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EDITORIALS The Death Penalty In America: Cruel Punishment or Just Protection
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Cruel Punishment EDITORIAL by ANGUS CRAWFORD The Terrapin Times Staff Writer Gandhi once said that “An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind”. In other words, executing a person for a murder or another heinous crime only increases the amount of pain or suffering for another family. Seeing a murderer killed in an electric chair or by lethal injection does not change the past and cannot bring back a lost one. The death penalty was not created and should not be used as a form of retribution for families. This is 2003 A.D. and not 1750 B.C. when Hammurabi Code and “eye for an eye” laws might have made sense. Hopefully the human race has evolved in the past few millenniums and we do not need to adhere to primitive laws of nature any longer. However, in no way am I saying that families should not be angry and want vengeance. Fortunately I have not had to experience the pain of knowing someone who was murdered, and it would be wrong of me to tell family and friends how to feel. Friends, families, and victims (in rape cases) should be assured that these criminals never harm anyone again. Life without parole seems to be a more logical method to ensuring that these criminals never kill or rape again. The death penalty system in the United States is seriously flawed. If people insist on “eye for an eye” punishment, then major changes are needed. Most people know of the Northwestern students who discovered that many of Illinois death row inmates were innocent, causing former Governor George Ryan to issue a moratorium to save their lives. Anything that causes innocent people to be killed is not working. We do not know how many innocent people have lost their lives and how many innocent people will lose their lives. Additionally, the death penalty seriously debilitates the criminal justice system. It costs much more time and money to put a person on death row. Prosecutors have to spend most of their time focusing on the capital punishment cases and cannot work on other cases. In a small county, a death row case can be devastating. Usually the county will have to pay for the court fees and the lawyers’ time. A county with a small budget may not be able to handle $3 million in court fees. The costs for life without parole are spread out over time and most death row inmates end up serving life in prison since very few inmates are executed. Sentencing a criminal to life in prison saves time and money.
Executing a person does not solve anything. We have been
taught that since we were kids that “two wrongs don’t make a right” and it
is time we start applying those rules as adults. Furthermore, innocent
people could be and have been placed in a system that wastes money and
time. Facts and figures and moral judgments demonstrate that the United
States does not need the death penalty.
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Just Protection EDITORIAL by NATHAN BURCHFIEL The Terrapin Times Layout Editor |
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