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Nate Athorn

Mr. Miller

English Comp

11/29/10

Capital Punishment : Why we need it.

Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is a valuable and time trusted tool to thwart heinous

crimes and acts. When a offender is executed, it makes murderers and rapists think twice before

continuing whatever it was they were doing. There is no escaping, no probation, no chance for

freedom after you are convicted and sentenced to death. There is no lack of reasons for why we

need capital punishment, and there is also no lack of reasons that people use for removing the

death penalty from the United States. Some of the main reasons are the closure it brings to a

victims family, the deterrent it serves as for other criminals, and the removal of any chance for a

killer to escape or be paroled and continue killing (balancedpolitics).

When someone is murdered, their family is torn over this, if there is a family. Losing

someone is hard enough, but having someone forcibly taken from you is beyond horrible. It is

even worse if you almost died to the same killer, as this family was. On August 23, 2002, this

family was devastated when a killer invaded their home, tied the mom to a bed and stabbed all

three kids. Two kids were killed, and the other one played dead so as to try and survive. The

mother was raped and stabbed, and the killer left her for dead. Their killer was caught and is on

death row, and there is no doubt in my mind that having him executed would at the least help the

surviving mother and daughter with a little peace of mind, knowing the man who did this to them

will never hurt anyone ever again (Montaldo). There are many more examples of lives ruined
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and torn apart from murder and rape, people who will never be the same.

In older times, when someone was executed, they were hung in public for everyone to see

as a prime example of why you should not commit whatever crime this person committed. It kept

crime rates down and prisons a lot emptier. A would-be criminal, upon seeing a fellow villain

hung, would probably be less likely to follow in his path. Some people might say that he will just

try to be sneakier, or that it will not stop him from doing whatever he had planned. However,

studies have not shown conclusive evidence for either side. The reasoning behind why is that

how can capital punishment be a deterrent when only few life criminals get the sentence

(deathrow)?

Finally, capital punishment is needed because it provides confidence that these killers and

rapists will never hurt anyone ever again. How can they, when they are dead? For example, the

briley brothers. They went on a killing spree, and when finally caught, were put on death row.

However, they escaped with six other inmates and would have killed more people, including

cops, if their fellow inmates didn’t stop them (Briley). They were caught before killing anyone

else, but who knows what would have happened if they weren't caught. No doubt they would

have quickly turned back into killers. This was even when they were put on death row. However,

thanks to the long waits and appeal system that exists, they had ample time to plan an escape. If

we had no capital punishment system, these killers would have been in jail for a long time now,

more than enough time for them to plan another escape, especially if it was so easy from death

row.

These reasons are why a capital punishment system is needed in the United States.

Getting rid of it would only cause more crime, not deter it. Criminals would not see us removing
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it as a sign of good faith, but rather a sign of weakness, and there is so much crime now that

being seen as weak would definitely not help.

Works Cited

"BalancedPolitics.org - Death Penalty (Pros & Cons, Arguments For and Against)."

BalancedPolitics.org - Free Balanced, Non-Partisan Discussion of Political & Social

Issues for Debate (Pros and Cons - Decision Making Politics). Web. 29 Nov. 2010.

<http://www.balancedpolitics.org/death_penalty.htm>.

"Briley Brothers." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 29 Nov. 2010.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Briley_Brothers>.

"Death Row Inmates by State and Size of Death Row by Year." Death Penalty Information

Center. Web. 29 Nov. 2010. <http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-row-inmates-

state-and- size- death-row-year>.

Montaldo, By Charles. "Kentucky Death Row - Kentucky Death Row Inmates Photo Gallery."

Crime and Punishment Home Page. Web. 29 Nov. 2010.

<http://crime.about.com/od/womenondeathrow/ig/Kentucky-Death-Row-Inmates/>.
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