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Why Capital Punishment Should Be Illegal Essay Example

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Why Capital Punishment Should Be Illegal Essay Example
Capital Punishment: Why it should be Illegal People may think capital punishment is a good thing that the criminals deserve to die for the horrible crime they have committed. But the truth is that capital punishment is expensive, it violates the U.S Constitution, sentencing someone to jail for life is a worse punishment than being sentenced to death, and the death penalty goes against God and several religious beliefs. There are also innocent people on death row and that the death penalty is not a crime deterrent. These are some reasons why it should be illegal to give criminals the death sentence. The first reason why people should consider illegalizing the death penalty is that life in prison is cheaper than executing a criminal. A person who is executed cost about $2 million and a person sentenced to a life in prison cost about $500,000 (“Reasons to be Against the Death Penalty”n.p). That is about 4 times as much. If capital punishment was illegal it would save taxpayers a lot of money, and the state would save more money too so they could use it for more important things needed for the community. In the state of New Jersey taxpayers over the last 23 years have paid more than a quarter billion on a capital punishment system (“Death Penalty Focus”n.p). If New Jersey illegalized capital punishment they could save about $11 million dollars a year. States illegalizing capital punishment would be beneficial to the community and to tax payers. The second reason is that capital punishment is barbaric and violates the U.S Constitution. Killing people in front of a crowd is wrong sends the wrong message. The general public is allowed to attend executions. But it is probably a frightening experience to watch. “The message it is sending to people is that why kill people who kill people to show killing is wrong” (Messerli n.p). It is showing that killing a person is okay because they deserve to die for what they did. The 8th Amendment of the U.S Constitution
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