The Death Penalty – Ethics 1 page Essay
The death penalty is enforced by 38 states for different reasons and it is carried out in different methods from state to state. Nebraska has chosen electrocution along with nine other states. The gas chamber is used be five states. Three states execute by firing squad, and hangings are carried out by two states. Lethal injection is the method most commonly used by 37 states, but is an alternative method to every state, accept Nebraska. Every state punishes convicted criminals that commit murder of some degree. Regardless of what the states system of extermination is, a large majority chooses lethal injection.
Since 1976, death row has increased every year until 2000. In 1999, 98 people were executed for the record high. The record high was in 2000, with 3593 inmates on death row and only 85 of these people were killed. In 2002 there was a new record established at 3692 inmates on death row with only 71 executed for the year. This year we are at 3517 inmates on death row, 64 people less than there was in 2001. In 2001 we eliminated 66 lives and we are increasing in numbers again every year.
Since 1976, southern states have killed more people than the rest of the country. Texas alone has completed 38 percent of all executions since 1993. The south is setting at 721 executions and the West, mid West, and the Northeast combined total 156. Presently California has 625 inmates on death row followed by Texas with 453 inmates and ranked number three is Florida with 380. California, Texas and Florida gross over 41 percent of all inmates on death row right now.
Regardless of your race, creed, sex, or color no one is exempt from the death penalty. Whites are 46 percent of the population awaiting execution. Blacks make up 42 percent. Ten percent are Hispanic, and 2 percent are a mix of all others. Only 40 women have been executed so far, 49 are on death row right now. There have been 36 botched executions, but they repeatedly administered the executions until they were successful.
Executions are economically rewarding to the state and taxpayers. On average it costs $38.52 a day to cater and house a convict. It works out to over $14,000 a year. It may cost a lot of money to convict a criminal with the punishment of death, but so does convicting other criminals for scandals and conspiracies. If a convict is only 18 or younger and is sentenced to life, in 25 years the state could save over $350,000 by putting them to death. Since we are putting more people to death every year, we are saving millions.
Some people think the death penalty is wrong or unmoral, but it does many positive things for us. We save money and make more space in prisons. There are more jobs for people to do and that helps the economy. Some may say two wrongs do not make a right, but some of these people deserve much worse than just death. We have executed only one murderer for every 1,600 murders. It is wrong to kill as our law states, but what the state does is very calm and conservative compared to what one has to do to be sentenced to death. A mass murder that brutally rapes and kills only has to feel the prick of a lethal injection needle. Torture is unmoral and illegal by law, but that is what some of these sick deranged mass rapist-murders deserve.
We do not have a choice but to enforce the death penalty in the united state. Capitol punishment breeds fear and the human instinct naturally wants to survive. If you know you have a good chance of being punished with death, you will think twice before you commit to your act. We can not let murderers live out their lives never needing to pay for anything, not having to work, and walking around prison enjoying conversations with other people and visitors. The people that were murdered will never get that chance to do anything ever again, and that’s just not fair. I see no justice in that.