The death penalty, also referred to as capital punishment, has become a serious problem in the United States.  While it has been widely accepted back when it first originated, it has lost it's popularity amongst Americans.  Times have changed, and people are starting to become more conscious about how the death penalty is wrong.  There are many flaws present in the current capital punishment system such as wrongful executions cause by human errors.  These errors occur when race, sex, religious beliefs, and other biases are involved in the case.  Emotions also plays a large role in the process as well.  Some victims of the crime normally want the death penalty against the criminals to get retribution or revenge against said person, whereas the anti-death penalty people feel as though it is immoral to take the lives of another human being.  It is more efficient and smarter for the United States to rid our country of capital punishment.  We, as taxpayers, are spending a lot of money for the death penalty to stay intact.  There does not seem to be a point in wasting money in taking the life of someone when we could use different forms of punishment and in part use the money for something more useful.  With all of these flaws and other forms of punishment accessible to the judge, a lack of support for the death penalty is increasing.  Without support, the death penalty serves no purpose.  If we take a closer look at the expenses, lack of support, and other forms of punishment, the death penalty should be abolished across the United States.

The government uses our tax money to pay for government institutions.  However, most taxpayers do not know where or how much of their money is actually used.  Many Americans complain about how high taxes are and how much of their money they are spending on them, however a lot of the taxpayers do not realize how much money is wasted on the keeping the death penalty around.  James Abbott, a death penalty advocate, gathered data on the costs of the death penalty for the website prodeathpenalty.org.  Studies show that $186 million were used in five executions back when the death penalty was still present in Maryland.  That is an average $37.2 million dollars per death penalty that was actually enforced. (Abbott).  This is an outrageous amount of money to be spent for only five executions.  While this number constitutes investigations, trial, appeals, and incarceration costs, it is still wrong for the government to be spending this sum of money to only use the death penalty on five people.  Most Americans are unaware of the costs that go into the death penalty trial and are spending money that could be used on other forms of punishment.  Because the death penalty is an option, many other extra variables are added to the court process.  People do not realize the amount of extra time and money that goes into trials where the death penalty is sought out.  Kansas Judicial Council conducted a study that shows that after "examining 34 potential death-penalty cases from 2004-2011, the study found that defense costs for death penalty trials averaged $395,762 per case, compared to $98,963 per case when the death penalty was not sought" (Abbott).  Not only does it cost more money, but it also was conducted that jury trials take up an average of 40.13 days when the death penalty is sought out compared to the average of 16.79 days when the death penalty is not an option (Abbott).  When the death penalty is sought out, more money ends up being sought out of the pockets of taxpayers in the United States.  There is no need to ask for more money and hours of the normal taxpayer just so the death penalty can be used.  People throughout the United States are busy and most live in poverty.  The money and time used for the process of capital punishment can be put towards more useful things such as deterring these types crimes from happening in the first place.  The death penalty ends up being sucking the money out of our pockets and if carried through with also takes the life of another human being.  There is no need for this, at least not when there are other forms of punishment out there.  With the death penalty intact, other forms of punishment that are cheaper and less inhumane are being overlooked.

There is never just one way to solve a problem.  This can be related to there not being just one way to punish a criminal for his or her actions.  While many supporters think the death penalty is the best form of punishment, it is not.  Not only is it much more expensive when the death penalty is sought out but it is seen by many as immoral to take the life of another human.  Pro death penalty believers argue that the death penalty is quicker and cheaper than life in imprisonment.  This argument is incorrect when researched.  Most of these pro death penalty think that by using the death penalty they are saving money because they do not have to spend money on keeping the prisoners in jail for so long.  By looking more in depth in the journalist for The Death Penalty Information Center Logan Carver's article "COSTS: Death Penalty Costs in Texas Outweigh Life Imprisonment", we see that this argument is flawed.  Carver talks about how the case of Levi King in Gray County spent nearly one million dollars in seeking the death penalty, while a non-death penalty murder case typically costs around three thousand dollars.  Carver then goes on to say, "The average cost to house an inmate in Texas prisons is $47.50 per day, according to Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.  Thus it would cost about $17,340 to house an inmate for a year and $693,500 for 40 years, far less than even part of the death penalty costs" (Carver).  The difference in cost between the death penalty and life in jail refutes any argument from pro death penalty.  While Texas is it's own state and is much larger than other states, the concept taken from Carver's argument can be applied to other states throughout America.  Seeing as it costs American taxpayers more money and hours out of their day, there is no reason the death penalty should ever be sought out.  The action of going out and killing should never be the first option nor should it be the only option.  Similar to the concept of the death penalty, if we put our military into action every time there was a death of a soldier then we would always be at war.  We should put an end to this type of violence and take a more peaceful stance that does not involve the killing of other people.  There is always other solutions to a problem than just senseless killing.

There are also other benefits to having life in prison.  By placing the criminal in jail, there is time for the victims to get resolution with the criminal to find out why they did what they did.  This would not only help out the victims but also the police in trying to deter future crimes like this of happening.  Not only can local enforcement benefit from life in prison but so can scientists.  By psychoanalyzing the criminal, scientists can look inside the mind of the person and find out other underlying meanings as to why they took such actions of violence.  Not only could the scientists look at the criminals but can also look at the victims of the crime.  When someone has a loved one taken from them, they have a lot of emotions running through their system.  What if all those emotions bring them to take the life of another person.  Emotions can do bad things to a person and to figure out how certain people react to certain situations such as having the life of a loved one taken from them would be huge.  All of these benefits of a life sentence, along with lower cost, shows why the death penalty should never be an option as a form of punishment.  With these higher than normal expenses, extra hours, and other benefits of other forms of punishment becoming more widely known to the public, the death penalty is slowly losing support.

In order for something to be successful, you must have supporters that are behind you through thick and thin.  Roughly over the past ten years, the support for capital punishment has been slowly decreasing and more anti death penalty people have realized how wrong the death penalty is.  With support for the death penalty on a downwards slope, the success of the death penalty will also go down.  The government has also started to lose faith in the death penalty with many states starting to abolish it slowly.  Thirty-two states still have not abolished the death penalty, while eighteen of the fifty states have, Maryland being the last state to abolish it in 2013 (Death Penalty).  While the majority of the states still have not abolished capital punishment yet, states are slowly starting to abolish it because of the impracticality of it and expenses needed to fund it.  This decrease in support of the death penalty is also shown in Michael Lipka's article "Support for death penalty drops among Americans".  Lipka, a writer for Pew Research Center which is a site that reports on social issues and public opinions, states, "While a majority of Americans (55%) favor the death penalty for persons convicted of murder, according to a 2013 Pew Research survey, that number has declined significantly over the last two decades. In 1996, about three-quarters of the U.S. public (78%) favored capital punishment. Meanwhile, the share of those saying they oppose the death penalty has risen from 18% in 1996 to 37% in 2013" (Lipka).  With the decline of people in favor of the death penalty, obviously the amount of people saying they oppose the death penalty has risen accordingly.  It can be seen here that support for the death penalty is decreasing.  With the support decreasing many questions.  What are the reasoning for the decrease?  Why are people now starting to dislike the death penalty.  When asked back in 2011, Americans most common reasons for opposing capital punishment was the "imperfect nature of the justice system" and the death penalty being immoral and wrong (Lipka).  These factors are becoming more and more well known and have played a large role in the decline of the death penalty.  Because these factors are becoming more well known to the public, people are starting to realize how immoral the death penalty is, and emotions begin to play a large role in how the death penalty is being carried out.

When death occurs, emotions take the best of many people.  When hurt by someone, people normally seek revenge on the person.  Revenge becomes an even bigger emotion when something or someone is taken from a person.   This is also true when someone is directly harmed by a criminal.  This person hurt by the criminal is more likely to react in a more vengeful manner.  This can be seen in Cable News Network, or CNN, journalist Catherine Shoichet's article "For Boston bombing victims, death penalty decision a 'step forward'".  In this article, Shoichet writes, "Marc Fucarile, who lost a leg in the bombing, said he has no doubt about where he stands: Tsarnaev deserves to die" (Shoichet).  Because of the loss of his leg, Fucarile is more inclined to want revenge for his loss.  While Fucarile has many good reasons to want the death penalty, what he does not realize is that revenge will not make the pain from his missing leg go away nor will it make him feel any better mentally about the trauma that happened during the Boston Bombing.  In the end, Fucarile will have to live with the fact that he pushed for the killing of another human being.  This is not uncommon amongst people who are damaged by death penalty criminals.  When hurt by someone, revenge is the emotion normally felt, however this is not always the case.  There are cases where the victim does not push for the death penalty and chooses to act selflessly during the situation.

This act of selflessness can be seen by Judy Kerr, a writer and victim of a death penalty offender who wrote the article "The Death Penalty Will Only Cause Me More Pain".  After losing her brother, Kerr says, "I have never and will never support the death penalty. I know now, more than ever, that killing is wrong. Revenge will not bring my brother back and it will not bring me peace. I honor my brother's life and my memory of him by standing against the practice of delivering justice through execution" (Kerr).  In her statement, Kerr is not only being selfless but thinking of the long term effects of her actions.  She realizes that to take another persons' life will only bring her more pain and will not bring back her brother.  To use the death penalty is immoral and does no justice to the victims.  While it may be nice for some retribution, it will not bring back the one that the person lost.  To put a life on the line when death is involved leads to mistakes and regret.  The victim will not get peace from the death of the criminal.  It will just add another death to their conscience and make them regret wanting the death penalty in the first place.  Having a death on one's hands is already enough hardship on the mind.  To add another death to their minds would just add to their pain.  There should not even be an option of the death penalty to eliminate this added emotion to their conscience.

The death penalty is a complicated system that deals with the lives of the people involved.  Why complicate things when there are much simpler, safer, and more economically efficient.  To keep the death penalty leaves a lot of room for error.  When life or death decisions are being made, mistakes are bound to happen.  With court cases seeking out the death penalty, someone's life is on the line.  The fact that we put the life of a human in the hands of a judge and jury is insane.  More money and more days of work are put into these cases to make sure wrongful executions do not occur.  But the fact of the matter is, mistakes are bound to happen and innocent lives have been taken because of this.  With many biases due to race, sex, and religious beliefs, people's lives are put in danger when the death penalty is sought in a case.  These biases not only make an unfair advantage towards the person being put up for death row, but it also contradicts a fair trial that the United States prides itself on.  Why put someone's life on the line, when there are many other ways to punish the victim that are less costly, much safer, and more humane.  Also the government being able to take the life of someone who took life of another seems contradictory.  The United States prides itself on being a world power, however, the majority of the world, such as France, Germany, and Greece, have abolished the death penalty (Abolitionist and Retentionist Countries).  Not only does this show how we are behind the rest of the world but is also making us look weak as a country.  We as a country need to catch up with the rest of the world.  When looked at closer, countries such as Russia, Iraq, and China have not abolished the death penalty (Abolitionist and Retentionist Countries).  Many people do not realize that we are so similar to the countries that we have been at war with previously.  While we claim to be different than these communist countries, we in fact share many striking similarities such as not fully abolishing the death penalty.  We need to put an end to capital punishment and take a step forward in the right direction.  With the technology and scientists we have in the modern world, we should be able to stop spending all this money trying to put these people to death and try and figure out ways to prevent it.  The government think that the death penalty is a good way to deter crime, but as we can see, it is not working.  So why not put that money towards something more useful such as actually figuring out a way to stop these criminals.  There are many resources that we could be utilizing that would be more cost and time efficient along with more humane than using the death penalty.  With all these factors playing taken into effect, the death penalty is not worth the time or money and should be abolished.
