In modern day society, the death penalty has been long argued about. On one side, people believe that the crimes committed by an inmate should be judged and prosecuted accordingly, even going to the extremes of death if need be. On the other hand, some people believe that life should be valued and that it would be ethically wrong and overall inhumane to take the life of another person. In this article, I will be discussing the pros and cons of the death penalty, as well as give my overall opinion on the topic.

Followers of the right side when it comes to the death penalty generally believe that the death penalty is a serious punishment that should be considered, but not removed. The basis of this is mainly the idea that if a crime is so heinous, such as a mass shooting, treason, or attempted/completed murder of a government official, the perpetrator charged should be subjected to death. The following reasons would be because the criminal should not be fit to ever be released in society, nor should they ever get that chance. Instead of a sentence to life in jail, the judge may decide the punishment to be death, preventing any parole or escape. The sentence of the death penalty would soon occur, usually being done through lethal injection or the electric chair, however, very few inmates are subjected to methods such as gas, hanging, and firing squad. Currently, lethal injection is the primary method of the death penalty, proclaimed to be “quick and painless”, by has the greatest unsuccessful rate, standing at about 7-8%.

On the left, people believe that the death penalty is inhumane, and should be substituted to a life in prison. The idea of this generally derives from 2 ideas, one being that life is sacred and that we shouldn’t kill another human, no matter what they did. On the contrary, the other side thinks that the punishment of death is inhumane, cruel, and unethical, and should be removed from modern day society. Regardless of which idea someone is in tune with, the outcome would be the same, stop or decrease the sentence of the death penalty. As previously stated, the substitution for this would be life in prison, which is considered by some to be a much worse punishment. Likewise, some people believe that the idea of capital punishment is fine, just that the process itself is flawed. These people think that some people do not truly deserve the sentence of capital punishment based on the severities of the crime.

All in all, I feel that the death penalty should still be active, however, it must be given out only in extreme circumstances. The reason behind this is because I feel that it would be more of a burden for the government to stop the death penalty and to continue it. For one thing, prisons would need to keep more inmates in, forcing them to spend more money, which in turn costs the government more money. With the United States already having a massive debt, it wouldn’t be wise to increase it by holding in more prisoners. Secondly, removing a criminal through the death penalty would prevent any possible problem from occurring in the future. If the prisoner was to escape, throw a riot, or do anything frowned upon by the law, property, and lives would be at severe risk. Instead of taking this chance, it would be all the wiser to just sentence the criminal to death.