Capital punishment, the legally authorized killing of someone as punishment for a crime. Capital punishment is not intended to discipline convicts. The debate of capital punishment in the United States has been going on for hundreds of years. Supporters of the death penalty often say things like how it provides justice and retribution, but who's really paying the price. Each execution cost roughly $2.5 million and $5 million. Not only the ridiculous cost of executing these convicts but the prisoners on death row stay on death row for 10 to 30 years before they actually get put to death. There are 36 states with the death penalty, and they have to change for us to move forward in our society. These states need to abolish it due to the fact it has risk of punishing the innocent, is unethical and brutal, and is an ineffective deterrent of crime because of the alternative life in prison. .
There will always be a problem with punishing the not guilty. Since 1973, roughly 88 innocent people have been removed from death row after evidence of their innocence arose. In that same time period, over 650 people have been put down. After the execution of a prisoner there is no going back. For every seven people executed there is one innocent death row prisoner that is killed. Killing is wrong especially when the so called death row inmate has not committed the crime they are being punished for. People are not perfect, people will always make mistakes. Human error has caused many mistakes involving death row prisoners. People should not be able to determine whether or not someone gets sentenced to death. Since 1973, Florida alone has had 25 exonerations, the most out of the 32 states that allow the death penalty. The innocent lives that have been taken with the approval form government should be enough to end capital punishment once and for all. Generally, the more you do something the better you get. However, in 2014 seven people were exonerated due to new evidence or DNA testing.
