Capital Punishment
3/12/2014
Governor Rick Perry
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428
Dear Governor Rick Perry,
Capital punishment in the state of Texas is legal and unfortunately becoming more common since the death penalty was reenacted in 1976 after a Supreme Court decision. Since this Supreme Court ruling, your state has put to death 510 individuals and next week it will be 511 (Texas). During your term as governor you have allowed 310 executions of inmates, making that 61% of the total punishments occurring in only 14 years of the 38 total years of the reenactment. Capital punishment is unacceptable for a government or jury to enforce in our country. Death row does not deter criminals and wrongly gives the government power to take the life of its citizens. Lifetime jail sentences are a less expensive punishment than death row. Most of all, murdering potentially innocent people is just as bad as the initial crime that the prisoner was accused for. The core belief in the American Justice system is to let many guilty go instead of letting the innocent suffer. Capital punishment is a final decision and many executed inmates have been found innocent after their death. I do believe if an individual takes the life of another person, they should not have the right to life, but there is always room for human error in the investigation and it is impossible to be completely accurate. Capital punishment should be banned in your state and immediately shut down for these various reasons.
The Death Penalty does not reduce crime in the United States, for one example the United States has the second most prisoners per capita in the world 705 prisoners per 100,000 population(Prison Studies). In the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), “There is no credible evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than long terms of imprisonment. States that have death penalty laws do not have lower crime rates or murder rates than states without
Governor Rick Perry
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428
Dear Governor Rick Perry,
Capital punishment in the state of Texas is legal and unfortunately becoming more common since the death penalty was reenacted in 1976 after a Supreme Court decision. Since this Supreme Court ruling, your state has put to death 510 individuals and next week it will be 511 (Texas). During your term as governor you have allowed 310 executions of inmates, making that 61% of the total punishments occurring in only 14 years of the 38 total years of the reenactment. Capital punishment is unacceptable for a government or jury to enforce in our country. Death row does not deter criminals and wrongly gives the government power to take the life of its citizens. Lifetime jail sentences are a less expensive punishment than death row. Most of all, murdering potentially innocent people is just as bad as the initial crime that the prisoner was accused for. The core belief in the American Justice system is to let many guilty go instead of letting the innocent suffer. Capital punishment is a final decision and many executed inmates have been found innocent after their death. I do believe if an individual takes the life of another person, they should not have the right to life, but there is always room for human error in the investigation and it is impossible to be completely accurate. Capital punishment should be banned in your state and immediately shut down for these various reasons.
The Death Penalty does not reduce crime in the United States, for one example the United States has the second most prisoners per capita in the world 705 prisoners per 100,000 population(Prison Studies). In the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), “There is no credible evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than long terms of imprisonment. States that have death penalty laws do not have lower crime rates or murder rates than states without
Cited: "Death Row Information." Death Row Information. Texas Department of Criminal Justice, 4 Feb. 2014. Web. 09 Mar. 2014. . Dieter, Richard C. "The Future of the Death Penalty in the U.S.: A Texas-Sized Crisis." DPIC. N.p., May 1995. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. . Grann, David. "Trial by Fire." The New Yorker. N.p., 7 Sept. 2009. Web. 09 Mar. 2014. . "Highest to Lowest." Prison Studies. Internation Centre for Prison Studies, n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2014. . Linkins, Jason. "Rick Perry on Death Penalty and 'Ultimate Justice ' in Texas: 'I 've Never Struggle with That '" Huff Post Politics. Huffington Post, 9 July 2011. Web. 9 Mar. 2014. . "Testimony to the Judiciary Committee of the Colorado State House of Representatives Regarding House Bill 1094 - Costs of the Death Penalty and Related Issues,", Colorado State House of Representatives Cong. (2007) (testimony of Richard C. Dieter). Print. "The Death Penalty: Questions and Answers." ACLU. American Civil Liberty Union, 9 Apr. 2007. Web. 9 Mar. 2014.