The death penalty can provide a deterrent against violent crime.
When many criminologists define deterrence in terms of the death penalty, they are looking at how the
presence of this sentencing can stop violent acts by preventing someone to commit them in the first
place. It becomes a value proposition. Do I want to risk my life because I have a willingness right now to
take the life of another? In that circumstance, 88% of criminologists agree that the presence of the death
penalty is not useful.
The death penalty does not re-victimize the affected family.
There is rightful sympathy or empathy directed toward the family of someone accused of a capital crime.
These people are losing a loved one because of this legal structure. The family of the victim has also lost
someone as well. The person who does not deserve sympathy is the criminal who decided to commit the
capital act (usually aggravated murder) in the first place. When the death penalty is one of the possible
consequences that someone faces for their conduct, then it shields the family of the victim from another
form of victimization.
It eliminates the possibility of an escape and future victims.
Drug lord Joaquin Guzman, better known as “El Chapo,” has a long history of being captured and
escaping from maximum security prisons. In 2001, with the help of guards that he bribed, he escaped in
a dirty laundry cart, and then into the trunk of a waiting Monte Carlo. He hid in tunnels for days when
captured in Mazatlan in 2014. He then escaped through a tunnel in 2015 out of Mexico’s top-security
prison.
The death penalty can execute someone who is possible innocent.
Ever since the United States reinstated the death penalty after a Supreme Court ruling allowed for it as
part of the justice system, over 1,400 people have been executed by the state or federal government.
Courts in the U.S. don’t usually entertain a claim of innocence until after the convicted individual dies of
natural causes or goes through with the execution. There are 15 cases where there is strong evidence to
suggest innocence out of this number, with the latest being Carlton Michael Gary, who was executed in
2018 by the state of Georgia.
The cost to prosecute the death penalty is much higher than other cases.
When the state of Oklahoma examined the differences in cases where capital punishment was the
desired outcome sought with a convictiThere is no going back after the execution takes
place.
When we carry out a death sentence, it is an irreversible sentence. Over 160 people
sent to death row in the United States have either been exonerated of the crime or
released because there was direct evidence of their innocence. Even though a grand
jury must indict someone and then the case and sentencing are both held before
another jury in the U.S., their finding that someone is guilty does not mean the
individual is [Link] rather than life in prison, the overall cost of pursuing the death penalty
was 3.2 times higher. This data is similar to that found in a review of 15 state studies that looked at the
cost of this issue and found that seeking the death penalty raises the average cost of a case by over
$700,000. Even the most conservative estimates from this information finds that there is a $110,000
increase in expense.
Children are sometimes put to death through the use of capital punishment.
There are at least 97 kids who were put to death by capital punishment laws in Iran since 1990. Another
145 child executions have happened in China, the Republic of Congo, Pakistan, Sudan, South Sudan,
Yemen, Nigeria – and the United States.
There is no going back after the execution takes place.
When we carry out a death sentence, it is an irreversible sentence. Over 160 people sent to death row in
the United States have either been exonerated of the crime or released because there was direct
evidence of their innocence. Even though a grand jury must indict someone and then the case and
sentencing are both held before another jury in the U.S., their finding that someone is guilty does not
mean the individual is innocent.