Capital punishments are murderous. What are capital punishments? A capital punishment is a death penalty. This means the person that committed the crime, gets “put to sleep.” If murders are bad, then why are there capital punishments? The only difference is that the people that are enforcing the law have a legal right, but criminals don’t. Why should a random authority figure be allowed to “kill” someone when a normal person isn't allowed to kill another person. It is wrong. Very wrong.

Capital punishments are irreparable crimes even though that’s not what the government calls them. Even though capital punishments are punishing people that have perpetrated murder, sexual abuse, etc, I believe anyone can change. Sometimes, a person is voted not guilty in a trial. What if a person who didn't commit any crime be mistaken and are proven guilty of a crime even though they are not? What if they are given a death penalty for this crime that they were accused of committing? It would have been a lost life to an innocent man/woman. Death penalties don’t help in those types of situations because innocent people would have suffered and a murderous person would still be loose. Because there are lives at stake, errors like this are not options.

Many people argue that it would be better to take the lives of someone rather than locking them up in a cell with food to eat and clothes to wear. They say that they are just more expenses for us and the end result is just having the criminal get out of jail and committing crimes again. I agree with them too, however, there are possibilities of the person changing. When you kill a person, murderous or not, their family feels for them. They get depressed. However, knowing they still have a chance to see the family member brings them hope. A lot of people also argue that we should just show apathy towards the family because they are probably crazy just because they have the same blood as the culprit, but most of the people related to them probably don’t have a taste in committing crimes.

The Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty states, “We don’t cut off the hands of thieves to ­protect property; we do not stone adulterers to stop adultery. We consider that barbaric. Yet we continue to take life as a means of protecting life.” I completely agree with this quote. They say one crime is greater than another crime, however, a person feels the same amount of hurt no matter what the crime was. Murder and sexual harassment are not greater crimes than robbing, so there should not be greater punishments (unless it’s 5 years in prison compared to 25 years in prison). It is just not fair.

All in all, capital punishments are not necessary to teach someone a lesson. There should be a different way to punish criminals for their crimes. Death penalty is not a good answer. Death penalty can cause more tension by building up hate and nothing good can come from hate. Capital punishments don’t give justice to all as promised. They hurt many people along the way, even if you are not on their side. No one deserves the death penalty and they are wrong!