Death Penalty - The Most Severe and Cruel

Among all penalties, the death penalty is the most severe and cruel. The death penalty, also known as capital punishment, is the process in which the state executes a person due to a criminal act performed by them using various methods of hanging, lethal injection, lethal gas, electrocution, and fire squading.The death penalty takes one’s most valuable right-- the right to live. Human life has value regardless of the situation. The death penalty is inustice in the legal system because the racial and economic application of the death penalty is uneven, the extreme cost of the death penalty process, and the possibility of executing an innocent person.

The death penalty must be abolished because of the extreme cost taxpayers have to pay for the execution process. After an individual has been given the death penalty, an extensive process of appeals must be started. This process can vary from several months to several years. During the wait time for the appeals, the correctional facility not only needs to hold up under the cost of the prisoner waiting for the death penalty, but, necessities to deal with the cost of lawyers, judges, courts, similarly as other real perspectives and charges.

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For those sentenced to capital punishment, it costs $775,000 for the trial, $263,000 for a penaly phase, $565,00 for state appeals, $96,000 for federal appeals, and $1,316,000 for prison, Ultimately, this would add up to $3,017,000 spent per person on capital punishment; three times greater than for those who were sentenced to death penalty but unsuccesfully sought and those who were not sentenced to the death pealty (Times).

These $3,000,000 could pay 77 firefighter salaries, buy approxiamately 40,000 new algebra textbooks for highschoolers, pay 15 EMT salaries, pay 71 teacher salaries, give nearly 500 children access to Head Start, and 1 month of essential services to 10,000 elderly Colorodans. All things considered, it has been found that it would be considerably less expensive to spare a convict in jail for an astonishing leftover portion than to put that individual waiting for the death penalty and eventually getting executed.

In addition to the extreme cost of the death penalty, the racial and economic application of this system is flawed. For 14 years, the state of Florida has been trying to execute Clemente Aguirre-Jarquin, an undocumented immigrant from Honduras, accused of a gruesome double murder--even after someone already confessed to it. Florida eventually disclosed its defect in this crime and dropped all charges against Aguirre. Politicians don’t seem to acknowledge that this problem happens every 18 months in Florida. Instead of encouraging reform for the flaw in this legal system, Florida promotes acts to execute people faster and more effectively (Maxwell). When innocent individuals of minorities and low income situations are accused of a crime, they most likely don’t have the money to pay for proper defense attorneys. This will eventually lead to their punishment without accurate justification for this decision. The legal system is clearly flawed and this situation has happened more than once which should be enough for the state to repeal the death penalty.

While the death penalty has many reasons for its abolishment, the possibility of executing an innocent person may be the most important.This can imply that there can be errors made that can result in sending an innocent person to death concerning execution. A few cases have risen over the past numerous years in which true convicts confessed to their crimes after the accused perpetrator was already executed. In 1983, Carlos DeLuna was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to capital punishment by lethal injection in the state of Texas. Although DeLuna maintained his innocence throughout the trial, he was found guilty and ultimately declared dead after lethal injection. Two years after DeLuna’s execution, Carlos Hernandez confessed to the crime (Peitzmeyer). Carlos DeLuna’s story has occurred many times throughout history and still hasn’t caused the state to have second thoughts on whether or not to abolish the death penalty. During 1974, “160 men and women were convicted of capital murder and sent to death row. They have since been acquitted of charges related to those crime” (Peitzmeyer). About 1,473 people had been sentenced to execution since 1976 including the 160 men and women released -- roughly 10% of those executed, were innocent. This is possibly the most important reasons why the death penalty must be repealed, as it can incite true criminals from being punished. Whether or not one innocent person is executed because of out of line conviction, it should be enough to identify and fix the flaws in the legal system and result in the death penalty being abolished. Society teaches its generations that crime in general is wrong, but society contradicts itself by using the death penalty. Though there should be some sort of punishment for those who commit a crime, they should live with their mistake and understand how their decision affected the public.