• "Capital Punishment"
    “I am against the death penalty. It's a system that has to be perfect. You cannot execute one innocent person." This quote taken from Ralph Nader states one of the many reasons why capital punishment should be outlawed. There is a possibility that you can execute an innocent person. In addition to that, the death penalty should be outlawed because life in prison is a worse punishment, there is evidence that the death penalty actually increases the crime rate, and that it is unconstitutional by violating the 8th amendment.
    To begin with, by using capital punishment, innocent people can be put to death. In fact, it has happened in several cases. One of the most recent cases happened in Texas on February 17, 2004. Newly found evidence suggests that the condemned man, Cameron Todd Willingham, may have in fact been innocent. The debate is still going on today. However, even if Cameron is found innocent, there is no way to reverse his punishment. Next, mentally ill people can be put to death instead of getting the necessary help that could have saved their lives. This is a major concern regarding Capital Punishment.
    Next, it is possible to argue that life in prison is a worse punishment than the death sentence. This is supported by the fact that if you are put to death, the suffering is over in an instant. However, if you were to be sentenced to life in prison, you would have to endure the rest of your life with the punishment. However, many people in favor of capital punishment argue that the fear of death keeps many people from committing murder. Although this may be true in some cases, it’s said that while committing the crime, this is far from the criminals’ minds. So really, the fear of capital punishment doesn’t have as much as an effect on the amount of murders committed as most people would like to believe. This also supports the next topic: that Capital Punishment affects the crime rate of most areas. However, fear of the death penalty affects the crime rate of areas in a different way than most people would think.
    In fact, evidence shows that areas that enforce capital punishment have a higher crime rate than those that have outlawed it. Out of the 50 states in America, only 13 have outlawed capital punishment. Four of these 13 states were within the top 10 states with the lowest crime rate. In addition to that, five of the top 10 states with the highest number of murders per 100,000 people, enforced the death penalty. This proves that fear of capital punishment does not deter criminals from committing murder and other crimes.
    Finally, probably the most important argument is that capital punishment is unconstitutional by violating the 8th amendment. The 8th amendment states that the government cannot inflict any cruel or unusual punishment. It can be argued that the death sentence is cruel because you end someone’s life and there is no way to reverse the punishment if the suspect was found guilty. It can also be argued as unusual as seeing that hardly any countries still enforce capital punishment. Also, by putting someone to death as a punishment for their murdering of another person is basically enforcing the “eye for an eye” punishment. This is not a good system and the United States should be well past this way of thinking. That’s just another reason why capital punishment should become illegal.
    In conclusion, for these reasons and many more, capital punishment should be outlawed.

    **Works cited not included because I can't access the computer they're saved on-I've gotten the stats, facts, and quotes from many different sources