The electrode was then refastened and Mr. Evans was given another 30-second jolt. The stench was nauseating. Again the doctors examined him and found his heart still beating. At this time the prison commissioner, who was talking on the line with Governor George Wallace of Alabama, was asked to cancel the execution on the grounds that Mr. Evans was being subject to cruel and unu

What he is saying in this quote is that a state cannot better society when it is taking part in such a savage and irreversible act as capital punishment.

As long as society chooses to ignore its moral values, and as long as it brings down the value of a human life, capital punishment will remain in use. People must do the research and see for themselves the costs to society, both in dollars and in lives, are far too high. People will always make mistakes, and with the death penalty in use innocent people will die. For these reasons the United States should follow the lead and abolish capital punishment.

Some think that the methods used to convict a murderer with the death penalty are far more costly than they should be, and that the death penalty would be effective if a different approach were taken. This is not true. The long process of conviction is very important due to the fact that the wrongly accused need a chance to plead their cases. If a less expensive approach were taken, more innocent men and women would wrongly die. Time must be taken to find the truth. People cannot be brought back from death. It is easy to unlock a door and free the wrongly accused.

Also, states with no death penalty had a lower average murder rate than those with a death penalty being 4.75 per 100,000 as compared to 6.8 per 100,000 (US Department of Justice, 1999, September 29). However, such a simple comparison can be misleading, because the states within each group have a broad range of murder rates, and there is also a good deal of overlap between rates in the two groups. These studies also imply that no factors other than the death penalty affect a state’s murder rate. That is why most studies comparing homicide rates to executions rates are not accurate (Vila & Morris, 1997, p.278).

What he is saying is that after the death penalty those who are put to death will not be coming back. He wants society to treasure life, not throw it away. Mr. Willis says that if actions and thoughts aren’t changed the cycle of hatred will be unbreakable.

“We kill one person to deter some unknown person, somewhere, from killing… There is no way to counter death but with life—we can mourn those who are lost by saving those who are left, by treasuring life, by literally discrediting the currency of death. Otherwise, the cycle is unbreakable—the displaced people displacing others, the hated hating, the victims victimizing, the friends of the killed killing, and death collecting its debt” (Clay, 1990, p.90).

The truth of the matter is, the United States should cease the use of capital punishment in both federal and state prisons. Capital punishment is immoral and unethical; it degrades society, and lowers the value of a human life. It does not deter murder, it is not economically efficient, and its effects are irreversible. There is not one good reason to keep executing wrongdoers in the United States or anywhere else.

Some topics in this essay:
Gary Wills, War II, Bender& Leone, Vila Morris, Los Angeles, John Evans’, Honeyman Ogloff, Andrei Sakhorov, Wallace Alabama, Burn” Bedau, death penalty, capital punishment, 1999 november, bedau 1999 november, bedau 1999, november 10, 1999 november 10, murder rate, 1999 october 7, bender& leone, 1999 october, october 7, vila morris 1997, 1999 september, 1999 september 29,