In the United States there have been major concerns over using the death penalty because of the erratic use of it in the past. “The forty-three persons who were involuntarily executed from 1982 to 1985 were among a death row population of more than 16000 condemned to execution out of about 20,000 who committed non-negligent homicides per year” (Greenberg

This may make life imprisonment look like the better alternative now. However, there is a drawback to this idea of life in prison without parole. Sometimes the laws change and criminals who were sent to prison for life were getting out on parole. Imagine if your child were raped and killed found floating in a river. When the killer was caught, you decided that life in prison without parole would be better than killing him. However, in about seven months the system changed and he was up for parole every two years according to the new law. He convinced them that he was “rehabilitated” and was released. Between that time and his next arrest he had claimed five more innocent lives. Looking back are you glad you did not seek the death penalty for this murderer or are you distraught because more people had to die because he was released? This is just an example of many of the things that have happened when the laws and policies change. This shows that maybe life in prison without parole is not always going to mean exactly that. Also, it now makes one wonder what is the better alternative. Putting someone to death is a moral and controversial issue, but it is hard to decide if that is worse than taking the chance of having that person take more lives due to that decision.

Public opinion is something that matters when it comes to the government. As something that is representative of what the people feel, it is necessary to listen and take what they say into account. The wording of the questions can persuade people to answer a certain way, but the reality of it is that most Americans are in favor of the death penalty. Especially when they are asked after a highly publicized, vicious case or terrorist action (Potas and Walker 2). The Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics shows a slight drop in the percentage of people who are in favor of the death penalty when committing the act of murder. In 1982 seventy-four percent said that they favor capital punishment versus the sixty-three percent that said they support it in 2000. There is also evidence that white people more readily favored the death penalty than black people or other races every year since at least 1978, however, all races favor capital punishment more than they oppose it (144-145). This information is hard to ignore, therefore it would be difficult for our society to get rid of something that the people of the country feel strongly about. There was another poll taken to ask the people why they favor the death penalty and almost 50% of the people responded with “an eye for an eye/they took a life/ fits the crime” (147). This is something that the criminal justice system would have to accommodate for if they were to abolish the death penalty. There would have to be another punishment so severe as to say that it fits the crime that was committed.

Capital punishment has been shown above to not deter murder, as the public is lead to believe, nor is it less expensive than holding someone in prison for life, it only fits what the public believes.. Especially since the public feels that capital punishment is a good way to make people pay for what they have done. There are a few things that could help the death penalty be more of a deterrent to criminals. If the criminal ju

Some topics in this essay:
Punishment People, John Lamperti’s, Potas Walker, Justice Statistics, death penalty, capital punishment, criminal justice, justice system, deterrent effect, criminal justice system, life prison, prison life, drug entered, , punishment death penalty, prison parole, life prison parole, life parole, favor death penalty, capital punishment sentence,