Nadani Jawahir 

Professor Moser 

Composition of individual & Society

2 November 2020

Death Penalty

 

      Death Penalty, also called Capital punishment, is an act by the state where a convicted criminal is killed by the government as a penalty for a crime that they have committed. Crimes that are punishable by death are called capital crimes or capital offenses, and they usually include offenses such as homicides, treason, war crimes, offenses against humanity, and genocide. The general question is, how does the death penalty affect society and the economy? The death penalty should be abolished in every state in the U.S because it is expensive and the money used can go to reforming the system. But more than that, innocents are often wrongfully convicted. Lastly, and most importantly, why should we take a life? It is the same as committing a crime. 

 

How Does the Death Penalty Affect Society?

          In the present society, some may believe that capital punishment is an acceptable form of capital violations. From the beginning of the death penalty’s existence, it has been a debatable subject in light of the fact that every individual has a different perspective on the topic. Many have lost friends and family who endured and feel capital punishment is the upright discipline, the best type of vengeance, or even kind of conclusion. Notwithstanding, there are thinkers who contend that this is a cycle that is tedious, costly, insufficient, and ethically off-base. Likewise, the way that capital punishment can prompt the termination of guiltless individuals is the main source of the question of the general set of laws. The death penalty is significant and indispensable to our general public since it’s something that affects and shapes our overall set of laws. Our overall set of laws is the thing that keeps our general public and lifestyle in order and sorted out. The irregularities that have developed are what make this a subject generally talked about thus disputable. The death penalty is a pointless discipline that is defective and must be changed. The death penalty affects society is mostly a negative way and somewhat a little positive, the next few paragraphs will discuss these ways and how it impacts society.

 

Pros

         Some reasons identified by people in favor of the death penalty in society include deterring crimes and criminals, helping family’s with closure, a way of justice for cases of murder, and that capital punishment is also made quick, easy, and painless. According to the article, “The Pros and Cons of Death Penalty,” Paul Goodman, the researcher, states “It (death penalty) deters criminals from committing serious crimes” (Goodman). The author stated that the death penalty gets rid of criminals, thus serious crimes would decrease. This is important because fewer crimes are better for society, with fewer crimes and criminals we are a step closer to peace in society and a step closer to utopia, which is the main goal of our society. Goodman also explains that victims of the families of the victims get closure when the criminal is held accountable for their actions through the death penalty. It helps with their suffering and appeases their pain. Some people also argue that the punishment for crimes such as murder and rape is not justifiable and should that it should be more severe. Therefore, the death penalty is the only way to provide justice for the victim. Goodman seems to agree with this claim as he states that the death penalty serves and expands justice. It is also mentioned in the article that the death penalty comes in a variety of forms therefore it can be very humane, easy, quick, and painless. The death penalty can be performed in a form of hanging, lethal injection, electrocution, gas chamber, and firing squad. Lethal injection is the primary method for capital punishment in the U.S now. As some people believe that the death penalty serves justice, others believe that it is a waste of time and serves society no form of help.

 

Cons

          The cons of the death penalty are that it is very immoral for people and society. Many people disagree with the death penalty because they believe that death is a short way out of this world, and a short way out of the punishment that criminals deserve. For example, in the documentary “American Murder: The Family Next Door” directed by Jenny Popplewell released in September 2020, the husband, criminal, who kills his children and wife is sentenced to prison for life, instead of the death penalty because the judge believed that by killing the criminal we also become criminals and that his punishment of life sentence would be as cruel as his crimes. Some also believe that we as a society are better, instead of becoming criminals ourselves, we serve justice humanely by imprisoning the criminals. In the article “Should we abolish the death penalty?” Engle states,  “I know people think an eye for an eye, but if you rape, we don’t rape…And I think if someone kills, we don’t kill. We’re better than that” (Engle). The main moral of the argument is that if the fire is fought with fire, it only grows. In the article “Opinion | The Death Penalty Is Unworthy of America” the Editorial Board states “at least 19 of the 22 prisoners who were executed this year had one or more of the following impairments: significant evidence of mental illness; evidence of brain injury, developmental brain damage, or an IQ in the intellectually disabled range; or chronic serious childhood trauma, neglect, and/or abuse.” (Editorial Board) The author included this in his/her article is to inform us that these prisoners are suffering mentally and the system causes more suffering by just killing them. Although the death penalty impacts society in general, it also affects the economy, specifically, in a great way.

 

How Does the Death Penalty Affect The Economy?

        The death penalty impacts the American economy, but the negative impact outweighs the positive. It’s a financial drain on governments with as of now gravely drained spending plans. It is a long way from a public pattern, yet a few officials have started to think again about the significant expense of death row. States squander a huge number of dollars on winning capital punishment decisions, which require a second preliminary cost that includes new observers, and long jury determinations. An inmate on death row takes about 15-to-20-year bids measure, however, disposing of the death penalty would be undemocratic and would increase the number of honest individuals put to death. Moreover, most of the expenses are in the hearings of the case because of all the legal work, lawyers, etc. The effect of the death penalty in the economy also has benefits and negative effects. 

 

Cons

       Some of the negative effects are that the capitalistic system of America is desperate for money and they would highly do anything to gain more money. In the NYT article “Should We Abolish The Death Penalty?” the author talks about the cost of the death penalty and how the government should use the money towards something more helpful to society. The author states, “Capital punishment is very expensive… so if you choose to spend money on capital punishment you are choosing not to spend it somewhere else” (Engle). Although he acknowledges that the death penalty prevents 3-18 murders, according to studies, he continues to argue that if the money spent on the death penalty were spent on people and neighborhoods, their safety would be insured, and crime rates would decrease long term.

             Most of America’s population believes that the death penalty costs an extreme amount of money. Also, the process is also extremely long and they believe that the money should be spent on something that could evolve society instead of corrupting it more. In this Washington Post article, the author states, “the death penalty is expensive, unfairly implemented and unworthy of a justice system that strives for equal application of the law. Yet even if it could be applied fairly, state-sponsored killing would be unworthy of a nation founded on the principle of individual dignity” (Editorial Board). This concludes that the money spent on killing an individual should be used on making the system a better one by implementing plans and ways to help an individual deal with their mental problems, leave them on the right path and reform them. In the article “Does Death Penalty Save Lives? A New Debate” the author states “A single capital litigation can cost more than $1 million. It is at least possible that devoting that money to crime prevention would prevent more murders than whatever number, if any, an execution would deter.” (Liptak) This quote from the article shows that performing one single exoneration costs more than a million, and we should spend that money and do more meaningful methods to prevent crime. In addition to cons, there are some pros that people consider for the impact that the death penalty carries on the economy. 

 

Pros

           Some may believe that there is no positive impact on the death penalty on the economy, there is but the negative outweighs it.   In the research article “An Economic Analysis of the Death Penalty” the author states “The economic benefit of the deterrence hypothesis, if it holds true, is the value of an avoided murder. Society benefits from fewer murders because overall protection costs may decline as the murder rate decreases.” (Kasten) By using the death penalty as a form of punishment, people will be scared to commit murders, and it also kills criminals that committed murders before. Therefore, the murder rate will decrease and the cost for production will also decrease, leaving the economy to rise. The author also stated, “Some third parties who are not directly involved with each death penalty case would benefit from a capital punishment statute. Families of victims who were murdered often fall into this category. These families receive some level of restitution and increased utility when the executions occur if they believe that justice has prevailed. This emotional relief by the victims’ families can be categorized as a benefit because these families are willing to pay to have the murderer executed.”  (Kasten) This piece of evidence is explaining that if the family pays for the cost, it will not affect the economy and most family who likes closure and revenge pays for the death penalty of the convict. Overall, although the effects of the death penalty can be doubted, the negative effects seem to weigh more than the pros.

             All in all,  the death penalty affects society and the economy both positively and negatively, but the negative outweighs the positive. The economical effects especially seem to harm society as it is costly to perform the death penalty on an individual. The effect of capital punishment on society as a whole can be debated since it is removing criminals and reducing crimes, however, if a fire is treated with fire, it’ll only grow. The treatment these people are getting is inhumane, but the ignorance of people doesn’t let some people on both sides of the boat. The option of having these people imprisoned in any case will allow these people to pay for the bad things they did. Therefore, the death penalty should be banned in all states of America.

 

Bibliography

Berlinger, Joe “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile”  24 July 2019 Accessed 14 Oct. 2020 

Board, Editorial. “Opinion | The Death Penalty Is Unworthy of America.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 1 Jan. 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-death-penalty-is-unworthy-of-america/2020/01/01/1b0be1c6-2c05-11ea-bcd4-24597950008f_story.html 

Engle, Jeremy. “Should We Abolish The Death Penalty?”. New York Times, NYT.The company,2019 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/20/learning/should-we-abolish-the-death-penalty.html 

Goodman,Paul.Soapboxie.Com,2020, https://soapboxie.com/government/Death-Penalty-Pros-and-Cons 

Kaplan, Aliza, and Peter Collins. “The Death Penalty Is Getting More And More Expensive. Is It Worth It?”. The Conversation, 2002, https://www.google.com/amp/s/theconversation.com/amp/the-death-penalty-is-getting-more-and-more-expensive-is-it-worth-it-74294. 

Kasten, Martin. “An Economic Analysis Of The Death Penalty” By Martin Kasten”. Digitalcommons.Iwu.Edu, 1996, https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/uauje/vol1/iss1/2/. 

Liptak, Adam. “Does the Death Penalty Save Lives? A New Debate” Tony-Silva.Com, 2007, http://tony-silva.com/download/deathpenaltystudy-nyt.pdf  Accessed 13 Sept. 2020 

Popplewell, Jenny. American Murder: The Family Next Door. 2020.