The Right to Life

As Martin Luther King Jr. said, the old law of an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind. Over the course of time the support from citizens for the death penalty has begun to decrease. Many factors play into this decline, some of them are: wrongful convictions, cruel and unusual punishment, and the high cost. The death penalty is the sentence of execution for crimes that are punishable by death. This is set out by lethal injection and can be seen as painless IF done correctly. In some cases the injection is done by one who is not an expert in the field leading to a delay of the procedure because they do not know what they are doing or results in the person suffering from excruciating pain due to an incorrectly done procedure.

The Death Penalty Goes Down

Within the United States capital punishment is legal in 31 states. Although many states approve the use of capital punishment some do not take part in it or have very few executions that follow through. According to Jacey Fortin author and editor for the New York Times, recent polls show about 55 percent of Americans approve capital punishment. However, that number has been shrinking. For example, in 1994 percentages for support use to be above 80 percent. Over a century ago the United States had a tremendous amount of support for capital punishment and not only participated in many executions but also followed through with them. Since then the number of executions performed declined tremendously as well. Fortin goes on to discuss the specifics in how the support of the death penalty has diminished. In the United States, 2017, twenty three people faced execution. This number is the second lowest in more than a quarter century. Also, the projected total of people who will be sentenced to death this year is 39, one of the lowest annual totals since 1977(Fortin). There are many reasons that the death penalty has been slowly diminishing. With the evidence behind these factors becoming stronger, I feel that the death penalty will not stand a chance in the future. The following reasons further explain the reasoning behind the dwindle in support for the death penalty.

Wrongful Convictions

Give Death to the Death Penalty

Although the support for the death penalty has fallen, and it may not a stand a chance in the future. It may take some time for it to be put to an end. When our country was first created we were given the right to life, the right to not have cruel and unusual punishment upon us, the right to a fair trial. The death penalty infringes against the eighth amendment in which cruel and unusual punishment should not be imposed. With unfair and biased trials given to defendants, it is unimaginable to think that an innocent person has been put to death. In order to give importance to the reasonings behind why we should keep the death penalty. We need to first learn how to conduct a fair trial.

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