Death Penalty

Death Penalty

It’s just really tragic after all the horrors of the last 1,000 years we can’t leave behind something as primitive as government sponsored execution. (Russ Feingold) As American as people we respect life but what happens when the government allows for a person to be executed?  I can honestly say that this is one thing I don’t agree with killing people doesn’t deter crime or make people safer it only takes another life.  There are studies that show that there a racial disparities on who actually gets the death penalty, a comprehensive study of the death penalty in North Carolina found that the odds of receiving a death sentence rose by 3.5 times among those defendants whose victims were white and in California found that those who killed whites were over 3 times more likely to be sentenced to death than those who killed blacks and over 4 times more likely than those who killed Latinos. (Justice, 2010)

­­­­            I know back in the day when they use to behead people and even hang then when they committed heinous crime, but I think that we have looked at it long enough it does not deter criminal behavior in the least bit.  People are still committing murder every day raping women and children the death penalty we think that if we kill this person it will bring about some feel of relief especially those that lost a family member but in actuality it does nothing it doesn’t bring that person back or make things better.  What makes you have the right to kill another person when this man or woman has to die because they killed a person isn’t that a contradiction? 

The cost of a person on death row compared to letting a person stay in prison without the possibility of parole is more expensive. The state of North Carolina has spent a billion dollars since 1976 on the death penalty.  A study done by Duke University found out the two year cost for capital punishment in NC was $21,642,414 if they only cut this method out of the court process then with money could toward things of need like education and helping those children that are at a disadvantage.

 On both ends religion has spoken on the death penalty there are both pros and cons but honestly it all comes down to the ten commandments Thou should not Kill it very simply said this doesn’t mean that because you are the government you are excused from this.  We all make choices and when we as people show that it’s okay to kill those that kill then why not let people take the law into their own hands.  If your son or daughter is murders than it should be okay for you to go ahead and find the person that killed them and return the favor and there should be no punishment.

Justice, B. o. (2010, September 20). 4. Retrieved December 29, 2011, from Death Penalty Information Center: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/FactSheet.pdf

  This blog post is an official entry for the <a href="http://www.joshuapondlaw.com/scholarship">Law Blogger’s Scholarship</a>, sponsored by The Law Office of Joshua Pond, <a href="http://www.joshuapondlaw.com/">http://www.joshuapondlaw.com</a>.