capitol punishment
...rson who released the gas into the chamber. If they are sentenced to lethal injection, they are dying by the hand of the person who gave them the injection. If they are sentenced to be hung, they are dying by the hand of the person who pulled the crate out from underneath their feet. If they are sentenced to the firing squad, they are dying by the hand of the person who shot them. All of these people who killed the executed shouldn’t they be arrested, tried, and sentenced to death also. Then the people who execute should be them should be arrested, tried, and sentenced to death for killing them. And so on and so on. The murder list would never end. The government is sending the wrong message. If it is okay for the government to break the law and murder people, then why can’t anybody else murder people? The government cannot enforce a law that they themselves do not follow. Those who believe that the death penalty is a more efficient way of keeping people from committing future crimes are sadly mistaken. The overwhelming conclusion from years of deterrence studies is that the death penalty is, at best, no more of a deterrent than a sentence of life in prison. States in the United States that do not employ the death penalty generally have lower murder rates than states that do. In Tallahassee, Florida the death penalty is legal. The population is 143,775, and the violent crime (violent crimes include murder, and rape) rate is 1,268 people a year. In Lansing, Michigan the death penalty is not legal. The population is 128,683 and the violent crime rate is 947 people a year. This clearly shows that there is less violent crime in the state without the death penalty than in the state with the death penalty. If that is the reason why some people are for the death penalty, well then they need a new reason. The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment. It violates the right to life. It also violates the eighth amendment. The eighth amendment states; excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. The death penalty is the harshest and cruelest punishment known to man. There is no going back once someone is dead. You can never bring them back to life. I consider that to be cruel and unusual punishment. This should therefore make the death penalty unconstitutional to all states, and the death penalty should be illegal in all fifty states. Those who are for the death penalty think about it this way. What if it was your mother, your father, or your spouse, or someone you are really close with and love dearly was sentenced to death. They are executed, and after it is found that your loved one is innocent. Would you be for the death penalty then? Your innocent loved ones life could have been saved if the death penalty was illegal. If you’re loved one was sentenced to life in prison without parole, which would and should in place of the death penalty. The death penalty is irrevocable and can be inflicted on the innocent. Since 1973, 117 people have been released from death row across the country after they were found to be innocent. So what happens when a person who is sentenced to death and is executed is found innocent? That person is already dead you can’t bring them back from the dead. The government just murdered an innocent person. How many other innocent people have been murdered that we don’t know about. If the death penalty was illegal then innocent people that have been executed can be released from jail because they should have been sentenced to life in prison without parole. In New York the death penalty was ruled unconstitutional after the case of the People vs. Stephen Lavalle. On June 24, 2004 New York’s highest court held that the jury instructions were unconstitutional under the state constitution and that the constitutional defect in the existing statute could only be cured by passage of a new law by the legislature. The Court of A...