Dear Mr. President,
To allow or not to allow capital punishment has always been an ongoing issue in the United States. Currently, 33 of our 50 states have the death penalty—but I believe it should be abolished in all states. The cost of the death penalty, executing an innocent person, and the victim’s families should end capital punishment once and for all.
Most people argue that the cost of keeping someone imprisoned for life costs more than capital punishment. But according to Richard C. Dieter, the Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center, “After reviewing every state and federal study of the costs of the death penalty in the past 25 years, the death penalty is clearly more expensive.”
People who have been hurt by criminals often look for justice in the death penalty. But in the end, executing someone does not undo the crime they committed. Instead, they encourage more hurt and pain by killing another person’s family member. Personally I feel that it would be a more effective punishment to let the criminal stay in jail for life. Then, they would get to think their whole life about how they destroyed someone else’s life. If you execute a criminal, it is giving them an escape from a real punishment.
ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) states, "There is no credible evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than long terms of imprisonment.” If the people committing crimes are not afraid of death, there is no point to capital punishment. There is no decrease in crime rate depending on the punishment. Therefore, with the cost being less for incarceration for life that should be the ultimate punishment.
Death is something that cannot be taken back. Russ Feingold the US Senator stated, “that is a demonstrated error rate of 1 innocent person for every 7 persons executed.” In this present day how could anyone be 100% positive someone being arrested actually committed that crime? With the way people are today there is too much framing and setting people up to completely know who truly is guilty. A human being should not have under any circumstances, their life taken if there is doubt that they are guilty.
Capital Punishment is a cruel and brutal way of disciplining a human being. No matter what the crime no one should have to endure this punishment. It is a very barbaric way to deal with issues. If we are going to move on to a greater America we need to abolish the death penalty.

Sincerely,
Rhiannon Davis