Legalized Death Penalty

The death penalty has been a highly controversial issue since it was reinstated in 1976. According to Gallup, 63% of Americans favor the death penalty and presently the death penalty is legal in 31 states. Maryland’s decision to abolish the death penalty has left the inmates on death row in limbo because there are opposing sides as to whether or not the state has the right to execute the inmates after the bill abolishing the death penalty was passed. Both sides of the controversial issue have valid points which address, race, cost to execute and the alternatives to the death penalty, but once a state has abolished the death penalty the bill should apply to everyone. Justice Richard N. Palmer wrote that “The state’s death penalty no longer comports
Many Americans argue that if each state legalized the death penalty, then murder rates would decrease due to the fear of being placed on death row. If this were true, then people wouldn’t speed or commit crimes, for fear of being prosecuted. Some of the most common arguments to have the death penalty are that, some believe that “those who kill deserve to die, when someone takes another person's life, they forfeit or sacrifice their own right to live, and murder is one of the worst crimes a person can commit and it deserves the worst penalty.” Statistics show that since 1976, fewer than two hundred of the 2500 people on death row have been executed. The death penalty is a long process and “everyone sentenced to death row is given a direct appeal made to the state’s highest court” (“Death Penalty Appeals”). It’s this slow process that prevents criminals from fearing death row; death penalties need to be fast to be a sure way of deterring the criminals. According to procon.org, the problem with that is, that 350 people who were convicted of crimes for which they could have been put to death for, were later found to be innocent. Tragically, twenty-three were executed wrongly. The death penalty needs to be a long process to be both fair and constitutional. During the wait period that criminals are on death row, there is ample time for new evidence that
The state would save millions in tax payer dollars and the offender’s constitutional rights will be preserved. By proposing a life sentence without the possibility of parole and restitution, the governor is insuring that the murderers on death on death row aren’t allowed back into society and that the families of the victims are taken care of and know that justice is being served. Many times the families of the victims don’t receive the closure that they deserve because the death penalty is such a long process. A life sentence would come into effect as soon as the trial is over and the families can start to heal. It can also be argued that sitting on death row is a cruel and unusual punishment, because the convicted murderer has to wait countless years to be executed. In Roper v. Simmons and other death penalty cases the interpretation of the eighth amendment's prohibition against "cruel and unusual punishment has been subjected to the interpretation of the Constitution and the goal of the Supreme Court is to keep the vision of the founding fathers. The Court's majorities have acknowledged that society's evolving standards of what is