The death penalty is immoral. Even in cases of national and international terrorism, killing masterminds does not provide justice.The death penalty is the product of warped thinking. It is especially problematic in cultures that claim to have evolved from moral depravity.
America is one of those nations. Aren’t we supposed to lead by example? The way we invade other countries and comment on their affairs ought to convey that we are ethically capable of restructuring societies.
But, we are not moral centers because our dealings with each other, even the most vile members of society, are not appropriate.
Americans kill people to teach people that one of our tenets is to not kill. Do as I say, not as I do, much?
More than just being unethical, using execution to teach people the wrongs of killing is illogical.
Accumulating deaths does not reverse lost lives. The death penalty will not redeem the memories of loved ones who were killed.
America supposedly created the prison industrial complex to rehabilitate criminals. While those intentions are noble, the disproportionate incarceration rates of minorities are not.
Who knows how many innocent people were executed here? At least we have measures in place to free wrongfully convicted people.
The Innocence Project is a public policy organization that does this. More than 250 people have been freed because of it.
This project saves lives and serves as a reminder that America is capable of acting and reacting ethically.
Criminals must be handled ethically. While citizens’ lives are significantly altered after release from prison, they are afforded opportunities to resume involvement in our culture.
We house criminals, because while we acknowledge that they often made improper choices, they are still people.
We should house murderers and allow them to be punished by living with the consequences of their actions, until they die of natural causes.
California legislators understand that prisons and jails must have the space to accommodate criminals.
As a result, they passed the Public Safety and Offender Rehabilitation Services Act of 2007. It provided $7.7 billion to add jail and prison beds.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Web site reported that the act’s aim was to rehabilitate and treat criminals. It was also enacted to decrease overcrowding.
People tend to put their money where their mouths are. The state backed the decision to house even the most seemingly inhumane people.
Prisons and jails are supposed to be opportunities to begin the improvement process.
Being locked up is also punishment for faulty actions. The death penalty is the easy way out.
Death penalty advocates must remember to pursue treatment of the dysfunction that is often the root of crime. The death penalty is a break from the recovery process.
To tout notions of redemption and second chances, and kill killers does not solve anything. It does little more than re-emphasize the hypocritical nature of this nation and conveys that the nation’s ethos is off.
Where teaching people to overcome their pasts should be the focus, society throws people into death chambers too quickly.
This is the same society that wants to kill Steven Hayes, the home invasion murderer from Connecticut.
While Hayes’ multiple homicide was heinous, offing him cannot rectify his actions.
The death penalty is indicative of microwaveable morality: something swift and to the point, but not necessarily quality sustenance.
It provides instant gratification, instead of addressing the issues, which are the reasons that people kill.
Criminals in the United States received numerous forms of capital punishment, including lethal injection, the electric chair, hanging, a firing squad and gas chambers.
The same intellectual engagement that created diverse ways to execute people could have been used to give them another chance, or, if nothing else, keep them imprisoned for life.
By ridding the world of a murderer’s physical presence, that will not rid the world of the person’s legacy or logic.
Oftentimes, these killers inspire other killers who want to die in infamy.
Imprisonment for the rest of a murderer’s life is enough punishment. We don’t need anymore courtroom killers.
Editor-in-chief Imani Jackson is a senior mass communication major from Jacksonville, Fla.