Should Death Penalty Be Abolished In The United States?

Has it ever occurred to you that in this country you can be executed for a crime you didn’t commit, even if the method of killing you is expensive and completely unconstitutional? The government believes that this is the correct way to punish those who have committed horrific crimes. Is this really the best option? I don’t think so. As a citizen of this country, this system of “justice” appals me. The death penalty should be abolished in the United States because it is unconstitutional, comes at a great cost, and is otherwise ineffective at carrying out its intended purpose.

I find it ironic that in the United States, we follow “The Constitution” which, as you know, lists many laws that must be followed by the government and its people.
First off, the cost of a death penalty court case is tremendous, in comparison to a life sentence case. A Public Defender’s Office in Idaho spent 44 times more time on a death penalty case than a life sentence appeal. Because the time spent on a case directly relates to the cost, giving life sentences instead of the death penalty would be more cost effective for the U.S. government. In addition to this, even people who have done horrible things like murder and treason can contribute to society in a meaningful and positive way. However, society is not able to benefit from these people and may suffer from it. One man, Stanley Tookie Williams, was given a death sentence in 1981 for participation with a brutal gang in which he murdered four people and had two counts of robbery against him. During his time on death row he tried to become a better person. He wrote a series of eight books aimed at children in an attempt to turn them away from gang-violence, an attempt to prevent them from following in his own footsteps. While he filed appeals to get out of his death penalty, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize multiple times. Despite all of this, he was eventually executed in 2005. His efforts at directing kids to a better path in life show us that even the worst criminals can change, that even the worst criminals can have a positive impact on our lives. If he had more time before execution, who knows how many more
One major purpose of the death penalty is to punish people for their horrible crimes. However, the death penalty has put many innocent people on death row. Since 1973, 156 people have been exonerated (released from death row/evidence shows they aren’t guilty). The average time between getting the death sentence and exoneration is about 11 years. This is already terrible, forcing innocent people to believe that their life is nearly over, because of a crime that they didn’t commit, but it gets worse. It is very likely that people living in the United States have been wrongly executed. Multiple cases have evidence that proves that the “criminal” is actually innocent. In 1991, the house of Cameron Todd Willingham was destroyed by a fire, killing the three children who were sleeping inside. Willingham escaped and his wife was shopping at the time. Prosecutors stated that Willingham had purposefully set the house on fire to cover up the abuse of his children. He was executed by lethal injection in 2004. However, there is a proof that shows that the fire was not caused by Willingham. Unfortunately, nothing can be done now because these people have already been executed, but it does teach us one thing: If the death penalty cannot be used to punish the real offender and risks the lives of innocent people in the process, it can’t be used by our