Putting to death people judged to have committed certain extremely terrible crimes is a practice of ancient standing, but in the United States in the second half of the twentieth century, it has become a very controversial issue. Changing views on this difficult issue led the Supreme Court to abolish capital punishment in 1972 but later upheld it in 1977. Although capital punishment is what the people want, there are many voices raised against it.
People all over the country debate this issue quite frequently. They question the deterrent effect, morality, executions of innocents, and many more. I have heard a lot about the death penalty nd feel that the arguments against it are not at all convincing. Some people argue that capital punishment is morally wrong. They feel that killing some one for their crime is murder. In any dictionary it states that murder is the unlawful act of killing. Since capitol punishment is within the law it is not murder.
Also if executions is murder then prison is kidnapping and charging taxes is extortion. There is a difference between crime and punishment. Are police officers wrong for speeding to enforce the speeding laws? No. They also say that we should value all human life. Even the most despicable. It is because we value uman life so much that we put such a terrible consequence for taking it. One argument states that the death penalty does not deter people from murdering. To abolish capital punishment on this basis would be way off base.
You would also have to get rid of prisons because they do not keep people from committing crimes also. Texas A&M University collected data and the results are horrifying. In 1960 there were 56 executions and 9,140 murders. In 1964 there were 15 executions and 9, 250 murders. In 1969 there were no executions and 14,590 murders. Seven more years without executions and there was 20,510 murders. As you can see the deterrent ffect is there and works very well. As you can see the death penalty is for the common good and it saves lives.
People out there say that the death penalty is wrong, but usually they do not have all of the facts. They have only looked at the “good” parts instead of the whole picture. To do this is wrong. In order to form an opinion one must look into the facts themselves and form their own opinion instead of someone else’s. A crime is only as severe as the punishment that follows it. As Edward Koch once said, “It is by exacting the highest penalty for the taking of human life that we affirm the highest value of human life. “