Should Capital Punishment be Banned in the US?

Nalda (Against):

Currently 33 states in the United States have laws allowing capital punishment, indicating that it deters crime. As capital punishment is generally only used in individual states in cases of murder, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) conducted analysis of US murder data from 1987-2015 to determine if it is indeed an effective deterent. Taking data from the FBI Uniform Crime Reports, the DPIC showed that death penalty states have a murder rate 1.39 times higher than those states that don’t use the death penalty. The DPIC also reported that states with the death penalty account for 22 of the 25 states with the highest incidence of felony murders of police officers.  

Since 2007, seven US states repealed their death penalty laws. These states saw no increase in their murder rates or murders of law enforcement. 

Those seeking to justify capital punishment often quote the Old Testament’s lex talionis principle or “an eye for an eye” (Leviticus 24:20). However, if we accept Newsweek’s account of a study released by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science in 2014, 4.1% of individuals sentenced to death between 1973 and 2014 were innocent. Some of the innocent were exonerated (1.6%), leaving room for concern that capital punishment in the US may lead to the unintentional murder of innocents in the name of morality.

Considering the potential for wrongful execution and the fact that capital punishment does not serve as a deterrent, capital punishment should be banned in the US. 

• https://photos.state.gov/libraries/amgov/133183/english/P_You_Asked_WhyCapitalPunishment_English.pdf
• https://files.deathpenaltyinfo.org/legacy/files/pdf/DPIC_2017_Murder_Rate_Study.pdf
• https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/new-podcast-dpic-study-finds-no-evidence-that-death-penalty-deters-murder-or-protects-police

Brian (For):

Capital Punishment, often referred to as the death penalty, refers to the legally authorized killing of someone as punishment for a crime. It is seen by many as a just punishment for a person convicted of such heinous crimes that they are considered beyond rehabilitation. In the United States, capital punishment is used primarily in cases of murder, espionage, or treason.  

In addition to the justice for the victims and their families, one of the main goals of the death penalty is to deter such crimes from being committed in the first place. While the majority of criminologists believe it is not a successful deterrent, others disagree. Unfortunately, there is really no way of knowing for certain how many potential murders have been avoided as a result of this law. 

One thing we do know, is that there are benefits to having the law in place even when it is not used. Most importantly, it gives prosecutors a bargaining chip to offer in a plea deal. More than 90% of criminal cases in the US end in a plea bargain. This more than offsets the higher costs of the capital cases that do go to trial. It also provides a deterrent to murders in prison by individuals currently serving life sentences. While there are definitely flaws to the system, it would be a mistake to completely abolish capital punishment. Instead, lawmakers should focus on how to improve the effectiveness and implementation of it in order to keep our society as safe and civilized as possible. 

• https://www.criminaljusticedegreeschools.com/criminal-justice-resources/criminal-justice-capital-punishment-focus/
• https://files.deathpenaltyinfo.org/legacy/documents/FactSheet.pdf

https://theoutline.com/post/2066/most-criminal-cases-end-in-plea-bargains-not-trials?zd=1&zi=e2ejhk6w