By: Mairen Brown
How would you feel if you were put to death for a crime you did not commit or were put to death in an unethical way? You would not feel too good about it, neither did the 1,416 men and women who have died from the death penalty since 1990-2021 or the 186 people who were almost executed that were proven innocent. There needs to be an end put to the death penalty because it violates the constitution, sentences innocent people, and is a waste of taxpayers hard earned money.
The death penalty is a complete violation of the 8th amendment of the United States Constitution. Why? Someone might ask. The constitution states, “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted”. That section of the article means that under no means should a person be hurt or murdered in an unethical or cruel manner. The death penalty completely ignores that because there has been use of, “lethal injection, electrocution, lethal gas, hanging, and firing squad”. Which are all examples of cruel and unusual punishment because of how they kill a person in all unethical ways. In a case in Florida it states, “The U.S. Supreme Court eventually granted certiorari to review the constitutionality of electrocution as practiced in Florida. Florida immediately called a special session of its legislature and changed its method of execution to lethal injection”. After years of using the electric chair, it was finally founded unconstitutional. No person deserves to die in a harmful manor.
Throughout the years there have been many people who were put on death row that were eventually found innocent. According to Death Penalty Information Center, “Since 1973, 186 former death-row prisoners have been exonerated of all charges related to the wrongful convictions that had put them on death row”, Elaborating on the statement, 186 people were wrongly convicted and once they were found innocent taken off death row and all charges were dropped. There was a possible chance that 186 men and women could have been murdered for a crime that they were later found innocent for which is wrong. With the death penalty there could have been nearly 200 innocent people whose lives were taken away from them.
The death penalty does not only affect the people on it, but it also effects tax payers. It has been found that, “When prosecutors continue to seek the death penalty after a death sentence has been overturned, taxpayers have to pay for not just one but multiple capital trials”. When the people on the death penalty go through their many trails taxpayers are the one paying for all of them. Another quote states, “A key study found that the costs of the death penalty are borne primarily by increasing taxes and cutting services like police and highway funding, with county budgets bearing the brunt of the burden”. The death penalty not only increases taxes, but it also takes funding away from things that actually benefit the tax paying people. Taxpayers should be accounted for when they pay taxes and them paying for the death penalty and its trials does not account for them.
As provide there are many downsides to the death penalty. One who might oppose this argument might say, the death penalty should continue because it makes people pay for what they have done. Though that is a good point, it does not necessarily make people pay for what they have done. The inmates dying does not make them pay because it is an easy way of them getting out of living with their poor choices. With the reasons and quotes stated it is clear proof that there needs to be an end put to the death penalty. With more awareness there could be a change to the laws.
