Capital Punishment
...fences in the Criminal Code. For example, the Supreme Court of Canada held that a law creating a minimum sentence of seven years’ imprisonment for the crime of importing narcotics into Canada, regardless of how much is involved, is cruel and unusual punishment. The death penalty should not be brought back also because it would cost less to imprison someone then to execute them. A 1993 study conducted by Duke University showed the death penalty in North Carolina costs $2.16 million per execution more than a non-death penalty murder trial. On average executions costs about $3.2 million, that’s almost six times the cost of life imprisonment. These extra costs are because of court case fees, witness payments, appeals and retrials also cost a lot, as a quote from Thomas Draper proves this “The cost of the apparatus and maintenance of the procedures attending the death penalty, including death row and the endless appeals and legal machinery, far outweighs the expense of maintaining in prison the tiny fraction of criminals who would otherwise be slain.” Litigation fees and witness payment take up the majority of extra money spent on capital cases. The average amount of attorney billed hours for a non-death penalty trial case is 120 hours, versus 1,500 hours in a capital or death penalty case. A lawyer in a capital case has many more steps to go through during trial and appeals and more is involved. It is also better to imprison then to execute because while in jail they can rehabilitate and learn skills and if they get to be on parole they can use these skills to do good else where. For example an inmate named Al is serving life for murder in Kent. He has served five years so far, and within those five years he got political over the lack of education system in Edmonton and he also became the Inmate Committee rep. He speaks out for the inmates that are under educated and can’t speak for themselves. Inmates can even get a degree in psychology as another inmate is planning on doing so he can get a job in education to help prevent children from going to jail. Lastly Canada should not reinstate capital punishment because imprisonment is a worse sentence then execution. The sentence for first degree is life imprisonment with no eligibility for parole for 25 years. For second it’s life imprisonment with no eligibility for parole for 10-25 years. And manslaughter, the judge can sentence someone convicted of manslaughter to any term they thing is right – anywhere from a number of months to a maximum of life. But, by serving the number of years required to reach eligibility isn’t a guarantee that an offender will get parole. Some may get a consecutive sentence where the sentences run separately and begin one after the other. For example, an offender who is sentence...