Sample Exit Project Paper
Research Question:
Should the United States abolish the death penalty?
The United States is the only
Westernized nation to implement the death penalty, making the punishment nearly
obsolete. From Germany to South Africa, most nations have abandoned this brutal
practice. In the United States, however, capital punishment remains a divisive
issue. An astonishing thirty-five states still implement the death penalty with
a variety of methods, including lethal injection, firing squad, and
electrocution. The death penalty should be
abolished across the country because it can lead to the death of innocent people, is fiscally [relating
to money and taxes] irresponsible, and is an ineffective punishment.
The death penalty
is cruel and unreasonable because a shocking number of death row inmates are
proven innocent during the appeals process. In fact, 138
death row inmates have been exonerated and released, according to the
Death Penalty Information Center. These wrongful convictions occur nationwide.
Unlike other punishments, the death penalty is irreversible. For example, Jesse Tafero was a victim of
this injustice when he was wrongfully executed in 1990. Tafero and his wife,
Sonia Jacobs, were found guilty of murdering a state trooper in 1976. Two years
after Tafero’s execution, Jacobs’ conviction was overturned by a federal court.
Tafero and Jacobs were convicted based on identical evidence, which proved to
be unreliable. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, “Had Tafero been alive in 1992, he no doubt would have
been released along with Jacobs.”
This tragic story reveals the savageness of the death penalty.
Therefore, capital punishment is unjust because it can lead to the killing of
innocent people.
The death penalty
is a waste of resources; countless studies have determined that it costs more
to execute someone than to imprison him/her for life without parole. For
instance, a Duke University report found that
sentencing murderers to death in North Carolina costs $216,000 more per case than sentencing an offender to life in
prison. One reason is that death penalty trials take longer than cases
where execution is not a possible sentence. This clearly demonstrates that the
death penalty is more costly than other punishments, such as lifetime
imprisonment. Imagine how many resources could be saved by eliminating capital
punishment in the United States. This money would be better spent on educating
and reforming criminals to become productive members of society. Capital
punishment wastes valuable public funds, which are already spread too thin.
Some proponents of
the death penalty falsely argue that capital punishment deters people from
committing violent crimes. However, states that implement the death penalty do
not have lower homicide rates than non-death-penalty states, according to the
ACLU. Between 1990 and 1994, the murder rate in Illinois, which reinstated the
death penalty in 1973, was double the rate in Wisconsin, where capital
punishment is banned. The threat of execution clearly does not prevent
criminals from violating the law. Therefore, the death penalty does not prevent
violent crime.
The death penalty
should be repealed in the United States because it is unreasonable,
ineffective, and a waste of tax dollars. The consequences are permanent while
the benefits are unproven. Moreover, evidence demonstrates that its price tag
outweighs the cost of life imprisonment. The death penalty is an unbearable
denial of civil rights and a stain on the fabric of America’s democracy.
