Legal Executions Cause More Harm Than Good

Too many states in the U.S execute their own citizens. States like California, Georgia, and Nebraska all believe killing an inmate justifies their criminal act and is also suppose to deter crime. The United States practice executing inmates to lower the crime rate, but in 2013 states that utilize capital punishment; their crime rate has increased rather than decrease. Every state in America refuses crime and violence. The use of death penalty subverts state’s values because killing an inmate is violent it self. States and courts that allow and legalize capital punishment do not realize the negativity and harm this “solution of crime,” brings to the table. The death penalty is violent and cruel, it limits rights to inmates, and it’s hypocritical to what states and justice system’s stand, which ultimately causes more harm than good.

The death penalty portrays itself to be cruel, violent, and inhumane rather than a way to achieve justice. It is currently legal to kill an inmate in 31 states by injecting their body with lethal drugs, electrocuting them, and gunning them down. Most people do not realize the cruelness the death penalty has on an inmate. Lethal injection, the most common used method of execution involves 3 inserted needles of sodium thiopental (poison to the body’s veins/arteries) in the neck, arm, and lower body. When the body is injected, the inmate will begin having dramatic seizures, foaming at the mouth, eyes start rolling back, and die within 10 minutes. A prisoner who’s executed by the electric chair receives 2,000 or more volts to the body, while being strapped down to a chair. A prisoner’s eyeballs may pop out, vomit blood and drool, and sometime their body can catch on fire. According to Robert H. Kirshcner, the deputy chief medical examiner of Cook County, “The brain appears cooked in most cases.” Many states do not reveal to their citizens the technical details, when performing these procedures. According to Mayor of Nebraska in 2007, “Every detail of capital punishment should be released to the people in the United States to assure them of what we are really doing to our people.”

Many people in the United States firmly believe in their own rights, especially right that are clearly states in the U.S constitution. The constitution ensures natural rights, which are life, liberty, and property. The death penalty violate and limit an inmate to one of the most important right, anyone believes they should have, the right to life. No matter how the death penalty is carried on, no man should have the power to another’s life. The Universal of Declaration of Human Rights state, “No one shall be subjected to cruel and degrading punishment.” If life is a human right, how can the United States continue to execute people? Michigan became one of the earliest governments in the world to declare the death penalty illegal in the U.S. Governor of Michigan at the time stated, “It’s important to follow and secure the liberty and life of a human being.”

Not only does the death penalty violate human rights, but it also violates what the State and Justice System want, which is to prevent violence and criminal activity. The procedure of capital punishment itself is violent. When electrocuting an inmate with over 2,000 volts or injecting a lethal drug/poison that causes to foam at the mouth, all falls under a violent category. Some witnesses of legal executions have heard a loud and similar sound like bacon or belt buckles rattling. States want less violence but isn’t it violent to hold someone at their will to watch them suffer to their death. Bernice King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter states, “Although I have lost my father and grandfather to murder, I can’t accept the judgment that killers need to be killed, a practice that merely perpetuates the cycle of violence.” It is hypocritical for states to practice a violent punishment, when they themselves do not “stand” for any kind of violence.

Everyone in the U.S needs to understand the harm and defect of the structure of the death penalty system in the country. Many people do not know, most states that allow capital punishment can sentence criminals under the age of 18, in other words juveniles to death. They are teenagers and children that have the potential of still learning what is wrong and right. No person who is immature or mentally inadequate should be put to death. George Stinney, a 14-year-old boy was executed by the electric chair for attempted murder, in 1944, South Carolina. 25 years later, South Carolina reopened the case and found the boy to be innocent. Approximately 5 years later after the young boy was found innocent, the death penalty became fully banned throughout the state of South Carolina.

The Criminal Justice System must realize the death penalty ultimately does not deter crime. A recent study of most leading criminologists in the country found 88% do not believe the death penalty acts a deterrent to homicide. States or justice systems should realize other proper solutions to deter crime, rather than taking an inmates life away. The most obvious and other used solution is giving life in prison. By giving life in prison will still deter or discourage anyone to commit a criminal act again. Although prison is dangerous itself, any inmate would rather take his chance to be in jail, rather than knowing they’re going to be put to death. A study that was done in a California detention facility, found 95% of inmates would rather be sentenced to life in prison, than receiving the death penalty. Police Chief James Abbot of West Orange, New Jersey said, “I..know that in practice, the death penalty does more harm than good. So while I hang on my theoretical views, I stand before to say that society is better off with out capital punishment. Life in prison without parole in a maximum-security detention facility is a better alternative.

It is clear the death penalty brings more negative factors rather positive. Capital punishment is well used through out the United States, currently being legal in 31 different states. It shows violence, unfair rights, cruel, and inhumane to a country that is suppose to defy every one of those factors. States need to realize execution is not the answer to deterring crime, there can be better alternate solutions, like life in prison. No matter what a person had done, no one should have a say on another’s life they should live or not. Capital punishes causes more than good, when serving justice.

Works Cited

McCann, Erickson. “Amnesty International.” Death Penalty. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2015.

“States With and Without the Death Penalty.” States With and Without the Death Penalty. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2015.

Hayworth, Michael. “5 Reasons Some People Think the World Needs the Death Penalty.” Amnesty Australia. N.p., 10 Oct. 2013. Web. 27 Nov. 2015.

“What’s New.” DPIC. Death Penalty Information Center, n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2015.

 McElwee, Sean. “It’s Time to Abolish the Death Penalty.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 8 July 2013. Web. 27 Nov. 2015. 

“What’s New.” DPIC. Death Penalty Information Center, n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2015.

“Methods of Execution.” Methods of Execution. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2015.