Imagine finding out a loved one had been kidnapped, raped and then brutally murdered, then his or her body is found on the side of the road for some passerby to find. Months of worrying beyond belief. Getting the dreaded phone call… Heading to the morgue… Walking to the cold room filled with the scent of sterilized metal. Staring down at the cold, white body of someone you loved laying on a metal table. Nodding when they ask you if it is he or she while you try not to burst into tears in front of a stranger.
What is the punishment for the person who did that to your loved one? What if he or she has done that to more than just you loved one? Does he or she deserve to live the rest of his or her life in a cell, being transferred from prison to prison in order to keep he or she safe, or to die by lethal injection? The latter would ease the minds of those whose lives have changed forever, from the action of this one ghastly person. A sane person who commits crimes such as treason, murder, and terrorism does not deserve to live, in any case.
The death penalty should be legalized in the entirety of the United States. It would bring ease to the minds of the general public, and is the more economic decision, in the long run, to use capital punishment. It is truly terrifying, the constant dread of possibly being murdered. What if a murderer escapes, and goes on a killing spree, doing more damage to add on to that which he has already done? How many people does he or she have to murder until his or her right to life is revoked from he or she?
It should not be questioned at all that someone who kills a large number of people deserves to lose his or her life. It would ease the minds of the families in which he or she had stolen a member’s life from, as well as those who had feared he or she taking someone, or even their own, life. It will also help the family member of the deceased gain some sort of closure from gaining a kind of vengeance from the death of their loved one’s murderer. “Well, what’s there to say about capital punishment? I’m not against it. Revenge is all it is, but what’s wrong with revenge?
It’s very important” (Capote 335). Richard Hickock, one of the murderer of the Clutter family, even agreed to capital punishment, believing it would help the family members of a family of someone that had been murdered. Not only does capital punishment relieve the minds of the general public, it also costs them less to indirectly pay for it through taxes. Although a case where the death penalty is sought is cost significantly more than a case that is not, in the long run it will cost less to use capital punishment on a dangerous criminal.
Cases without the death penalty cost $740,000, while cases where the death penalty is sought cost $1. 26 million. Maintaining each death row prisoner costs taxpayers $90,000 more per year than a prisoner in general population” (Death Penalty Information Center). So, instead of wasting thousands of dollars in taxpayers money on allowing these despicable criminals to live out their days rather comfortably permitting the crimes in which they have committed. The family of those in which the criminal has murdered has to pay for them to live the rest of he or she’s life, imagine how heart wrenching that must be.
He or she has stripped the family of another person, they stole a life from them, and now they get to pay for their loved one’s killer to live out the rest of he or she’s life safe and sound in a cell. How unimaginable it is to think about paying for someone to live, someone that has stolen so many lives, both directly and indirectly. Although, there will always be others ready to refute the pros of capital punishment. Many may claim that the death penalty is not the way in which anyone, even menacing criminals that have murdered multiple people his or herself. “It is barbaric and violates the “cruel and unusual” clause in the Bill of Rights.
Whether it’s a firing squad, electric chair, gas chamber, lethal injection, or hanging, it’s barbaric to allow state-sanctioned murder before a crowd of people” (Should… punishment? ). They claim it is barbaric to murder a criminal in front of a crowd of people, but the criminal, in many cases has committed the crime of murder, or an equivalent, on multiple occasions. How does one claim that a rather painless, and rather humane way of execution is anything compared to brutal murders in which those on death row have committed? What he or she has done was barbaric, not the act of humanely executing he or she.
Another claim is that that execution can have a sort of martyring effect on a serial killer, and that life in prison is much worse than death. Although, 68% of the United States population fears death, so there’s a good chance he or she is more afraid of dying than living rather comfortably in a cell for the rest of their life. It’s easy to see that the death penalty is the correct way to deal with savage criminals. “Outside, police could hear horrible screams coming from the upstairs bedrooms” (Benson 19). Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes had changed Dr. Petit’s life that fateful July day in 2007.
They stripped him of his wife and two daughters, and now he has to fight for his say in Connecticut to see these two awful mens demise. Capital punishment has been outlawed in Connecticut, and Dr. Petit is currently fighting for a spot in state legislature to legalize capital punishment in Connecticut to see the men who killed his family perish. Dr. Petit deserves his retribution for his tremendous loss, as does anyone else who experiences something has horrific as he has. Capital punishment should be legalized in all 50 states as a way to seek reprisal against those who have committed vicious crimes, no matter the circumstances.
