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Is the Death Penalty Justified?

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Is the Death Penalty Justified?
Is the Death Penalty Justified?
Jessica Valentine
PHI 103 Informal Logic
Professor Stephen Carter
March 20, 2012

Is the Death Penalty Justified? The death penalty will always be a topic some people refuse to talk about. When in fact, it is a very serious topic and people should know how and why the death penalty is not justified. I believe the death penalty is not justified in the least bit because there are people sitting up in prison just living life because the state does not want to pay for an execution, or they find it to be morally corrupt. Personally if you committed a crime that resulted in someone dying then you deserves to die as well. The idea of killing another human does not sit well with people and that is mainly the reason why they are against the death penalty, when they should be for the death penalty because it will cost the state less and a person who took a life will no longer be walking the earth. The death penalty which was established in the nineteen hundreds was created to put people to death for the crime they have committed. My argument for this topic is I am for the death penalty in many different ways. If a person is about to be sentenced to death they might possibly take a plea bargain.“Interviews with prosecutors and defense attorneys in a state where the maximum punishment for murder is death and a state where the maximum punishment for murder is life without parole are used to explore the role of the death penalty as leverage in plea bargaining, as compared to the role of a maximum sentence of life without parole” (Ehrhard-Dietzel, 2012). It cost the state nearly 216,000 dollars to follow through with a prisoner being executed. Yes, this seems like a lot of money but in turn it is actually a lot less than it costs to pay for an inmate to live in prison for the rest of their life until they die. It cost about sixty five dollars a day to house an inmate so if you multiply that by 365 days you get 23,725. If you multiply



References: Ehrhard-Dietzel, S. (2012, March). The Use of Life and Death as Tools in Plea Bargining . Criminal Justice Review , pp. Vol. 37, Iss. 1; pg. 89.

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