Controversy over Whether a Person Should Have the Right to Sentence Another Person to Death Is a Tough Decision to Make

The controversy over whether a person should have the right to sentence another person to death is a tough decision to make. From an opponent's perspective they would say yes it is okay due to the fact that the guilty person committed such a heinous crime that he/she deserves to die. Although in the heat of the moment death seems like the only route to take to make sure that the guilty party pays for what they did, but in reality this person is not going to suffer right away because it takes years to sentence these indecent people to death. My beliefs of why the death penalty is wrong is that it provides the guilty with the easy way out, they do not have to think about their actions that caused them to end up where they are, and it makes it easier on the victim's family since they will not have to go through all the court processes.

People who are pro-capital punishment believe in the statement "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," which simply means that a person who injures another person should receive the same wound for compensation. In my argument I would like to point out that the guilty party does not suffer the exact same wound as the victim, because none of the guilty has ever used lethal injection to put down a victim. Plus it is contradictory to kill someone who has committed a murder to prove that killing is wrong. Another perspective is that it makes more room in prisons for new inmates and helps slow down the overflowing population. This is true that it would cut down on population but if you built anywhere from one to two more prisons then you could house these murders in a controlled environment instead of putting them in another prison where they could get mixed in with other inmates and possibly do harm to them.

The death penalty is not an effective deterrent because most people who commit murder either do not expect to get caught or they do not weigh out the consequences of their actions. Most murders are committed during times of anger or when a person is under the influence of some substance and they are not in their right state of mind. Also a more effective deterrent is to sentence someone to life in prison so they can suffer for their decision making instead of letting them take the "easy way out." Plus it is useless to sentence a person to death because it causes our legal court systems to be backed up with endless appeals and required additional procedures. Furthermore with all the appeals processes that takes place cost taxpayers more money to try this individual than to just sentence them to life in prison. Not to mention eighty-eight percent of the nation's leading criminologists do not believe that the death penalty is an effective means of deterrence to crime (DPIC).

Capital punishment violates the Eighth Amendment of the constitution which states that "cruel and unusual punishment," may not be inflicted on anyone (White). It also violates