Death penalty should never be imposed by courts on convicts as punishment for capital crimes. It is so unfortunate that state legislatures establish death penalty, with consideration of a strong public opinion, and agree on what offenses should be punishable by death. While death is imposed on offenders convicted of murder and similar capital crimes as a way of eliminating a person who is dangerous to the community and a means to deter others from committing such crimes, it is totally dehumanizing, ineffective deterrent of serious crime, unreasonably costly and worst of all innocence of the convict may be discovered long after he/she has been hanged and thus does not help the justice system in any way.[DJ1] Death penalty should not be legalized because it is totally dehumanizing, ineffective deterrent of serious crime, unreasonably costly and it does not help the justice system in any way.[DJ2]
Death sentence should not be legalized because it does not help the justice system in any way[DJ3] . Studies show that in the United States, murder cases are fewer in states that do not have death penalty as compared to states with death penalty in their laws (Shona 4). [DJ4] A reduction of murder cases based on upholding death penalty is thus not guaranteed. Results from the Ehrlich Studies and Research showed that instead of deterring murder crimes death penalty increased the rate of murder occurrences. According to Gupta, crime rates in the United States have not increased in the states that abolished death penalty, while on the contrary, crime rates continue to rise in countries that give death penalty (667).Therefore, it is evident that death penalty is not a deterrent for others who want to commit capital crimes and thus other methods of punishment such as life sentencing should be considered instead of death penalty
According[DJ5] to a study by the Death Penalty Information Centre, a state pays an extra $1 million for each trial on death penalty than that of non-death penalty trial. New Jersey and New York have abandoned death penalty due to the high cost (Roman et al, 2008[DJ6] ). In 2014, an Ohio newspaper came to a conclusion that Ohio spends nearly $17 million yearly on death penalty expenses. In 2005, New Jersey study reported that the state had spent $11 million yearly on death penalty. The Marshall Project in the year 2014 reported that the six states abolished death penalty due to high cost (Collins et.al[DJ7] , 728). Death penalty is hence a waste of tax payers money through prosecution and defense expenditure.
In conclusion, no amount of capital offense calls for punishment by death regardless of the seriousness of such crimes. Death penalty is not only a waste of time and money spent in courts but also a violation of human dignity and life .The innocent may end up being given death sentence because courts rulings are not fool-proof and clearly, death penalty does not prevent other offenders in the society from committing capital crimes. Therefore, it is wise to abolish death penalty and adopt other ways of administering punishment on offenders.