The death penalty is a form of capital punishment that has been around for centuries, and has been used in the United States for as long as the country has been around. This punishment involves putting criminals to death as a punishment for their heinous crime of committing murder. There has always been controversy surrounding the death penalty and many would consider it to be taboo, but especially in recent years, there has been a lot of skepticism and controversy surrounding this topic and specifically whether or not it should be done away with. As long as the death penalty has been around, it is time for the United States to abolish it completely, as there is no longer a need for it here. The death penalty is rapidly losing support of the American citizens, the states, and court officials due to reasons that include the questionable morality of it and its absurd financial costliness to the states. In fact, many states already have gotten rid of the death penalty with these concerns in mind.. Will this glorified form of murder be around for much longer here in America? Well according to the facts and a vast variety of data, it does not appear to be that way.

When it comes to the death penalty, many people really begin to question just how morally sound and humane this form of punishment really is. In more recent years, more and more people are starting to see the negative effects of this form of punishment. “Most Americans still support capital punishment. But their majority has dwindled from 80% in 1994 to 60% in 2013, according to Gallup.” (Unknown, Economist.com). The death penalty is starting to lose the support of many Americans, as these numbers continue to decline at a more rapid rate. The demographics show that older white people seem to be the generations that are more supportive of the death penalty, while the younger generations and minorities seem to oppose it. Seeing that the younger generations are the future of America, it can be determined that eventually, and likely very soon, the majority of Americans will oppose the death penalty, ultimately causing it to become obsolete and a thing of the past. The death penalty and the long excruciating process of waiting for death is so inhumane that the terms “Death Row Syndrome” and “Death Row Phenomenon” were coined to describe the effects that waiting long periods of time on death row have on these inmates. “Although the terms are often used interchangeably, “Death Row Phenomenon” refers to the destructive consequences of long-term solitary confinement and the inevitable anxiety that results from awaiting one’s own death, while “Death Row Syndrome” refers to the severe psychological illness that often results from Death Row Phenomenon.” (ACLU.org) While in solitary confinement, inmates are denied access to recreational activities, visitation, and training or education programs. These sort of conditions are known to induce delusions, paranoia, and can cause inmates to inflict self-harm. To cause another human to act like this is completely absurd and inhumane. Yes, the majority of these people are murderers and according to many, “deserve” to be treated like this, but keep in mind that there are plenty of people who end up in this sort of treatment after being falsely convicted of their crime. In the common case that one’s death sentence is appealed, inmates are then released into a general population prison where they are free to interact with the other inmates residing in that prison. In the case that they are exonerated, meaning they were later found to be innocent of their crimes, they are released back into the community. Although found innocent of their crime, if a person is released into a community after living in conditions that have caused them extreme mental harm, this can make it extremely unsafe for the rest of the community and more likely that said inmate will harm someone because of how unstable they are regarding their deteriorated mental state. It is also far too common that human error results in the horrible case of innocent people ending up on death row. Since 1973, 144 death row inmates have been exonerated. Yes, it is great that they were found innocent before irreversibly putting them to death, but they still unnecessarily underwent the traumatic conditions in prison and being in unnecessary solitary confinement as previously stated. Oddly enough, people also seem to think the case of an innocent individual being put on death row is highly unlikely, however at least one person is exonerated from their death sentence for every ten that are executed. There also have been many unfortunate cases where a death row inmate was later found innocent after their execution had already taken place, and are more than likely so many more innocent executions that the court system is unaware of. In fact, since 1900, in the United States there are more than four cases a year in which an innocent individual is convicted of murder. In 2004, Cameron Todd Willingham was executed after being accused of the crime of murder by arson after his three children sadly perished in a house fire. After Willingham’s death, independent investigators later found that the cause of the fire was actually due to accident, not arson, and that there really never was any reliable evidence of Willingham being positively guilty. Sadly, there are many more cases like this one. A common reason for innocent people winding up on death row is because of improper representation in court, which could be due to them not being able to afford a decent attorney. Lawyer David Dow, who represents death row inmates, did a TED Talk in Austin, Texas about the death penalty. Dow tells his audience that when he started in his career, death row inmates did not have the right to a lawyer and could only rely on volunteer lawyers to represent them, most of which do not have the interest or the expertise to do so effectively. In the case of Shonda Walters, who was convicted of murdering an 83-year-old man, she was appointed lawyers by the state since she could not afford to hire her own, which is the case with many other people as well. For whatever reason, these lawyers did not defend Walters and did not put up an argument that may have spared her from being sentenced to death. Maybe they thought they were not being paid enough by the state to represent Walters, maybe they were racist toward her, maybe they were just uninterested like the volunteer lawyers mentioned by Dow, or maybe it was for another reason. Although the court did agree her representation was inexcusably bad, they still upheld her sentence. This sort of behavior also leads many to believe that the justice system is very skewed and prejudice. If there is no death penalty, the fear of putting an innocent person to death is no longer a factor. It is also arguable that the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, which states “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” Taking away another human life is considered by many to be a cruel punishment and therefore violates the United States Constitution. 

Not only is the death penalty inhumane, but costly too. It has been proven to unnecessarily waste millions of dollars and tons of time every year. “Duke University professor Philip J. Cook studied North Carolina’s system and concluded that the Tar Heel State could save $11 million per year by abolishing the death penalty. California’s system incurs excess costs estimated at some $200 million per year.” (Von Drehle, Time.com). All of that misplaced money could go towards more important things in the government budget that could actually lower the homicide rate in the first place and dispel the need for a death sentence. In his TED Talk, David Dow talks about solutions that both death penalty advocates and death penalty abolitionists can actually all agree on. Dow states that “76% of death row inmates have been a part of the juvenile justice system in their childhood, meaning they likely came from troubled homes” (Dow, Lessons from Death Row Inmates). He believes that if schools in every state start to provide programs that target economically disadvantaged and troubled children early in their life, they could be swayed from ever going down a path that will only lead them to murdering someone in the first place. Obviously, with no murder ever even occurring there is no chance of ending up on death row. If the government can take the money used for death sentence cases and executions and spend it on these programs and making these programs free and accessible to the children they should be targeting, the need for the death penalty is eliminated. A handful of states already have programs like this, however the state of Texas does not, which is also the state where there are the most executions each year. By intervening this early on, the government saves close to about $80,000 in crime related costs down the road. There is also a common misconception that keeping an inmate in prison for life is more expensive than executing one, however the opposite is true. On average, a death sentence case costs 42% more than a non-death sentence case. An extra $216,000 is spent per case when first-degree murder trials and their appeals are taken into consideration by the court. This is such a wasteful use of expenses with the crime rate continuously dropping and the use of high security prisons that dangerous criminals are placed in. In addition to the absurd cost the death penalty inflicts on the community, the process is extremely time consuming. In fact, inmates that are placed on death row can wait anywhere from 12 years to 30 years from the time they are sentenced, to the time that their execution actually takes place if it ever does. The convicted criminal aside, this can be a horribly long and drawn out process for the friends and the families of the victims of murder and can possibly prevent them from fully being able to move on and properly go through the grieving process completely. Many believe that the state-sanctioned murders of criminals will bring closure to the families and help them to move on from the death of their loved one. However, this is not usually the case. Marietta Jaeger-Lane, who is the mother of a victim to kidnapping and murder, stated, “Loved ones, wrenched from our lives by violent crime, deserve more beautiful, noble and honorable memorials than pre-meditated, state-sanctioned killings. The death penalty only creates more victims and more grieving families. By becoming that which we deplore – people who kill people – we insult the sacred memory of all our precious victims.” Since death sentences require multiple trials and can last for multiple years, the families of victims are forced to deal with this tragedy for much longer than they should have to. What makes this even worse is the fact that the families usually don’t even want the criminal to be put to death, and some have even openly said they forgive the murderer. 

The largest piece of evidence that proves the death penalty is beginning to lose support amongst Americans, is the fact that each year states are starting to give out less and less death sentences. According to the New York Times, there were only 28 executions in 2015, the lowest number in decades. In fact, some states have completely banned the death penalty from being used all together. Currently, a total of nineteen states no longer have the death penalty. Seven of those states abandoned it within the past twelve years. Yes, majority of states still have the death penalty, however most of them choose not to use it. Only three states, Georgia, Texas and Missouri, were responsible for all 28 executions in 2015.  Time magazine used the term “evolving standards”(Von Drehle, Time.com) to describe the direction the United States is heading in with the death penalty. “In the past 14 years alone, the Supreme Court has barred the execution of several categories of people: minors, the intellectually disabled, and those convicted of a crime other than murder” (The Editorial Board, Nytimes.com). It is clear that states think it is inhumane to kill people of these categories, meaning the know killing another human is questionable in the sense of morality. Between this doctrine and more and more states recently abandoning the death penalty, it is apparent that the United States is moving in a direction away from capital punishment. The statistics show that states are starting to lose interest in the grotesque business of murdering their own citizens.

It is argued by many who are pro-death penalty that this particular punishment actually deters crime and keeps the crime rates low. After doing much research, I have not seen any sort of data that supports this commonly stated claim. In fact, the United States crime rate actually spiked in the year 2015 when our country saw an increase in murders and overall violent crime. One of the sources I found that supports the death penalty, from Policy Mic, mentions the statistic of 60% of American citizens supporting the death penalty, which was previously mentioned. While the statistic is correct and yes the majority of Americans do still support the death penalty according to polls, there was a failure to mention the direction in which the statistic is heading. If the majority of younger generations are anti-death penalty, and the pro-death penalty group largely consists of elderly generations, it is apparent that the United States and its citizens are trying to move in a direction of getting rid of the death penalty in the near future. Years from now, these young anti-death penalty advocates will make up America and our nation’s future. 

There is no doubt that those who murder other people deserve to be and definitely should be punished for doing so, as it is a horrible and inexcusable crime. Taking the life of another human being is never okay by any means, whether it is through murder or state-sanctioned executions. Now that life-without-parole sentences have been implemented as an option for homicide cases, this should be the solution to what to do with murderers rather than sentencing them to an execution. It is actually argued by many that this punishment is a fate that is even worse than death. Whether or not you agree with the death penalty being abolished or not, the facts are clear. State-sanctioned executions are inhumane, costly in terms of both time and money, and it is continuously losing support from American citizens, states, and court officials. It is time that the “land of the free and home of the brave” catch up with the rest of the world and put an end to the death penalty. 
