Death Penalty Essay: Argumentative Essay Sample

Can the Death Penalty Be Effective?

You'll find so many debates concerning the death penalty, as the opinions on this topic differ in various countries of the world. Most countries have abolished the death penalty, but you may still find countries where it is used. The effectiveness of the death penalty can be measured by the rates of crimes that demonstrate that method of punishment does not decrease the number of criminal acts.

The primary goal of the death penalty would be to decrease the amounts of abhorrent crimes in the world. But the statistics show that it does not have as many results as expected. For example, among the 25 states of the US with the highest crime rates, the death penalty is legal in 20 of them (Tures). If the death penalty was a highly effective method for the prevention and decrease of crime, the statistics would demonstrate that states with the death penalty would have lower crime rates. Conversely, the statistics show the opposite result, which means that it generally does not have high effectiveness. Today, capital punishment most likely has other goals, such as revenge. It violates human rights, which is why an increasing number of people are from this type of punishment.

There is absolutely no evidence that the death penalty works well for preventing criminal acts. However , it really is proven that we now have numerous disadvantages when it comes to this sort of punishment. For example, there is always a chance that the one who is punished by death penalty is innocent. The statistics demonstrate that in 2017 there have been 137 prison inmates released because of their innocence (Sampathkumar). There is absolutely no statistical data about the amount of people killed due to their criminal acts, but there is the chance that an innocent person may become the victim of the death penalty. There is information that 4% of people executed by death penalty are innocent, and for that reason, it is essential to abolish this sort of punishment in every countries of the world to be able to prevent the cases of killing innocent people (Goodman). Also, the death penalty is really a problem which costs money for the united states. For example , the common cost of the case is nearly $2. five million (Goodman). The money allocated to the death penalty might have been used for more important goals, such as saving the lives of other folks and helping homeless and disabled kids. Also, the death penalty has a negative effect on African American culture. For instance, African Americans constitute around 13% of the populace in the US, however the percentage of death row prisoners that are black is just about 50 (Goodman). It demonstrates that there is an increased possibility for a black person to be executed than for a white person. These disadvantages ought to be the motivation for governments of most countries to help make the death penalty illegal.

The death penalty is one of the cruelest types of criminal punishment, which can be performed by using different techniques such as hanging, electrocution, and lethal injections. It would be possible to say that the death penalty is an efficient method of prevention of abhorrent crimes if the statistics showed that it decreased the number of criminal acts. But there is no proof the effectiveness of this sort of punishment, yet there are numerous disadvantages to this process.

Works Cited

Goodman, Paul. “The Pros and Cons of the Death Penalty. ” Soapboxie, 2018, https://soapboxie.com/government/Death-Penalty-Pros-and-Cons.
Sampathkumar, Mythili. “Record Number of Innocent Prison Inmates Released This past year Over Misconduct by Police, Prosecutors or Government Officials. ” The Independent, 2018, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/prison-innocent-police-misconduct-prosecutors-inmates-released-exonerations-2017-a8256521.html.
Tures, John. “Does the Death Penalty Decrease the Murder Rate? ” HuffPost, 2017, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-a-tures/does-the-death-penalty-re_b_13362760.html.