Death isn't something you can go back and fix. So you have to ask yourself, does killing someone really help you or anyone in any way at all? Just because someone murdered someone, it doesn't mean they have to die too, because honestly then are you really all that much better than them? Some people believe in the old saying "eye for eye" which means that the punishment should fit the crime, but honestly does another dead person in the world really help anything? The death penalty is a cruel, costly, unnecessary treatment, and needs to be stopped.

One thing about the death penalty is that mistakes can be made. If the person is proven innocent after they are killed, then what happens? The government would end up giving money to the family and the family would grieve for the rest of their life. It would give the prisons a bad name and it wouldn't help anybody. Many people get framed for murder, and most of the time that isn't proven until the person is dead or isn't proven at all. This is not the only negative thing about the death penalty. The death penalty can leave the family grieving for life. Some people may want "closure" but is killing someone really closure? Killing someone means somebody had a life, and no matter how bad they were, you took that life from them. Death isn't a game and it isn't something you can fix. Death is real and can leave the family grieving and scarred for life, especially if they watch their loved one die. Parents always want to believe the best of their child, even if they do something really bad, so killing their child will really scar them. Studies show that many people get this feeling of emptiness after losing a loved one, and feel like they can't go on without that person. An example, is a suicidal boy's dad killed himself, and then his wife killed herself too. This results in many suicide attempts, or depression or brain damage in the family. It may seem fair to do this, but really it is just completely unethical and unreasonable. Because, really at the end of the day, are you really all that much better than them?

The death penalty also costs a lot of money and time. Studies show that the death penalty takes "almost 4 calendar years longer”. People might say that keeping a prisoner in prison for life is cheaper, because the cost of food, clothes, and paying the prison guards and everything would cost a lot more than just sentencing the person to death. In reality, life in prison is cheaper. With the cost and time of having a trial, and then keeping the prisoner in jail for a year or two, plus the materials and resources the death penalty costs for even one person, it would turn out to be a lot more. According to (2013 Death Penalty Information Center), “If the Governor commuted the sentences of those remaining on death row to life without parole, it would result in an immediate savings of $170 million per year, with a savings of $5 billion over the next 20 years.” That amount of money could be used for something much more productive, like for example, a homeless shelter, space research, and a billion other things. Everyone says the U.S. is trillions of dollars in debt, and people wonder why.

Some people aren't even guilty and use the death penalty as a form of committing suicide. According to April Sims, prisonerchroniclestripod.com, "The average homicide rate in the 12 states without the death penalty, for example, is considerably lower than the average homicide rate in the 38 states where execution is legal." Some people can't live with the terrible deeds they have committed and the seek the death penalty as a way to "wash away all their sins”. This is a way of abusing the death penalty, because they don't always know if someone is guilty. The death penalty is an open opportunity for suicide, and if the judge sentences someone to death who isn't even guilty, it could result in a long series of problems.

In conclusion, the death penalty is a cruel, unjust, unethical, and costly treatment. The problem is that for some people, death is a form of entertainment. We don't think about what we're doing, we just do what seems fair. Life isn't always fair, true, but another dead person really doesn't help anyone. It is unreasonable to kill someone just because they killed someone else. That is why, in conclusion, the death penalty needs to be stopped.