The Dying Death Penalty

       For the past 20 years close to almost 1,500 people die from the death penalty and luckily the numbers are decreasing. In America we have established ourselves as a more sophisticated society, not in cars like the Germans, in wine like the French, or in suits like the British, but rather in our beliefs. The one I'm focusing on is how we treat criminals. Do we rape rapists? Do we burn down the houses of arsonists? No? Then why does it seem logical that we murder murderers?

       The death penalty goes back from many many years, starting with the Babylonian empire where twenty-five crimes were seen as punishable by death including adultery and aiding escaping slaves, and the practice arose again in the 1600's as punishment for treason, and once again in mid 18th century Europe in retaliation for founding an abolitionist movement. What all of these death bringing punishments all don't include retribution for murder. Murder which is considered the greatest offense possible throughout every government, culture, and coven in the world doesn't deem itself important enough to be punishable by death. What does that say about the uses of the death penalty during history? It was used as means to get revenge, not justice mind you, not to balance out a tragedy with another but as a legal way to derive pleasure from the misfortune of others, or Schadenfreude, as the Germans put it. 

       An "eye for eye" proponents of this extremist cause say. Sure it might honor the victims, consolidate the grieving families, and make absolutely sure they perpetrators don't have an opportunity to cause more deaths in the future, but that's the short term. What is the long term effect of such a cause? 

       Firstly, death of one criminal doesn't deter others from committing more crimes. In fact, if they are performing murder they probably don't give a shit about the affects of their actions. They probably have a reason for committing the crime and the threat of death obviously doesn't outweighs the reason, at least for the criminal it doesn't. Secondly, it puts too much power in the governments hands. The eighth amendment goes against giving a criminal cruel and unusual punishment, yet this goes directly against that. Thirdly it costs way too much to keep up, when it would be way, way, way less expensive to just sentence them to a prison. Reports have shown that taxpayers have unknowingly put 5 billion towards maintaining death row facilities that now houses around 757 convicts, 13 which have been killed from the death penalty, at a whopping price tag of 347 million dollars for each execution. Keeping them in a life sentence would be much cheaper.

       An eye for an eye makes the world go blind. And a blind world is the most dangerous kind.