When a criminal decides to commit a crime, they, most of the time, will consider what their punishment would be if they were to get caught.  Now, let’s say this criminal strong arm robs a store and gets caught before anyone gets hurt.  They would most likely spend about ten years in prison.  However, let’s say once this criminal gets released from prison, and is set free into the public, he robs a home and kills the family living there.  In this situation, the state of authority has a decision to make.  They have the choice to either sentence this man to spend the rest of his life in jail, or they could use their ultimate power to take the life of the murderer for the crimes which he has committed.  When approaching this decision, the outcome must be thought on rigorously, for the fate of a man’s life is at stake.

The idea of capital punishment can be interpreted in a couple of different ways.  A more concerning issue with capital punishment is, why does our national government possess the power to take the life away from a person.  If the authority has the power to physically kill you, then what real rights do we have?  So practically, we live and we die by the hand of the government.  If we the people live under the rule of a powerful state that owns the right to kill us if we disobey set laws, then are we really free?  What would happen if a man were to be wrongly accused for a crime he did not commit, and gets sentenced to death.  This was unfortunately a big problem in the twentieth century due to growing racial tensions accompanied with an unjust police force.  “It is believed that at least 23 people were wrongfully executed in the United States during the twentieth century.  Twenty-three innocent people killed by the official workings of the state, but it is not called murder” (Cuomo).  A dead man has no testimony, so when this terrible act is done there is no reversing it.  Another potential flaw of the death penalty goes to tell how sentencing a violent criminal to a quick painless death is not enough.  I think that most people would agree that a lifetime served in prison is must worse than receiving the death penalty.  Let’s face it, being trapped behind bars for 23 hours of the day, every day, sounds like a living hell.  When a criminal is expected to serve life, I am sure that the criminal, after about serving at least ten years or so, would be ecstatic to receive the death penalty.  This may sound twisted, however, most of the people who are locked away for decades, or even life, would prefer to be killed rather than having to endure more psychological torment set on by the solitude of confinement.   

Another point to make that shows a flaw in the death penalty is rehabilitation.  It is quite impossible to rehabilitate a dead person for the wrong which he has committed in his life time.  Prison time is meant to serve as a punishment to the free man.  See, prison strips the freedom away from people.  Not allowing them to wander and travel freely amongst other civilians.  So, this agonizing time spent locked away teaches people that if they disobey the rules of society, then they will lose their right of free will.  Now as if a person’s first crime is one that is so detrimental that it lands them a seat on death row, then that person will never receive the chance to rehabilitate.  With this, death row also demonstrates a bad example to the public.  If the government is executing people, it will demonstrate the idea that killing people is the best way to solve a difficult problem.  And this is not the kind of example that a role model government should be making.  The death penalty is not a consistent punishment either. The death penalty is so unorganized that it is not a universal penalty for a set crime, or crimes, yet factors play in as to if you will be sentenced to death row.  “Death sentences are predicted not by the heinousness of the crime but by the poor quality of the defense lawyers, the race of the accused or the victim, and the county and state in which the crime occurred” (Capital Punishment).  This is just another of the many flaws in our justice system.  

In addition, another weak point in the death penalty is the cost.  Tax payers unknowingly invest millions and billions of dollars aiding the capital punishment program.  Statistics show that “California spent $4 billion administering death penalty cases while actually executing just 13 individuals” (Gilliespie).  That is an immense amount of money that is being forked out, for only potentially sentence murderers to death row.  It is much cheaper to sentence someone to life without parole, and this option will most likely be less favorable by the criminal.  For it is punishment we are seeking, is it not?

While cost and false accusations are two very heavy downfalls of the capital punishment system, it also possesses the power to do society a whole lot of good.  A major part of the death penalty is giving the victim’s family, and or loved ones, the reassurance that the evil person who devastated their lives forever gets what they deserve.  The well-known saying, an eye for an eye, may seems barbaric, yet whenever a person hurts you or a loved one, naturally one would seek and or crave vengeance.  Taking the life away from a convicted felon is not a considered a crime in my book.  The way I see it is, if a person does a deed so horrific that it lands them in death row then they certainly deserve what is coming for them.  To be sentenced to death row, one doesn’t just rob a bank or steal a car.  A person must commit a crime that directly impacts the free will of another citizen.  Examples of these terrible acts of crime include but are not limited to rape, murderer, and terrorism.  “Most Americans support the death penalty out of a desire for vengeance or retribution. Some crimes, the thinking goes, are so heinous that death is the only appropriate punishment… about 60 percent of death penalty supporters back capital punishment under some form of this reasoning. It’s probably also the strongest argument in favor of the death penalty” (Balko).  The death penalty is not just for the government to punish wrong doers, but it liberates the victim and their family.  When something tragic happens to a person, which results death, they are not the only one being affected.  The family of the victim, most of the time, endures the same if not more pain than the victim themselves.  The family is usually the one who pushes for the death penalty because they wish to see the person who wounded their family be killed.  

Capital Punishment is also a good way to lower the crime rate.  When the price of something becomes way to high, people will adapt accordingly.  If the punishment for taking a man’s is death, then wouldn’t you think that less people would be committing murderers.  With such a punishment, it puts fear in would be killers.  People are much less likely to take someone else’s life if their life is in danger.  

A person’s opinion of the death penalty has a lot to do with culture, believe it or not.  Many democratic states vote against the death penalty for reason which align with their political standing.  This resulting in much of the democratic states outlawing the death penalty, and rather sentence the vicious criminals to life without parole.  On the other hand, southern states are another story.  The strong conservative beliefs push for equality.  Over half of the population is in support of the death penalty for murderers.  This showing that the majority of Americans have a conservative standing on the issue.  This means that the majority of Americans are in favor of seeking fair justice for all.

While death row had a large problem with false accusations in its earlier years, with the latest technology this becomes practically impossible.  DNA testing has revolutionized the judicial system.  With this technology the defendant, if guilty, will surely be prosecuted correctly and sentenced appropriately.  What is good for the innocent should be equally true for the guilty. “A positive DNA test allows us to have a higher degree of certainty that we have convicted the right person and permits us to act on a death sentence with a higher degree of certainty than we have ever had before. It is not hard to imagine, as our current society evolves and surveillance cameras proliferate, cases where we not only have positive DNA evidence but electronic surveillance tapes of the crimes actually being committed. Under these circumstances, why would we hesitate to impose the ultimate penalty?” (Atkinson).  If the criminal being convicted for an act of evil and is one hundred percent, without a doubt, proven guilty, then why would they not get what they deserved.  This world does not have enough room on it for people who are only negatively affecting society.  No one wants rapist and murderers being possibly able to roam the streets again.  Therefore, that is why it is necessary to end the life of that person and extinguish the problem at the source.  

The death penalty has been proven to clean up the streets.  The idea of being caught and executed after serving prison time typically does not sound too appealing to potential law breakers.  If the people and the government unite and use the fear factor as a weapon against criminals, then the community will be rewarded with a pleasant and safe environment.  Rape is one of the crimes that will land a person on death row very quickly if the case is severe enough.  Every family wants to raise their children in the best atmosphere possible, and if rapists are stalking the streets, then what is the best option?  Because the sad reality of it all is that people like that exist, so the best way we can stop them before they act on their perverted thoughts is to scare them to the point to where they will not want to do anything that will put their life in danger.  Said best by George Pataki, former governor of New York, “These new laws are working. Since I took office in 1995, violent crime has dropped 23, assaults are down 22, and murders have dropped by nearly one-third. New Yorkers now live in safer communities because we finally have begun to create a climate that protects and empowers our citizens, while giving criminals good cause to fear arrest and conviction. I believe this has occurred in part because of the strong signal that the death penalty and our other tough new laws sent to violent criminals and murderers” (Pataki).  I would not know a more credible person then the former governor of a state who has personal experience with the issue.  Pataki has seen firsthand what the death penalty does and has the potential of doing.  Being a supporter of the death penalty, Pataki strived for a state where law-abiding citizens could obtain freedom from crime, and he used the death penalty to achieve this utopian society.  

There are plenty of examples of the death penalty being used to relieve the community of a problem.  One very well-known example of the death penalty being used was the public hanging of Saddam Hussein.   Though this execution was barbaric and gruesome, I can assure you that not a single person watching that execution felt bad for that evil man.  But why?  It is because when seeing something like that, and knowing all that Saddam had done, people feel no remorse when justice is served.  Same concept goes for criminals within our borders.  Sure, when looking at capital punishment as a broad idea, and how people who break the law are being executed, it can look somewhat wrong.  However, if people were to look in to a case where the defendant was found guilty of their crimes, and analyze what that person had done to receive the death penalty then I am more than certain that you would feel much better about the idea of capital punishment.  Of course, no man should possess the divine power to steal a man’s life away, yet we, as citizens of the United States, have put our morals and values together to set a code of laws that we all must abide by.  No man is above the law, this leaving anyone a potential spot on death row.  Yet, why is there not more people on death row, if each person possesses their own free will.  It is because only the most ruthless of human beings, the ones who do not deserve to interact with society, are the ones who commit the necessary evil to be executed.  The ones who are sentenced to death do not just take the life of someone by accident or chance, they plan out and ponder about the act before committing it.  This making them certainly guilty, and calls on for the need of an appropriate punishment.

Capital punishment is a necessary act within our community.  Even though the cost to prosecute the evil criminals is very high, it is worth price.  One way that this problem could be solved would be to cut the time between conviction and execution.  If we do not have to care for these criminals longer than we have to and we get them off this earth as soon as possible then money would be saved in the process. Convicting these felons and making sure that they are properly punished is the main goal of the United States judicial system.  With the latest and most high tech DNA sampling, it is near impossible to wrongly accuse someone in the present day.  One way that the death penalty could be improved is to have it as a set punishment for certain crimes.  Likewise, there would be a standard or requirement to be sent to death row.  Therefore, capital punishment would no longer be a state decided issue, yet a country wide punishment for designated crimes.  With murder and rape being growing issues in today’s society, capital punishment is required to cleanse the world that we live in today.
