Should The United States Abolish The Death Penalty?

DEATH PENALTY

People who support the death penalty would argue that the death penalty deters people from murder because they are scared of being sentenced to death. It might scare some people, but the vast majority of murders would kill anyway, for most murders are not rationalizing their actions. Also, according to some being sentenced to life is a worse punishment than the death penalty for death would put them out of their misery. The life sentence is just as bad as a death sentence, so why have the death penalty at all? The death penalty is not beneficial. It only creates problems.
Within the United States over the years there has been much improvement with the death penalty. Many states have abolished
It is also the people within communities that could and should help raise awareness and support of the promotion of stopping the death penalty. As much as making people aware of the problem and having their support to abolish the death penalty would help because ultimately it is the people that are voting for or against the death penalty. We already have abolished the death penalty in seventeen states and we have done so with the people voting against the death penalty. It is a working process. By making people aware of the facts and the negatives that come with the death penalty would most likely gain support. My belief is that people only want the death penalty because they are scared that more murders would take place if the death penalty were removed, however they do not know the statistics and facts. The facts say that there have been no more murders with states without the death penalty than ones with the death penalty. In other words, all the facts say that the death penalty is more of a negative than a
Virginia is another state case where there was a question of whether or not his conviction violated the Eight Amendment. Daryl Renard Atkins was convicted for capital murder, abduction and armed robbery. The defense argued that Atkins was mildly mentally retarded. The defense relied solely on one psychologist who testified and said that Atkins was in fact mildly mentally retarded. A second trial on the penalty phase was held and also came down with the death penalty. In the second trial, the prosecutor had a witness testify that the defendant was not mildly retarded. The case was then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court based on a claim that it would violate the Eight Amendment to sentence a criminal to death even with a slight possibility that the criminal was mentally retarded. The Supreme Court ruled that the Eight Amendment prohibits execution of any mentally retarded persons. It is consider, “cruel and unusual punishment.” Again my belief is that putting anyone to death is morally wrong and it is especially wrong to put to death someone with mental disabilities. The State Courts’ rulings to put Atkins to death were, thus, in my opinion morally