The death penalty, also known as capital punishment, has been in American History for a very long time. There have been 13,000 executions since colonial times. It is a cruel and very unusual punishment. It was suspended in 1972, but was reinforced in 1976. They believed it broke the eighth amendment talking about cruel punishment. Why was it brought back? It should be banished once and for all!

If a criminal committed homicide, and we sentenced him to death, wouldn’t we be killing too? Yes, yes we would be. When the government kills criminals, it places them on the same level as the criminal itself. In other words, capital punishment is nothing but an over- the- top way of payback or revenge. This is quoted from Jeanne Woodford, the former warden of a Los Angeles jail, when looking back on her involvement in executions. “Someone on the staff would ask, ‘Is the world safer because of what we did tonight?’ We knew the answer: No.”

The death penalty is bad enough when people “deserve” it, but imagine how unfair it is when the person you are killing is innocent! Over the last couple of years, the use of the death penalty for new crimes has been increased. Because of the increased use of this horrible punishment, there is more likelihood for mistakes. Two American researchers found that in this century, 416 cases have been convictions of innocent people. Twenty-three people were found innocent after their execution. As you can see, the process used to figure out if the person should be penalized is not reliable. So, to prevent innocent executions, they should get rid of capital punishment once and for all.

Some people would say that capital punishment gets rid of criminals. They would say that it slowly will decrease the amount of crimes, and it prevents the risk of the criminals escaping from jail. But the facts prove otherwise. Records show that the homicide rates in states that have not abandoned capital punishment are almost doubled compared to the states that have banished it. The records clearly show that capital punishment actually increases crimes, so what is the point of this horrid practice?

In conclusion, capital punishment is a very cruel practice. Killing people for their acts of crime is like committing a crime itself. It is bad to kill people in the first place, but killing when there is innocence is even worse. So if you want to help to get rid of this punishment and stop innocent killings, vote for leaders who are against capital punishment. You must take action. It is election season. Let your voice be heard! Speak out for yourself, and for the many convicted people who don’t seem to have a voice in court.