Why The Death Penalty Should Be Abolished

The Death Penalty has frequently been on the rise lately. In Micheal Cohen’s “Death Penalty should be Abolished now”, he gives some very good valid point on why the Death Penalty should be Abolished. Starting off with one being that the death penalty deters crime, stating that Murder usually is a crime of passion, if you do it once you’re more than likely to do it again, or at least that is what’s expected of you. Studies show that murder rates have gone up with some states, but we all know the death penalty is cheaper than life in prison. It’s like taking the easy way out.

In Cohen’s article he ask’s a very important question “Is saving money a good excuse for ending a life?”, life in prison is just simply cheaper. The death penalty is just the punishment for murder, An eye for an eye isn’t really how the USA operates. Many families of the victims don’t want the death penalty. A second valid major point is that the death penalty deprives the convict of an opportunity to think about his, or her crime over time and to repent if they would like. The actual prospect of the death penalty does not deter potential murderers from killing.

Another valid point Cohen uses is that the death penalty is ironic because it uses killing to show that killing is really wrong, if humans were to just kill each other, and there be no consequences then everybody would just think it was okay, saying that there is the death penalty people know that if they commit a murder then they’ll either get the death penalty, or a long life in prison. Cohen states “…we should hold the state to the same moral standards”, which basically says when the state does it its not murder, but if a person that is not within the state gets more of a cruel punishment than the state does. Supporters of the death penalty think the death penalty is great. Many reasons summed up is because Cohen states “people who have killed another person deserves to die also, if it was the state that killed an human being there wouldn’t be any killing” which supports his claim that whoever wants to do a crime, because they know that they will either get killed or the death penalty. When person who murdered someone gets killed by the death penalty they don’t necessarily deserve, but they should’ve just rather had them sit in prison for the rest of their lives because they killed someone who was probably living a happy life. Supporters of the death penalty also “maintain that executing murderers is actually a viable and important way for grieving families to find comfort in the face of tragedy”, but when you kill someone elses child because they killed yours, or a family member you also at that moment will be making someone else feel and go through the same motions you are going through, killing someone else does not make the situation any better.

Cohen also states the death penalty has many “Human Errors”, and that “when people die due to the fault of the death penalty the family can sue the state and that won’t really go well for the people in charge of the death penalty”, saying the death penalty is almost picks and chooses when and whom will die for what crime. The death penalty in my opinion is racist because most criminals are African Americans, a consequential quote that supports my thought is “Critics also argue that most criminals who are African American, making capital punishment an example of what they describe as the U.S’s institutional racism”. Since so many people want to get rid of it. Also people nowadays from different races are trying to get along with one another, and since the death penalty is executing more and more African Americans it is really not helping. If less African Americans were executed by the death penalty that probably help this big problem in America.

I’m 100% against the death penalty, and the support for the death penalty has decreased. The quote that supports this assertion is,”…opponents of capital punishment note that such support has decreased in the United States”. There is no proof of innocent executed. Opponents claim lots of innocent men were wrongly accused. There has actually only been about five cases where as the state was wrong. A study by Bedau-Radlet claimed there were 22 cases where the defendant had been wrongly executed. However, this study is very controversial. There was no substantial evidence of innocence. Moreover, our judicial system takes extra precautions to be sure the innocent and their rights are protected. At least that is what they are said to do.