A Letter of Urgent Importance Concerning Capital Punishment | Teen Ink

A Letter of Urgent Importance Concerning Capital Punishment

March 8, 2008
By Anonymous

It has been heard that the state is considering reinstituting capital punishment, please take
caution when you choose. The death penalty is violent and morally wrong.

The death penalty
does not decrease the murder rate, and it is unjustly distributed. The death penalty is not just. We do
not live in an eye for an eye tooth for a tooth society. That type of primordial savageness was left
behind, along time ago. Saying that the death penalty is just is a lie, it is only retribution or to make it
plainer revenge. If we live in a vengeful society, is that not the way most victims are murdered? One
person was angry at the other so they acted upon instinct and hurt them. If we want to preserve a
peaceful society, and maintain the greatness of our country, the death penalty can not survive.

How can it possibly be justified, when you put it that bluntly, to kill a murderer is murdering. If
we live off of our first instinct of inflicting pain to those who inflicted it upon us , the murder rate will
only increase, since that type of behavior only promotes the killing.

The death penalty is not a deterrent. Most murderers wouldn’t even consider it because they don’t plan to get caught. In most cases it is not premeditated murder and they are usually under emotional
pressure, or they are most likely under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Therefore it is not legitimate to
say that it deters murderers because the would be murderers don’t give capital punishment a
second thought.” Over 80% of the presidents top criminologists state that the death penalty does not
deter, but in fact increases the rate of murders. In recent studies it has shown that the states without
the death penalty actually have a lower crime rate then the states that have the death penalty.”


The death penalty is not legitimately fair. Who dies and who lives is based off of race, status and
representation. In most cases those who can’t afford there lawyers are given one by the state. The state
paid lawyers are young, underpaid , overworked, and inexperienced in capital punishment cases so the
defendant will be represented poorly and therefore be executed. The death penalty is not fair because
it is racially preferential. “Since 1974 15 white men have been killed for killing black people, but 223
black men have been killed for killing white people .” Therefore implying that the execution system is
racially preferential and therefore unconstitutional. The constitution states “All men are created equal”
so using capital punishment is wrong because it is biased on many accounts, which halts justice in
American society.

The death penalty should not be used because it persecutes the innocent. “Since 1973 at least 121
people have been released from death row after there innocence had been proved”. This means every
16 people murdered two are innocent. If the justice system is not absolutely sure that the defendant is
guilty he/she should not be executed. If the death penalty risks the lives of innocent Americans that
could face a irrevocable fate because of a mistake that could be fixed, that is inhumane. For those who
have the power to stop it and didn’t that person’s life is on your shoulders, his family and friends grief, his future is all gone the minute you ignore it or choose not to face it. Do you want that weight upon
your shoulders? It is your choice, you can change it.

The death penalty is inhumane because the way they kill people is awful. When someone is hung it is supposed instantaneously break there neck, often it doesn’t. Most times it takes up to 45 minutes. The head is engorged and turns purple, the tongue is swollen, there eyes pop, they release there bowels, and their limbs spasm. In Electrocution the prisoners” eyes pop out and rest on his cheeks “The prisoner vomits, releases his bowels, urinates. His body swells and” his skin stretches to the point of breaking,”
he catches fire and the “sweet sickly smell of burnt flesh permeates the chamber. “The gas chamber
they release sodium cyanide in to the air they are in evident pain, there eyes roll, “the skin turns purple
and they begin to drool. “The death penalty is wrong because these executions are cruel and unusual
punishment so therefore under U.S. law should not be permitted. You as an American Governor have the authority and power to change these wrongful laws. Can such dreadful things be allowed to happen in the great state of Massachusetts. Do you think it is in anyway necessary to use a law that is horrific, biased , morally wrong and increases the death rate . In conclusion for the sake of our state and country’s future, we Americans implore you to not choose capital punishment.


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