No country incarcerates more people than the United States (U.S.). According to Prison Policy the U.S. American Criminal justice system holds more than 2.3 million people in prisons, jails, and correctional facilities. Due to the amount of prisoners, prison overcrowding has become a rising issue threatening the public safety as well as the state budget (Alec). With overcrowded prisons, society is left with no choice but to release prisoners earlier than their original sentencing as to make room for higher offending criminals. Unless people quit committing crimes then something must be done about the prisons. Capital punishment should be allowed in the United States.
How is the death penalty determined as a verdict? Traditionally in federal criminal cases, if the jury (or judge) decides that the defendant is in fact guilty then a date is set for a sentencing hearing (Federal Judicial Center). The jury does not have the ability to decide if the defendant will go to prison, or for how long, the judge has the ability to decide. However, in federal death penalty cases the jury decides whether the defendant will receive a death sentence or not.
Unfortunately, opponents have fought against such a policy. They argue that the death sentence would cost too much; that taxpayers would lose out on a great deal of money. Another argument against the death penalty is that there may be wrongful convictions, which there would be no coming back from. A final argument is that it is inhumane to sentence people to death. It is imagined if the death penalty is upheld then society is no better.
Even though opponents claim that it costs more to carry out a death sentence, evidence says it does not. According to NBC news the death penalty is only a bit more expensive than a life sentence, if the appeals process is taken into account. Yet the cost of the lethal injection itself only costs roughly $1,300 (Huffington Post), compared to that of nearly $43,352 per prisoner per year (NBC). The amount it costs to carry out a death penalty is far less than that of a life sentence. The money that would be used to carry out a life without parole (LWOP) sentence could instead be used to fund police officers. As well as to help integrate non-violent offenders into society.
Opponents believe that many death row inmates may be wrongfully convicted, however there is a lengthy court process to ensure there are no wrongful convictions. According to The National Geographic, Gross stated that the error rate for death penalty verdicts is less than 0.1 percent of the total number of prison sentences. Some may still believe that a >0.1 percent chance is not a good enough answer but considering that the success rate is practically 99.9 percent there really is not much error convicting a person to the death penalty. Also there are very few executions occurring in this day and age. In 1999 executions were at an all time high of ninety-eight executions, yet now in 2016 there have been only 19 executions (Death Penalty Info). The rates have significantly reduced since any prior years and have had a trend of consistently reducing since 1999. For opponents urging that the death penalty can create racism in the system there has been evidence that indicates the number of caucasian death row inmates is that greater than the number of African American inmates, it is also three to twenty times larger than that of its counterpart minorities (Chow, Code Switch).
Although several may suggest a death sentence is morally inhumane, it is no worse than the crimes committed by those offenders on death row. Death row inmates consist of men and women who committed a murder whether it be of a civilian or a U.S official (ProCon, Capital Offenses). According to CNN news in a mere twenty percent of execution cases did the families of the murdered victims state that the execution did not bring them closure. Although twenty percent may seem like a large number, eighty percent is a much larger number and that is the number of the percentage of people who were brought closure by the execution of the murderer. Not only were families brought closure but the U.S. has become safer with homicide rates dropping every year. The U.S. is at a rate of 4.5 homicides out of 100,000 people which is nothing compared to the rate of 11 homicides per 100,000 in prior years when the death penalty was only a concept (Mises Wire).
Opponents at times state that the death penalty or that capital punishment is in direct violation of the eighth amendment. The eighth amendment is a ban on cruel and unusual punishment, but the Supreme Court has ruled that the death penalty does not violate the amendment (Cornell, Legal Information). The amendment does shape certain procedural process that must be followed as to decide if a jury may use the death penalty, as well as how it may be carried out.
People who are willing to go out of their way and intentionally murder another person deserve to have done unto them what they have done unto others. From childhood we learn to treat others as we wish to be treated, which is how the justice system should view capital punishment when convicting murderers. They chose to viciously murder others for their personal reasons not in self defense, therefore they are a threat to society. If capital punishment were to be allowed in the U.S. then society would no longer be threatened with the overcrowding of prisons, society would be rid of the poison of those offenders.
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