punishment to discourage criminals from unlawful action, a form of deterrence. Since society has the highest interest in preventing murder, it should use the strongest punishment available to deter murder, and that is the death penalty (Michigan State University Comm Tech Lab and Death Penalty Information Center). If murderers are sentenced to death and executed, potential murderers will think twice before killing for fear of losing their own life. For years, criminologists analyzed murder rates to see if they fluctuated with the likelihood of convicted murderers being executed, but the results were uncertain (Michigan State University Comm Tech Lab and Death Penalty Information Center). The U.S. homicide rate has dropped from 24,526 in 1993 to 15,522 in 1999, the lowest since 1966 - during a period of increased use of the death penalty (Clark). Four hundred and eleven (68.5%) of the 598 executions to the end of 1999, took place between 1993 and the end of 1999 (Clark). In 2007 the FBIs figure was 15,707 (Clark). Equally the murder rate for states with the death penalty is often higher than for those without. Texas had a murder rate of 5.9/100,000 in 2007 while Iowa which has no death penalty had a murder rate of 1.2/100,000 in the same year (Clark). Accepting that America is not a homogenous society, there does seem to be very wide variations in the murder rates of individual states. The national average value was 5.5/100,000

(Clark). The fact that some states do not use the death penalty have lower murder rates than those who do is not evidence of the failure of deterrence (Michigan State University Comm Tech Lab and Death Penalty Information Center). Ernest van den Haag, a Professor of Jurisprudence at Fordham University who has studied the question of deterrence closely, wrote: "Even though statistical demonstrations are not conclusive, and perhaps cannot be, capital punishment is likely to deter more than other punishments because people fear death more than anything else. They fear most death deliberately inflicted by law and scheduled by the courts. Whatever people fear most is likely to deter most. Hence, the threat of the death penalty may deter some murderers who otherwise might not have been deterred. And surely the death penalty is the only penalty that could deter prisoners already serving a life sentence and tempted to kill a guard, or offenders about to be arrested and facing a life sentence. Perhaps they will not be deterred. But they would certainly not be deterred by anything else. We owe all the protection we can give to law enforcers exposed to special risks." (Michigan State University Comm Tech Lab and Death Penalty Information Center) According to Professor Ernest, the death penalty certainly "deters" the murderer who is executed. Strictly speaking, I believe that this is a form of incapacitation, similar to the way a robber put in prison is prevented from robbing on the streets. Vicious murderers must be killed to prevent them from murdering again, either in prison, or in society if they should get out. Both as a deterrent and as a form of permanent incapacitation, the death penalty helps to prevent future crime. Although, some people argue that the capital punishment tends to brutalize and disregard society. But, capital punishment campaigners are fond of exploiting Gandhis saying that "an eye for an eye makes the world go blind". People are more brutalized by what they see on television, and not by punishments; they are brutalized by the failure to serious punish their brutal acts. On

the other hand life in prison, which in six months the parole board can release he/she to 12 years in some states (Hall). But even if it were real life imprisonment, its deterrent effect will never be as great as that of the death penalty. The death penalty is the only actually irrevocable penalty (Hall) and because of that, it is the one that people fear the most.

Bibliography

Bedau, Hugo Adam. The Case Against the Death Penalty. July 1992. <http://users.rcn.com/mwood/deathpen.html>. Clark, Richard. Arguments for and against capital punishment in the UK. 2004. <http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/thoughts.html>. Death Penalty Information Center. Federal Death Penalty. May 2008. Hall, Charlene. Pro Death Penalty. May 2003. <http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/>. Michigan State University Comm Tech Lab and Death Penalty Information Center. The Death Penalty. 1 November 2001. <http://deathpenaltycurriculum.org/student/index.html>.