Death Penalty Argumentative Essay

Richard Ramirez’s trials alone cost California 1.8 million dollars before coming to an end by his death. Ramirez was costing taxpayers millions for 23 years before he died ending the financial burden. Financial costs to taxpayers from the death penalty are several times that of keeping someone in prison for life (Messerli). The death penalty combines the costliest parts of both punishments, lengthy and complicated death penalty trials, followed by incarceration for life. Everything that is needed for an ordinary trial is needed for a death penalty case, only extra.

Being on death row often prolongs the pain for the inmate. They spend their time in prison fearing the inevitable which for them is death. Today, we live in a society that is very divided on this issue. There are many in support of the death penalty, suggesting that it acts as a positive deterrent against future crime. There are also many

“‘Death sentences represent less than one-tenth of 1% of prison sentences in the United States…,’” (Von Drehle, 9). Furthermore, death row is just a small fraction of the criminal justice system and can not be based on that alone. For instance, what many don't take into account is the justice systems allows for many states, such as the populous state of New York, to ban the death penalty. (state laws, p1)

Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, and the debate about its abolition is the largest point of the essay written by Steve Earle, titled "A Death in Texas”. This form of punishment should be abolished for 3 reasons; First, It does not seem to have a direct effect on deterring murder rates, It has negative effects on society, and is inconsistent with American ideals. To begin, the death penalty is unnecessary since it is ineffective at deterring rates of murder. In fact, 88% of the country's top criminologists do not believe the death penalty acts as a deterrent to homicide, according to the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. In opposition, supporters may argue that it may indeed help to deter murder rates as they have

The costs of capital murder trials are more expensive than other murder trials for many of reasons. Often in murder trials where the death penalty is not being sought, the case never goes to trial and the offender pleads to a lesser degree of murder such as second degree murder or manslaughter. Depending on the location in the country, a prosecutor may be swayed politically or by the victim’s family to agree to life in prison without the possibility of parole. What makes a capital murder trial so expensive is “the high cost of crime scene investigations, pretrial preparations and motions, expert witness investigations, jury selection, and heightened death row security and maintenance costs” (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015, p. 493). The overall

Even if you're sentenced to death, you're probably not going to get executed. That's why it's not a deterrent,”(Horn). People don't even see the death penalty as a punishment so people aren't afraid of commiting crimes. With how dangerous prisons are with overcrowding they are just costing more money for providing the medical attention the inmates need. ” There have been any number of reports about overcrowded and dangerous prisons, and while the Commission presented its conclusions and recommendations to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, it's not clear what - if anything - will come of that,”(Horn).

The Attorney General alone donates 15% of his budget, to death penalty cases. Maintaining each death row prisoner costs taxpayers $90,000 per year. It cost more than $31,000 to keep someone in prison for a year. The most recent report is that only fifteen states have gotten rid of it all together. These states being Alaska, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

  Just in my state of Tennessee alone the trial average for a death penalty sentence is 48 percent higher than what it is for the typical life sentence trial (Tennessee Treasury Report, 2004).When you look into going to trial to prosecute someone for the death penalty it just gets more expensive year after year.   The fact is that you have to pay more attorneys, more experts to go over the files, and more time is put into making sure that all things are in order (Chammah, 2016).   You are paying multiple attorney's, defenders, judges, clerks, and juries to insure that every detail is covered within

What is the difference in price between keeping people in jail without parole and executing the death penalty? The cost of executing someone who is on death row depends mostly on what state they are in and what method is being used. The cost of it is said to be higher than keeping someone in jail without parole, but this is mostly because the person who is going to be put on death row goes through a very complex judicial process. This includes many trials and every aspect of the case is examined to make sure that the evidence is correct. Things like DNA testing are used to make sure the evidence is accurate and is something that is very costly.

“The death penalty is more expensive than life without parole because there is a long and complex judicial process for capital cases” (“Death Penalty Focus: The High Cost of the Death Penalty”). The process is complex and long in order to guarantee that innocent people are not executed. Still, there are some cases where innocents are tried and found guilty. According to the article “Costs of the Death Penalty” “The average cost of defending a trial in a federal death case is $620,932, about 8 times that of a federal murder case in which the death penalty is not sought”. There are several expenses to be paid by the state in a capital case.

Former Harris County District Attorney Johnny Holmes sought the death penalty as often as possible. It is record that after he left the office the number of death sentences as reduced drastically. The reasoning makes sense because of course the elected officials are here to serve the public, however they should not allow their egos and personal career stand in the way of giving out proper sentences to those that are

Although the death penalty may bring some closure to families of the victims and even the victims themselves it still should be abolished because the negatives outweigh the positives. People could be murdered by the state even if they are innocent. They are taking away any chance these people have at a normal life even though it's a life that they deserve and did nothing to have it taken away. 6. Conclusion

Each death penalty case in Texas costs taxpayers about $2.3 million. That is approximately three times the cost of imprisoning somebody in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years. That is crazy! The government could actually do something good rather than something flawed and hypocritical. Taxpayers complain about paying taxes.

The cost of the death penalty is ridiculous. Mainly the death penalty is against colored. The cost of the death penalty is far more expensive than the criminals that are in jail for life. Death of innocent people is caused by the death penalty, the government has mistakenly killed several people because they didn’t find enough evidence to prove innocent but after the death of the victim the government notice they had killed wrong, could you bring the dead back? Do people really deserve to die?

Not only for the criminal, but for the executioner. This has been a long issue over many years. Hanging was the way to execute a criminal starting in the 1800‘s then there was the gas chamber, firing squad, electrocution, and lethal injection. Over the years they keep chaning due to the inhumanity of each of them. The effect they have on the