Discussion Board

Discussion Board

Death Penalty

Death penalty is an ineffective lead towards the reduction of crime, not only costing significantly greater than what would have been the cost if the convict was simply sentenced to prison, but also the worst risk that comes attached with death penalty is the risk of executing innocent people (Bright, 1996, pp. 1223). The worst consequence could be the error in judgment on part of relevant authorities. For instance in the year 2004 in state of Texas, an innocent by the name of Cameron Todd Willingham was sentenced to death penalty and subsequently executed allegedly for putting up fire that burned his children to death. Modern forensics indicates that it was not intentional rather the fire was an accident. Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) has been indicated to be available quite rarely in homicidal cases and hence guarantee against the execution of innocent people could not be attained. Even though, if someone who is convicted is later found to be innocent, could be released from prison, however the same cannot be released if he has been executed and buried.

Crime reduction (deterrence)

Death penalty does not primarily create any sort of discouragement thereby fails to effectively stop criminals from committing murder. It is evident in continuously increasing homicidal rates particularly in states and territories where death penalty is followed as compared against those where it is not enacted. This is evident in the recent FBI data.

Keeping killers off for good

Life without parole, which is seen to be on books in around 49 states (excluding Alaska), is also seen as significantly effective in prevention against reoffending. Furthermore, 23 out of 24 hours spent being locked up in a cell could not be considered as a picnic as well. It is effective than death penalty as it also costs less than ...