Capital punishment is more commonly referred to as the death penalty and happens to be the cause of much controversy over whether or not this should continue being practiced. Death is used as an act of retribution for the person’s crimes or as a way to prevent them from ever committing another crime. It is only used in the most severe cases and only in certain states. Many states and other countries, including all of Europe, have prohibited this use of punishment. There are currently 17 states that have outlawed the practice. The problems with this most commonly are morality, constitutionality, retribution, mistakes, cost, and inequality leading to unfair treatments.
It can be said that capital punishment is immoral because the government should never be the one to decide to take a life. The death penalty actually treats the person accused as being responsible for their own actions and sense of morals and not as if they are being controlled. It honors the idea of freedom that this great nation was indeed based on. When someone commits a crime so awful and when there is no doubt that it was them, it is then made clear that they themselves lack a sense of morality and can no longer be rehabilitated. People often forget prisons are only there to rehabilitate really not to permanently hold dangerous people who have to hope of ever changing.
People often try to argue that prison is a worse punishment for criminals and that death would be a gift. For those people who will never feel remorse for their actions or change keeping them in jail is a gift. In jails those who commit the worse crimes are more respected, the longer someone has been in one of these facilities the more friends and connections they make. These connections make them have an increasingly good time so eventually prison is no longer even a punishment to them it is where they feel the most comfortable and happy. Keeping them locked up ends up being a good thing to them when in actuality they need to be punished and not just simply held. They deserve to have the ultimate punishment and in some cases a better idea of what their victims went through, they deserve to be killed.
Originally getting sentenced to death meant a painful death by burning or flaying alive and of course the guillotine. The practices used today are not nearly as barbaric or painful. These people sentenced to death row are essentially guaranteed much less pain then their own victims. Before a criminal is caught their victims and the families of the victims are forced to live in constant fear of them but when caught and put in jail the victims begin being able to live normal lives again slowly but there will always be a slight sense of fear such as if the criminal gets out due to overcrowding or if there is a prison break and the criminal finds them. For the worst most painful crimes the victims cannot fully recover until the criminal is dead, that is the only way to know for sure he has been punished fully for his crimes and will never be able to hurt the victims or anyone else again.
There is also the argument that death penalty costs more money than simply keeping a prisoner alive. This is true, however, what comes with that price is safety and a step in the right direction to get rid of all the harm in the world. By keeping them alive there is more danger to the outside world and those other criminals inside the jail, by killing a dangerous criminal it may cost more but sometimes the price of being able to sleep soundly is worth it. There is also the fact that if there was simply a donation to help the families of those who have been hurt by the criminal most people not even effected would be willing to donate just to help the innocent and protect their own from the criminal carrying on with his crimes.
It is said that if there is a mistake and they accidentally kill an innocent person there will be no way to fix it. This is also true. What is not said is how long being on death row takes and how many different chances in courts are given. If after all these appeals and long court dates and years on death row there is still an accident after someone is put to death then the problem is not the with death sentence it is the judicial system.
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