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    Sample Argument Essay Death Penalty

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    jordan maxwell
    The document argues that the death penalty should be abolished for three main reasons. First, there is no evidence that the death penalty deters crime, as states with the death penalty often have higher murder rates than those without. Second, it costs significantly more money to execute someone than to imprison them for life due to legal costs. Third, there is a risk of innocent people being wrongly convicted and sentenced to death due to flaws and biases in the justice system.

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    Sample Argument Essay Death Penalty

    Uploaded by

    jordan maxwell
    53 views3 pages
    The document argues that the death penalty should be abolished for three main reasons. First, there is no evidence that the death penalty deters crime, as states with the death penalty often have higher murder rates than those without. Second, it costs significantly more money to execute someone than to imprison them for life due to legal costs. Third, there is a risk of innocent people being wrongly convicted and sentenced to death due to flaws and biases in the justice system.

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    The document argues that the death penalty should be abolished for three main reasons. First, there is no evidence that the death penalty deters crime, as states with the death penalty often have higher murder rates than those without. Second, it costs significantly more money to execute someone than to imprison them for life due to legal costs. Third, there is a risk of innocent people being wrongly convicted and sentenced to death due to flaws and biases in the justice system.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    53 views3 pages

    Sample Argument Essay Death Penalty

    Uploaded by

    jordan maxwell
    The document argues that the death penalty should be abolished for three main reasons. First, there is no evidence that the death penalty deters crime, as states with the death penalty often have higher murder rates than those without. Second, it costs significantly more money to execute someone than to imprison them for life due to legal costs. Third, there is a risk of innocent people being wrongly convicted and sentenced to death due to flaws and biases in the justice system.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    [INTRODUCTION]

    Imagine you are accused of murder. You are poor so you know that you have a slim
    chance of winning without a good lawyer. There is very little evidence to support that you
    are innocent but still get put to death by lethal injection. Later on, after further research
    and investigation, people found out that you were actually innocent but it’s too late. You
    were killed for someone else’s murder. The disturbing thing is that some people don’t
    have to imagine, they experience. Would you want to be put into this situation? Your
    answer is most likely no. Initially, the main goal of instituting the death penalty was
    primarily to decrease the number of abhorrent crimes committed in the world. To many,
    there is no harsher punishment than death itself; hence, it is the ultimate punishment.
    Individuals that believe in the death penalty believe that capital punishment will deter
    murderers and bring justice to the victims. However, the statistics do not support this and
    in fact shows that it does not have as many positive effects as expected. For this reason,
    the death penalty should be abolished since it does not deter criminals and because it
    costs more money to execute a person than to keep them in jail.

    [FIRST BODY PARAGRAPH: REASON #1]


    Contrary to popular belief, the death penalty DOES NOT deter crime. Deterrence is
    arguably the most expressed rationale for those in favor of the death penalty. The theory is
    that the threat of being executed would be sufficient to cause enough people to refrain
    from committing heinous crimes such as rape or murder. However, this logic is false. For
    example, according to deathpenalty.org, the south has THE HIGHEST murder rate and also
    accounts for 80% of executions. Furthermore, numerous studies and empirical data
    reported from amnestyusa.org continue to show that “States without the death penalty
    continue to have significantly lower murder rates than those that retain capital
    punishment.” These are just some examples that show there are no connections between
    death penalty executions and the deterrence of crime.

    [SECOND BODY PARAGRAPH: REASON #2]


    Another reason why the death penalty should be abolished is the amount of money
    it takes to execute someone rather than keep him or her in jail for the rest of his or her life.
    Did you know that it is cheaper to imprison killers for life than to execute them?
    According to criminal justice degree hub, in Texas alone, “one death penalty case costs the
    state about 2.3 million dollars. This is THREE TIMES higher than what it would cost to
    imprison one inmate in the highest security prison cell available for 40 years! That money
    could be better spent on education for children, housing for the homeless or healthcare for
    those in need instead of spending it on criminals. Also, criminals who are sentenced to
    death are automatically given appeals where additional attorneys, experts and sometimes
    even forensic scientists need to be hired in order to make sure the punishment of death is
    constitutional (deathpenaltyinfo.org.).

    [THIRD BODY PARAGRAPH: COUNTER-ARGUMENT & REBUTTAL ]


    Those who are in favor of the death penalty usually argue that it brings justice to
    victims of the most horrific crimes such as the rape, murder or torture of the most
    vulnerable in our society-children and the elderly. When thinking of these types of crimes,
    it is easy to want to seek the death penalty, which is the ultimate form of punishment.
    However, what many people have not witnessed is how flawed and biased the justice
    system is; our death penalty system treats you better if you’re rich and guilty than if
    you’re poor and innocent. As a result, a stunning number of innocent people have been
    sentenced to death. Furthermore, Convicted “criminals” are often later exonerated from
    death row and found innocent of the crimes they were convicted of. There are many
    factors that drive wrongful convictions such as false or coerced confessions, inadequate
    legal defense, wrongful eyewitness identifications, as well as many more. “According to
    the Equal Justice Initiative, “ A record 111 exonerations in 2018 involved witnesses who
    lied on the stand or falsely accused the defendant. Misconduct by police or a prosecutor
    was involved in 79% of homicide exonerations. Plus, data shows that 87% of black
    exonerees who were sentenced to death were victims of official misconduct. Overall, even
    though horrific crimes deserve to be punished and for victims to seek justice, there really
    is no 100% certainty that the person being sentenced to death is actually guilty of the
    crime.
    [CONCLUSION]
    All things considered, there should be no doubt that it is in The United States’ best
    interest to eliminate the death penalty along with all the risks that go along with it. First,
    the death penalty is ineffective as a deterrent. There is no evidence that it stops crimes
    from being committed. Second, we know that capital punishment costs significantly more
    than life in prison, and lastly, in terms of wrongful convictions, it has also been shown that
    many innocent men and women have been executed for crimes they did not commit
    and/or have been exonerated for the convicted crimes. If most people knew all of these
    facts surrounding the death penalty, it would not be a viable punishment option in our
    society and our country would not continue to be so divided on this issue. The solution
    instead should be life in prison. There are too many things that could go wrong during a
    trial, too much room for error and too much corruption and flaws in the judicial system.
    Life imprisonment would be a better alternative since those who are in fact guilty of their
    crimes can rot in prison for life and those who may have been innocently convicted just
    might have a fighting chance at proving their innocence or being exonerated due to new
    evidence. And who knows, you could very well be the next innocent person accused of a
    crime you didn’t commit and sentenced to death as a result.

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