Tovar
Israel Tovar
PAP English II
Dr. Logan
22 May 2018
The Death Penalty
Capital punishment has been around since the eighteenth century B.C. in the Code of King Hammurabi, “eye for an eye”. Eye for an eye is a belief that punishment should fit the crime. How America adopted capital punishment was through Great Britain, settlers brought the practice into the new world (Garland 34). Each century the death penalty was modified into a somewhat fair proposition, like making it private instead of public, and constitutionalizing it after each time the people saw it as an intricate judicial decision. But the changes the law has been put hasn’t been justified. Unfortunately, many people believe executing someone who’s been prosecuted and charged with the death penalty is more cost-efficient than having one in life incarceration. But of course, this common thought isn’t true. The death penalty delays righteousness for the victims and their families and has become an inexplicably expensive punishment.
An American politician who served as the mayor of Chicago, Anton Cermak, was shot by Giuseppe Zangara miss, who was aiming for the President-elect, Franklin Roosevelt. Cermak was seriously wounded and died. After Mayor Cermak ’s death from the assassination, “Zangara was tried by a grand jury, and charged with first-degree murder” (Bos). He pled guilty and was executed only two weeks after Cermak died. In the 1950’s, Caryl Chessman, “a well-known criminal, charged with kidnapping, rape, attempted murder and robbery was on death row for nearly 12 years” ( Britannica). “He made himself a symbol of enduring controversy over the capital punishment” (Britannica). Cases like these began to question whether the death penalty is meant for justice for the victims or is crime show. Ever since then, death penalty cases has become a surreal television show.
The death penalty’s, length, and finality costs through the roof, making it much more expensive. It is a sanctioned law that not only delayed justice for victims’ families, it also wastes millions of dollars that law enforcement could use to save lives and protect the public. “Death penalty cases cost the public on average, $1.03 million to $1.31 million, according to the Audit” (Lochhead). “In murder case where the death penalty is not sought, prosecutors who typically seek life without parole, cost averages to $775,000” (Lochhead). In Florida, Rex Dimmig, chief assistant public defender, “discovered that the most expensive, most time-consuming, and least cost-effective service we provided was in death penalty cases” (Pudlow, Dimmig). “Dimming estimated that Florida spends $51 million a year to use the death penalty, rather than sending convicts to prison for life without parole. It is estimated that each execution costs taxpayers $24 million” (Pudlow). Officials who are aware of the problem understand that the sanctioned punishment will collapse soon...
