This is one of four articles that was chosen by Scroll Editors from a seventh grade writing competition in Mrs. Dyer’s English classes. All students were required to write an article about a topic they had an opinion on. The competition was modelled after a student editorial competition in The New York Times. From all four sections of that class, 17 articles were picked by the seventh-grade students as the best and sent to The Scroll without names. The 17 articles were then narrowed down to four by opinions editors Dom Alberts and Charlie Gorrivan. The articles were then ranked from first to fourth by the entire editorial staff.
Imagine living the rest of your life knowing you took somebody’s else’s away from them. This should be the life of a murderer. Cramped up in a dark gloomy cell with barely any human contact. This should be the life of a murderer. A murderer should not miss out on feeling the guilt of the crime they have committed. A murderer does not deserve the easy way out of their punishment. They should have the burden of guilt with them for the rest of their life. Firstly when a criminal receives the death penalty he is technically receiving a ‘get out of jail free card.’ He is getting out of a lifetime’s worth of pain, guilt and misery which he would receive in prison. Secondly the death penalty is also expensive. For one to receive the death penalty it costs $1,260,000. The money could be spent on education, building schools, hospitals, insurance and helping the homeless make their lives more secure. The final problem with the death penalty is that there will always be a possibility the “criminal” was innocent. Once they are dead they are gone forever. If the death penalty is abolished then people will feel the pain and the guilt of the crime they committed.
With the death sentence, murderers don’t receive a fair punishment. Spending decades in prison is a horrible fate worthy of the crime, whereas with the death penalty murderers receive an ‘easy’ exit death. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) states, “Prisoners condemned to die in prison are not given any special treatment and, in fact, have less access to programs than other prisoners.” People who have committed murder deserve far less privileges than others. They have committed an abominable act, they should feel similar pain. ACLU also states “Spending thirty years there, growing sick and old, and dying there, is a horrible experience.” Living in prison growing sick and old is what murderers deserve, sitting in a cell for years remembering what opportunities would have been possible if they had not taken someone’s life and future away. In addition, life in prison without parole is a far cheaper option than the death penalty.
The death penalty is expensive. Deathpentalty.org claims; “The death penalty is much more expensive than life without parole because the Constitution requires a long and complex judicial process for capital cases.” Not only is the death penalty an unfair punishment but it costs $1,260,000 just to kill one person using the death penalty whereas life imprisonment costs $740,000 per person. So not only does the criminal get a “easy punishment” but it also costs the taxpayer almost twice as much to fund a capital punishment due to legal and administrative costs. These costs are so high because the court goes through a long, arduous process of evaluation to determine if the criminal is truly truly guilty. Deathpenalty.org also states, “This process is needed in order to ensure that innocent men and women are not executed for crimes they did not commit.” So with the death penalty, not only is the criminal relieved of his guilt but money is being wasted. Money that could be spent on education, funding better medical care and helping the homeless, making America’s society better.
Finally with the death penalty there is the issue of wrongful execution.“ Almost four percent of U.S. capital punishment sentences are wrongful convictions” as cited by Time.com. Mistakes can happen. Is it any different if society kills an innocent man (murder) than if a murderer kills an innocent person (murder). Ray Krone spent ten years, three months and eight days in prison, convicted of murdering a barmaid. DNA proved that he had not killed the barmaid. Now he helps to run a charity called witness to innocence. Ray claims, “we can’t have a penalty that it not reversible.” Ray was on the verge of receiving the death penalty for a crime he never committed.
Ronaldo Cruz is another example of a man who almost had his entire future taken away from him because of a crime he never committed. Deathpenalty.org claims that Ronaldo was released due to “another man had confessed to the crime shortly after his conviction.” Just like Ray’s, Ronaldo’s life was almost taken away from him due to a crime he never committed. “Approximately one hundred twenty of the 3,000 inmates in Americare are not guilty” (time.com). So a hundred twenty innocent people are about to be murdered. A hundred twenty are going to grow, and are going to grieve over the murder of an innocent person.
Real murderers should feel the pain they have caused, growing sick and old in a vile prison. Millions of dollars are lost executing a living human being where such money could be used to make America a better place.
The possibility of wrongful death penalty conviction, the execution of someone who is innocent puts makes us murderers too. Overall it is clear America should abolish the death penalty because killing 120 innocent people is despicable.
