Capital Punishment
Capital punishment is and has been a major discussion point for many years and I personally believe it is time to bring it back. Not only will it lower the level of crime rates but it may also grant the victims’ families a bit of justice. Capital punishment should be brought back but only be used for the worst of crimes so it will only take place for the most heartless criminals. Although the death penalty may seem like a good option to put off crimes the statistics show otherwise. When the death penalty was temporarily banned in the 1970s the murder rate in the US went down. When it was re-instated the level rose again, the rates of murders went up. (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-about-deterrence-and-death-penalty)
Capital punishment is the ultimate warning for offenders meaning that people will sooner or later get the message that their actions are affecting people’s lives so badly that it is punishable by death and will make them think twice before they do something as severe as murdering someone. Not only are we keeping them alive and letting them live out their lives, but taxpayers are spending their money on prisons to keep these criminals alive.
With many resources such as all the forensic scientists as well as many other things available to us today we can solve crimes much easier than we were able to before. This is true, however, there is still a chance that a mistake can be made and the wrong person will be sentenced with the death penalty. The United Kingdom abolished capital punishment slightly due to the case of Timothy Evans, an innocent man who was hung in 1950. Many people have claimed that as many as 39 executions have been carried out in the face of compelling evidence of innocence or serious doubt about guilt from in the US from 1992 through 2004. This act is just as bad as the person who committed murder themselves as you are killing an innocent person for no apparent reason with little to no evidence, especially when you are not 100% sure of the situation with no real compelling evidence. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment)
Disposing of a rapist or murderer gets rid of one the possibilities of another one of us innocent humans being killed or raped. Knowing that a murderer took away the life of a loved one who and is still living in prison and possibly able to get out after 20 or so years is terrible. Meaning that the punishment of death provides closure for the victim and the victim’s family. Criminals may even reoffend which has happened in some cases such as the one seen in the Adrian Bayley case as he reoffended while he was on parole