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Christopher Beck Chris Tomlinson Research Paper Rough Draft 27 April 2009 Capital Punishment Capital punishment has taken many forms over time. People have been put to death in the forms of stoning, hanging, guillotine, shooting squad, poison gas, electric chair, and lethal injection. In biblical times, people could be sentenced to death for crimes ranging from simple theft to adultery, and teen misbehavior to getting rid of a rival. Killing someone for these crimes was barbaric, unjust, and unneeded which is why governments have gotten rid of it for the most part (Theosophical University Press). Today the death penalty is abolished in many advanced cultures, but it is still used in the United States for punishing murderers and serial killers. Three thousand two hundred and twenty people were under the sentence of death in the United States in the year 2007 (Bureau of Justice Statistics). Out of all of these people, 37 were executed in 2008 (Bureau of Justice Statistics). Theosophical University press stated that, "Capital punishment is a barbarous survival from a less enlightened and refined age; it is incongruous and incompatible with our present standard of civilization and humanity”. ** Even though criminals have to pay for their crimes, the death penalty should be abolished because the death penalty costs more than life in prison, capital punishment does not deter criminals from killing, and capital punishment causes more problems than solutions. ** Life in prison not only is more humane than the death penalty, but it is also cheaper. Prisoners sentenced to death usually spend 15-20 years in prison before finally being executed. Tax payers still have to pay for them to be in prison as well as the cost to put them through the judicial system. This takes a lot of time and tax payers’ money that is unnecessarily wasted.   Capital punishment does not deter people form killing others. The purpose of a punishment is to prevent people from ever committing the crime, but murders are usually committed in the heat of the moment and the offender doesn’t think of the consequences (Pakhare). The death penalty doesn’t prevent crimes, so it is ineffective and unnecessary. Studies show that states with the death penalty have had a forty-eight to one hundred and one percent higher homicide rate than states without (Bonner and Fessenden). This shows that capital punishment has no, or a negative, effect on the homicide rate. The death penalty has proven to be ineffective in doing the one thing it was supposed to, deter crime. The death penalty makes more problems instead of fixing them. Killing the murderer does not bring back the victims. That problem can never be fixed or solved. Not only will the original victims’ families suffer, but the family of the offender will also have reason to grieve (Pakhare). The families of the criminal given the death penalty are forever mourning and haunted by their relative’s sentence, though they have done nothing wrong. Killing the wrongdoer causes unnecessary pain for that person’s family. Not only that, but all the people involved in convicting the man or woman with the death penalty are involved in killing that said man or woman. "Capital Punishment is itself a premeditated murder. This is unacceptable even it is inflicted by state authority as it lowers the value of life. In fact, such act can only brutalize the society. "Revenge is essential" can become a society attitude. By witnessing such acts, our own mental makeup starts believing that violence is necessary to curb the wrongdoings" (Pakhare). The need to kill to punish killers only brings us down to their level and makes us the thing we are trying to get rid of. Also, if there is a mistaken conviction not only are the people involved guilty of killing themselves, but also are they guilty of killing an innocent man. "Capital punishment is irrevocable, and the errors of justice cannot be rectified. All possibility of reconsideration is taken away. Innocent persons have been hanged, and judge, jury, and the whole legal machinery involved have thereby been made privy to the very crime they sought to punish" (Theosophical University Press). The said people would feel the guilt of killing innocent people and the family of the unjustly executed would feel the act unpardonable. In these ways, Capital punishment can cause more problems than solutions. Capital punishment should no longer be in use because it is an unnecessary cost, it does not prevent the crimes that it is given for, and the killing of a person makes more complications for all those involved. Instead of using an eye for an eye kind of thinking, our government should try to come up with a different punishment that is more beneficial and less appalling. One suggestion would be to put the convict in prison for life without a chance for parole, and while in prison, these convicts would be put to work and the money could be provided to the family of the victims.