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Surname 1 Student’s Name Course Professor Date The Death Penalty Argumentative Essay The death penalty refers to an offender's execution who has been sentenced to death through a court of law conviction for a criminal offense committed ("Capital Punishment | Definition, Debate, & Facts"). The origin of the death penalty, also used interchangeably with capital punishment, can be traced back to ancient Greece, which was under the laws of Draco ("Capital Punishment | Definition, Debate, & Facts"). The punishment was used when the offender had committed treason, murder, arson, or rape. Some countries even adopted the sentence with the death penalty continuing to take place in the United States even in the 1930s ("Capital Punishment | Definition, Debate, & Facts"). However, in the past half of the 20th century, there has been a debate over this form of punishment which has led to the practice being banned in many countries. The death penalty proponents argue retribution, deterrence, and an effective strategy to prevent the offender from committing the crime again. Despite this, the death penalty practice should be abolished because it is cruel, unlawful, and a waste of resources. The death penalty should be abolished as it is cruel and unusual. The death penalty practice is evil as it portrays the earliest days of penology when branding, slavery, and other corporal punishments were common, like Greece's case. In modern times the death penalty involves death through brutal methods such as electrocution, hanging, firing squad, and lethal

Surname 2 gas ("Case Against the Death Penalty"). For example, electrocution involves the offender being strapped in a chair where jolts of electrodes electrocute the person, which causes brain death and cardiac arrest. These barbaric practices in the past should have no place in the current civilized society and should be replaced with other humane methods. The death practice is also unusual as it happens in the United States, one of the most civilized nations globally ("Case Against the Death Penalty"). Thus, the death penalty should be abolished as it is a barbaric act practiced in the past. The death penalty is also a waste of limited resources. The death penalty wastes time and energy of the courts, prosecutors, defendants, and the jury. It is a counterproductive instrument for controlling violent crimes in society ("Case Against the Death Penalty"). Hence the limited funds that should be spent on productive ways to solve and deter crime in the community are used for the death penalty. Similarly, the death penalty wastes taxpayer money despite it being a counterproductive measure of crime control. For example, according to Lehmann, the death penalty is more expensive than the cost of life term imprisonment. This is due to the death penalty court process requiring more than experts, more pre-trial, two trials, and more attorneys compared to ordinary trials. Hence the death penalty should be abolished as it is a barbaric practice that continues to occur in the civilized world at the taxpayers' expense. The death penalty is a disrespect of the right to life. Any society that respects life and regards it as sacred should not kill human beings deliberately ("Case Against the Death Penalty"). Despite its being legal, the death penalty is an official execution and homicide, which is an endorsement through the law of a country to kill in the name of solving a social problem ("Case Against the Death Penalty"). Governments that continue this barbaric practice continue to justify their lethal fury by showcasing and explaining its benefits that it would bring to society

Surname 3 why killing the offender. However, the killing of people by making it legal through the law of a country or state contradicts common human decency and unnecessary bloodshed, which is not justifiable by any means. Also, social problems should be solved socially and should not be done to go against what it means to be human. Hence in line with human decency, the death penalty should be abolished and replaced with a more socially and humane way of dealing with the offenders. Another reason to abolish the death penalty is that death is non-reversible even when a person is proven innocent later. In the death penalty, the judges cannot do anything after a person has been executed, even if the alleged offender was proven innocent later. For example, more than 15 innocent people on death row were proven to be innocent between 1986 and 2016 (Kim 600). Similarly, from 1973 a total of 156 individuals out of 1414 sentenced to death row were found to be innocent (Barry 210). Based on these statistics, one out of the ten people sentenced to death row is found to be innocent. Hence once a person is executed, it is not reversible. Therefore the death penalty should be abolished as it denies an innocent person a second chance to a fair trial. One of the arguments given in favor of the death penalty is retribution which states that a guilty person deserves a punishment proportional to the severity of the crime they committed ("Arguments in Favour of Capital Punishment"). Hence, based on this argument, a murder should face a punishment of the same severity, which is death ("Arguments in Favour of Capital Punishment"). This argument's proponents also base their opinion similar to the Old Testament phrase “an eye for an eye,” meaning death to the murderers. However, this argument does not necessarily represent the same punishment as the one an offender committed but instead implies a punishment that is not too severe or too lenient ("Arguments in Favour of Capital

Surname 4 Punishment"). Also, punishing the murderers with the death penalty is not retribution but vengeance, making it a morally dubious and unjustifiable concept. Deterrence is another argument in favor of the death penalty. Deterrence is used to justify executing the murderers by deterring them from committing the crime of murder again ("Arguments in Favour of Capital Punishment"). This argument is supported further through an analogy of a child who learns not to put their hand in the fire because of a consequence of instant pain ("Arguments in Favour of Capital Punishment"). Hence, based on the argument executing murders deters the crime, a person will be afraid of being achieved. However, this argument is not accurate as there is not statistical research and evidence in favor of deterrence. Also, the person committing the crime may not be emotionally stable, which makes him or her not think about the consequences. The prevention of re-offending is another argument in favor of the death penalty. This argument is based on the fact that an executed person cannot commit the crime again ("Arguments in Favour of Capital Punishment"). It is also supported by some people who do not believe that imprisonment without parole is inadequate in protecting the society against the offender as they may escape prison or even be a danger to fellow inmates and the prison staff ("Arguments in Favour of Capital Punishment"). However, this is not a sufficient justification for killing and taking a life out of a fellow human being. They are other ways to make sure that they do not commit the same crime again, like solitary confinement. The death penalty is undoubtedly a barbaric practice that should be done away with within the civilized society we live in. It is cruel, inhumane, a waste of money, and in contradiction to human decency and human life's sacredness. Also, all arguments in its favor,

Surname 5 including retribution, deterrence, and prevention of re-offending, are justifications with no evidence that they work and lack better policies that work better than the death penalty. Hence the death penalty should be abolished globally.

Surname 6 Works Cited "Arguments in Favour of Capital Punishment." BBC, www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/capitalpunishment/for_1.shtml. "Capital Punishment | Definition, Debate, & Facts." Britannica, www.britannica.com/topic/capital-punishment. "The Case Against the Death Penalty." American Civil Liberties Union, www.aclu.org/other/case-against-death-penalty....