Death Penalty 2 Part 2

The next major argument is the question of whether or not the death penalty deters people from killing other people.  There are some people who are for the death penalty that would say “It does not deter because the punishment is not swift enough” (Death Penalty Argument, 4).  Those who oppose the death penalty would agree with those would say that there is no proof to show that the death penalty deters other people from committing a capital crime.  Maybe the real question is how many people does it take to be deterred before one could call the death penalty effective?  If the death penalty stops one person from committing a capital offence, wouldn’t that be effective?

            The cost is another problem with the death penalty.  “Economic considerations should be second to justice considerations.  It does not matter how much it cost, but it is cheaper than life” (Death Penalty Arguments, 5).  A debater for the death penalty for brings forth that argument.  On the other hand, “because the death penalty involves so many required post-trial hearings, reviews, appeals, etc. it ends up costing more than life imprisonment” (Death penalty arguments, 5).  How much of a role should cost play in the decision making process?  There is no amount of money that can be substituted for someone’s life.

            The mistake argument is probably the most argued topic that has to deal with the death penalty. “Any mistake made is only a small percentage of the total, something like only 0.33 of 1%; errors are very rare” (Death Penalty Arguments, 5).  “It is irreversible.  Twenty-five people have been wrongfully executed since the start of this century alone.  Anything that involved even one error like this is unacceptable” (Death Penalty Arguments).  In this argument the people who oppose the death penalty would probably have the upper hand.  In order to find an accused person guilty of a crime, the prosecutor has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty on all circumstances.  There are some courts who would define the burden of proof to be greater than seventy-two percent (Ian Jones).  This means that a jury would only have to be seventy -two percent convinced that the defendant is guilty and the defendant gets the death penalty.  “According to a Stanford Law review study of approximately 7,000 people executed in the United States since 1900, at least twenty-three were innocent” (Gregory, 3).  No wonder there are some people who are wrongfully accused.