No Excuse for Murder

“The end does not justify the means.” We are all familiar with the matter of capital punishment and what a controversy it is across the country. I believe the death penalty is an immoral and unnecessary act. Even if capital punishment is meant to be a stand against violence, the action is still wrong. The good intention does not change that in any way. The nature of this issue ties into religion, basic morality, and governmental issues, but beneath all the politics we have to ask ourselves if taking a human life is ever acceptable, no matter how good the intention is. Who are we to decide who lives and who dies?

The facts of capital punishment are finally starting to meet the public’s eye. The death penalty was used to help lower crime and cut prisoner costs, but the healthy motive has been lost. There are no significant decreases in crime rate and it costs more to have a prisoner on death row that to put them with the general population in the jails. As of December 31, 2004 there were 3,282 prisoners on death row. One prisoner a day costs $80 from the U.S. Taxpayer, so it is costs every taxpayer $30,000 per year to care for prisoners on death row. It doesn’t help the matter that prisoners on death row cost three times as much as the general population and are usually held there for an average of ten years while their case is shown to different courts. This is hurting our already injured economy, when there are actions to be made to get to a much needed solution.

Some have already gotten to that solution. Thirty four states in the U.S. allow the death penalty. One hundred thirty seven countries have abolished it, but there is still a long way to go. Some countries even execute minors. Executions have modernized from hanging, to the electric chair, to a firing squad, to lethal injection.

The two sides of this controversy show up in heated debates everywhere. The 7 in 10 Americans that support the death penalty believe that certain crimes are...