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| Image courtesy of Cardinal Health |
Today we're going to be talking about the death penalty. Yup, the death penalty. Happy times.
In case you didn't know, here are some "fun" facts about the law.
1. It exists in 32 states, including Utah (no surprise there), California, Florida, and Pennsylvania.
2. According to deathpenalty.org, it "costs more to execute a person than it does to keep them in prison for life."
3. Types of capital punishment include hanging, lethal injection, firing squad, gassing, and electrocution.
4. The South, a region with 80% of the countries executions, has the highest murder rate in the US, although that might be due to the fact that the South is the poorest region in the country.
5. The number one reason people are executed is murder (deathpenalty.procon.org).
I personally ere towards the side of getting rid of the death penalty, however, I think my opinion would be different if I'd had a family member or close friend who'd been murdered. Often times, people feel closure when the murderer of their loved one is put on death penalty and killed. However, some people don't feel that way; they believe that's it's dishonoring the memory of their loved one by killing another.
Since their are so many pros and cons to this issue, I think the best way to lay out the facts is to list them. Here it goes:
PROS
1. The death penalty may prevent would-be murderers from killing someone due to knowledge that the decision could cost them their life.
2. As previously mentioned, death-row can give justice to the victim's family.
3. Death-row not only brings justice to the victim's family, but it brings justice overall. Murders do horrible things, and deserve to be correctly punished for their actions.
CONS
1. Death penalty trials are more expensive than keeping someone in prison for life. Some sources suggest that it could be as much as two million dollars more out of taxpayer pockets.
2. Many question if the eighth amendment (which prevents torture) makes the death penalty illegal. A recent execution resulted in what many witnesses called an "agonizing scene." Other executions have also resulted in similar situations.
3. There is a possibility (some statistics suggests 4%, others 12.5%), that a person on death row is found innocent. You can't bring people back from the dead, and killing an innocent person is seen
But the overall solution to this all is... EDUCATION! People who graduate high school are significantly less likely to end up in federal prison. So by putting more money in education and encouraging kids to graduate, we keep our country safe. Yay!
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