The death penalty is the worst sentence someone can receive in the United States. It takes a violent crime to be given the sentence. The question is does anyone deserve the Death Penalty? Should it be used in modern day? Does it save the taxpayers money to execute someone? Why are some people against it?

Does anyone ever deserve the death penalty? I think in some cases it should happen. I believe that if someone knowingly takes another persons life, he should be killed also. Even the bibles says that “Whoever strikes a man a mortal blow must be put to death.” Almost every culture throughout history has used the death penalty as a necessary tool for maintaining order. The only change throughout time has been what was deemed worth giving the penalty. Recently though all countries in Western Europe have abolished the death penalty. Now to a lot of people, the death penalty is one of the things that people look down at us for.

The death penalty is used in many states throughout the U.S. but not in Wisconsin. However the death penalty should be used today in extreme circumstances. Some of the ways people have been executed have changed but people still die a somewhat quick death. The electric chair, gas chamber, lethal injection, and firing squad are the methods used presently in the U.S. In 2001, 49 people have been put to death all by lethal injection.

Could the use of lethal injection and other forms of execution be used to help save taxpayers money? Some people say that more people should be put to death to save taxpayers money. But it is actually cheaper to keep someone in a maximum security prison for life than to give someone the death penalty. To execute and keep someone on death row it cost 3x as much because of the cost of appeals and holding them. So if someone was for the death penalty just to save money then they should be against it.

People that are against the death penalty say it is cruel and unusual punishment. They claim that giving someone the death penalty is killing two people not one. Others say that innocent people might be put to death. While others say that racism makes blacks more likely to be put to death than whites. Studies show that this is true.

What I think about the death penalty is that it should be used more. The one thing that I don’t like is the number of years it takes to put someone to death. Some inmates sit on death row for years. I think that their should be less appeals. If someone is being put to death then in most cases there is a sufficient amount of evidence to support the penalty. I like the idea of the death penalty and I believe that Wisconsin should look at bringing it back.