The Death Penalty

Term Paper Title	The Death Penalty
# of Words	1521
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	6.08

The Death Penalty

The death penalty is an effective method of punishing criminals who have committed murder.  The death penalty should be used more often so that people will get the hint that they should not kill anyone for any reason, or else they are going to die as well.  If used correctly it could be more cost efficient to just give him or her the chair, than it would to keep them in jail for their whole lives.  I feel that a criminal should be killed the way he killed the victim.  Others will argue that it is hypocritical to kill someone for killing someone else.  They would also argue that the criminals should be given a second chance to turn their lives around.  The death penalty should be used more often to slow down crime or even stop it.
            First of all I feel that if a criminal kills someone, they should be killed the same way the same way they killed the victim.  This theory is called an eye-for-an-eye.  Most states use the death penalty only on very rare occasions.  The states usually only have one type of death penalty such as: lethal injection, the chair, or the gas chamber.  These are all common methods of execution that a state may use to kill a criminal.  I don’t think that any of these methods give the victim any justice.  If the victim was tied up and cut and left to bleed to death or shot a couple of times, then the criminal should die the same way.  By doing it this way the criminals would really learn a lesson, because they would see that other criminals that have committed murder were killed the same way they killed their victims.  This method might detour people from killing other people due to the fact that they know that if they kill someone and get caught they will die the same way they killed their victim.
     Another reason I feel that the death penalty should be used is the fact that jail time just doesn’t scare people.  Some criminals feel that if they murder someone and get caught they can plead no contest or insanity.  By doing this they might not get as harsh a punishment that a person might normally get.  I feel that a criminal has to be scared.  They obviously don’t fear the law because why would you kill someone and be scared of what is going to happen to you.  I feel that if the method of an eye-for-an-eye was implemented then people would not want to kill killed anyone, in fear of being killed themselves.  If a murder is committed then the criminal should be killed, no questions asked.  Maybe if the criminals know that it would be automatic that they be killed if they kill someone, maybe then they won’t kill in the first place.
     Another reason that it is not a good idea to sentence people to life in prison is that it is too expensive.  The state has to pay for the criminal to sit in jail their whole life.  If the criminal murdered someone when they were only thirty-one, then it is most likely that the criminal will be in jail for a really long time.  This adds up to a lot of money after about ten years, let alone thirty or forty years.  The conventional death penalty can get to be expensive as well; the criminal may remain on death row for a number of years before they actually will be killed.  It would cost much less money if the criminal was killed the same way they killed the victim, and as soon as it happened.  If a person killed someone by shooting them, the state has to pay for all the expenses to lock him up.  They also would then have to pay for the punishment, whether it is life in jail or the death penalty, it will turn out to cost thousands and thousands of dollars.  Compare that to the price it would cost if the method of an-eye-for-an-eye were used.  If the person killed someone by shooting them, then they need to be shot themselves.  If the person was to be shot it would cost a great deal less.  The cost of a bullet is only about ten cents.  This is a huge difference that would benefit the taxpayers.  The extra money could be use towards education or even go towards helping to eliminate the national debt.  It costs about $...

Read entire document