the death penalty debate | Teen Ink

the death penalty debate

February 18, 2010
By bubblylaurenluv:) BRONZE, San Diego, California
bubblylaurenluv:) BRONZE, San Diego, California
2 articles 3 photos 0 comments

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"The death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights. It is the premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human…” (Amnesty International, Pros and Cons of the Death Penalty) Is it truly just to kill someone? Considering that two wrongs don’t make right; we are solving nothing by murdering a murderer! In ethics we are saying that it is okay to kill our fellow Americans. Therefore we need to put a stop to Capitol Punishment, and sending the wrong message.

To begin with, the Death Penalty was brought here by European settlers. Now 86 countries have abolished this cruel punishment, including most of Europe. While capitol punishment does put convicted killers to death, it doesn’t put a stop the killers that are still running the streets. In fact a total of 1,177 inmates have been executed from 1976 to October of 2009. However 111 of were innocent according to DNA tests, leaving 111 killers to run the streets. Although, we were to late too put a stop to those criminals, we have a chance to put change the future by hiring more officers and make different laws to better suit our newly found technology. We need more officers to patrol our streets and make everybody safer; we also need new or appropriated laws because our DNA tests can prove a lot more than a trial, and the required questioning process.

To put someone to death by lethal injection is not only dangerous it’s expensive! For example the lethal injection is extremely dangerous because it is fairly new and if administered incorrectly the chemicals that are given can become excruciatingly painful. Convicted killer or not no one deserves to go through that severe pain. That’s why in the Supreme Court case Hill v. Crosby, inmates can challenge the lethal injection by claiming that it violates their eighth amendment. Therefore many have already realized that Capitol Punishment is wrong and that it hurts so many people other than those that are being killed. When someone is killed it hurts everyone that that person is connected to, it’s the same with convicts because many have families, friends, and other loved ones. In fact lethal injection was used in Nazi Germany in the 1940’s then replaced by poison gas, was this because poison gas was more humane, or because lethal injection wasn’t working for them? Therefore, lethal injection has been proven to not be the best was to take care of the criminals in our society. No matter if you are for or against the death penalty you know that it hurts many people and causes a lot of controversy.

Everyone knows that killing is wrong, but why do so many people support it? In fact the death penalty violates many beliefs and an amendment. Some of those are: many Democratic countries in Europe and Latin America don’t believe in it, and this punishment can violate the eighth amendment. For this reason more and more countries are abolishing the death penalty, because they know that its wrong to sacrifice our inalienable rights for the justification one needs to sleep at night. Considering that many have realized that Capitol Punishment doesn’t stop the crime that happens on our streets, and that we are just wasting money and effort they have turned against the death penalty.

Many people could argue that capitol punishment is good and helps our communities. They could do this by reciting the biblical phrase “an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth”, this saying means that you get what you give. Others also believe that Capitol Punishment deters crime, and helps future crimes from being committed. Another argument for the death penalty is the convict will have to suffer what their victims had to. Which makes sense because many people do feel relief when a convict is put to death.

Although it is rather hard to tell that future crimes wont be committed because of the death penalty. What we do know is that capitol punishment isn’t helping in a positive way, and we need to come together and fix it. However everyone’s life is sacred to them and their family. Therefore no person should be put through that stress and pain. This makes it our job to put a stop this wrongful punishment. It’s our job to stand up for what we believe in.It’s our job to secure everyone’s unalienable rights, and abolish the Capitol punishment!


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This article has 2 comments.


on Mar. 8 2010 at 4:09 pm
FeedTheBirds SILVER, San Diego, California
6 articles 0 photos 82 comments
Actually it's pretty well agreed upon that the death penalty does not deter criminals.

For this reason and how dang expensive it is to maintain a death row, I am completely against it. Not to mention the whole "eye for an eye" biblical reference often used to support the death penalty is completely misinterpreted.

on Feb. 26 2010 at 8:12 am
xAllegria BRONZE, Singapore, Other
1 article 2 photos 112 comments

Favorite Quote:
Ça fait tellement du bien d’aimer les gens qu’on aime, que ça finit par faire mal. Je sais pas comment on survit a ça. Non franchement, je sais pas. LOL (laughing out loud) ®, Lola.

Pleeeease spell-check that. I do believe it's capital not capitol punishment... very disturbing, especially since it's a frequent term.

Anyways, interesting article, it's certainly a very debatable topic. I live in Singapore where there is a death penalty and i'm not too sure about it... I mean, paying death through death seems right, and it does scare other possible criminals. In Singapore crime rate is very low, but on the other hand it may not be only due to that. So yep... don't really have a fixed opinion on that one.