American Literature

Third Hour
Mrs. Horn

The Capital Punishment

Should we reconsider how we
handle the death penalty?
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By Joshua M. Jacobson

One-thousand four-hundred twenty-one, thats how many people had been

executed since 1976 including 2015 up to November 20th, as reported by
deathpenaltyinfo.org. Yet, we have 245,000 people sitting in prison for the rest of
their life. 77,000 of those convicts will never have a chance at parole. Thats at least
77,000 people wasting taxpayers money to live a life that has many of the
impoverished people of the world jealous. Health care, security, food, television,
free-time, exercise equipment, libraries and schooling and or religious teaching are
all this provided to you while in prison. Yes, the capital punishment is a

conversational topic, but it needs to be enforced more often. Our prison system is
too crowded and there are too many high profile criminals sitting in prison using,
taxpayers hard earned money to be given a life with many more luxuries than
hundreds millions of poverty-stricken people in the world.
The world is a harsh place full of terrorists, murderers, rapists, drug lords and
large scale money launderers. These are all people that sit in our prison systems
withering away as we support their existence. These are people who have broken
severe laws, ruined people's lives, and in many cases killed someone or multiple
people. All of these crimes are punishable by life in prison without the chance of
parole. Which means these people will never see the light of day outside of the
prison gates, they wont ever go home, they wont ever live a life outside the prison
walls. However, many americans will still say that these people deserve the right to
live out their lives and not being in horrible conditions. Even if their lives are ones of
the same thing day after day, in the same place everyday, on the same
uncomfortable bed, in the same outfit, eating the same basic food. Human Rights
activists will say that the capital punishment is inhumane and cruel. That it goes
against how humans should treat each other and doesnt correspond with the
foundation in which the United States was founded on. Truthfully though, this logic
makes little to no sense. We are protecting people and paying for those who
committed crimes that not only go against all moral and humane values. But they
also are against the law, and the law is the foundation on which we created this
country. They also claim that the death penalty is far more expensive than
sentencing a man or women to life in prison. This statement is only true due to the
fact that over the years we as a country have made it so complex and hard to carry
out a sentencing of the death penalty. It takes lots of judicial time and money
towards the court, it costs a lot to the family of the one being executed, the people
sentenced with the capital punishment also sit on death row for years and years.
Theyre dumping hundreds of millions of dollars into investigating further the crime
committed by the person on death row, all while paying for the same luxuries and
necessities that those sentenced to life also receive. Proper legal council is also a
huge argument for those people against the death penalty. They claim that we cant
know if the legal council for the defendant is the best possible person to represent
them and present their side of the story properly. The solution to this isnt all too
complicated though. Neither is the way we solve the price of the death penalty.

The death penalty needs to be standardized. There needs to be a strict line

that if you cross you are automatically sentenced to the death penalty. For example,
any person convicted of killing more than one person should automatically be
sentenced to the death penalty. After him or her are sentenced to the capital
punishment they will then be given a team of lawyers. There will be four lawyers
selected from a group of approved lawyers through the federal government. These
four lawyers will then present the case to a new jury and judge than those who
sentenced their client to the death penalty. This new court and jury will then be in
charge of either confirming that said person is guilty to the point where the
punishment is death. Or that the death penalty is not applicable to this case
because the defendant is not guilty of the crimes required to be sentenced to death.
At that point the defendant will be sentenced to life in prison without chance of
parole. Furthermore, if they find the convict guilty of the crimes required to the
death penalty, he or she will be immediately taken to be prepared for death. They
are then given a week to say goodbye to family and a few friends before theyre
given a lethal injection.
This process of the death penalty will not only solve many of the problems
that occur. It will also allow us to make sure people like murderers, rapists, and
terrorists are no longer able to impact the prison life or the outside life. The death
penalty needs to be enforced because our prison system is overcrowded. We release
prisoners early each and every year due to overpopulation. In California alone
46,000 inmates were released early last year. 2,000 of those inmates where people
serving time for things such has 2nd degree murder, rape, and assault in the first
degree. These 46,000 people could have been kept in prison and off our streets if
we had only sent those with a life sentence to death row. People like Gary Ridgeway
or The Green River KIller. Gary Ridgeway is now serving life in prison in the state of
Washington for killing at least 46 people, with an estimated amount as high as 90
people. He would kidnap, rape and kill prostitutes and did so for over 20 years. He is
not being sentenced to death row even though he took the lives of so many and
impacted the lives of at least 46 families and countless amounts of friends. He is
only the beginning to a long list of high risk criminals that are sitting in the prison
system. These high risk criminals are put into the same area in most cases as
people who will eventually be released and have enough contact to the outside
world to still run the risk of making a negative impact. These serial murderers and
rapists are able to share ideals and teach techniques to people who will be released

from prison. Drug lords in many cases are able to run their operations from inside
their prison cell. And these terrorists are able to voice their negative opinions on the
U.S to other criminals that are at a high risk of believing in the same way they do.
To conclude, the capital punishment will only keep our country safer. We need
to rethink how we handle serial killers, terrorists, drug lords and other life sentence
cases. The fact that taxpayers are paying to keep these criminals alive should not
be lawful. A man or woman who has ruined so many lives should not be given any
opportunity to further hurt our country. And the families of those who have been
hurt or killed deserve the peace of mind that person can not harm or help to harm
anyone else. We need to cut down on the population of our prison system and
lower the 74 billion dollars we spend on the prison system and the capital
punishment could help us achieve that.