Capital Punishment Essay - Death Penalty is Socially Sanctioned Murder :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

The Death Penalty Socially Sanctioned Murder         Capital punishment is not actual punishment. Its a capital reply to a type of criminal act. It serves no purpose. When a person isexecuted, the person learns no lesson. He or she cannot say, Hey Ilearned my lesson. I surely wont do that again, for he or she is dead.         Although the word punishment is used in varying contexts, it isgenerally accepted that it is served out unpleasantly to an individual inhopes that that person learns from the punishment and, therefore, doesntrepeat the bad deed.         Good grief... So, why execute? The question is one of justification.It is wrong to deliberately kill another person, yet capital punishment (or killing) consists of doing precisely this. Cost of the Death Penalty         Capital punishment in California, as in every other state, is moreexpensive th an a manners imprisonment sentence without the opportunity ofparole. These costs are not the result of frivolous appeals but rather theresult of Constitutionally mandated safeguards that can be summarized asfollows         Juries must be given clear guidelines on sentencing, which resultin explicit provisions for what constitutes aggravating and mitigatingcircumstances. Defendants must have a dual trial--one to set up guilt orinnocence and if guilty a second trial to determine whether or not theywould get the devastation penalty. Defendants sentenced to death are grantedoversight protection in an automatic appeal to the state supreme court.         These constitutional safeguards translate into            - a more extensive jury selection map            - a four fold increase in the number of motions filed    &nb sp       - a longer, dual trial process            - more investigators and expert testimony            - more lawyers specializing in death penalty litigation            - and automatic, mandatory appeals         Since there are few defendants who will plead guilty to a capitalcharge, virtually every death penalty trial becomes a jury trial with allof the above necessary requirements and expenses. In Los Angeles County,the fit cost of capital punishment is $2,087,926. In Los Angeles County,the total cost of life imprisonment without possibility of parole is$1,448,935. General Studies         A study done by the Sacramento Bee argued that California wouldsave $90 million per year if it were to abolish the death penalty. The bonny cost of a capital trial in Texa s is $2.3 million--three times thecost to incarcerate an individual for 40 years. The average cost of acapital trial in Florida is $3.2 million. Myths and Facts Deterrence        Scientific studies have consistently failed to demonstrate thatexecutions deter people from committing crime. The respected Thorsten