Justin Goetz
The facts levied against the death penalty are simple and telling. The death penalty does not deter murder. Instead, states that have the death penalty see the highest per-capita murder rates in the country, a trend that hasn’t changed over time. The most murders and 80 percent of all executions occur in the South. The Northeast had only 1 percent of all executions, and has the least amount of murders per capita nationwide. Simply put, if a person is going to murder, they do not think about the lives of those they kill, let alone the judicial consequences.
Moreover, the costs of housing and convicting a death row inmate are greater than life imprisonment. In Texas, the average cost of a death row inmate is three times the cost of a prisoner in maximum security for 40 years-and that’s the most cost-effective system in the country. It costs us more as taxpayers, and it doesn’t protect us.
What does it do? Execution provides only one “benefit” for society-revenge. Millions of dollars ($114 million in California alone) are wasted on this reprisal. It solves nothing, it doesn’t bring back the victim, and it doesn’t provide society or the victim’s family with full recompense. Really, the death penalty shouldn’t even appeal to crass revenge seekers. Life behind bars is a hell on earth, and lethal injection is but dying in your sleep.
The heart of the death penalty debate does not revolve around the death row inmate. Instead, this issue is about who we are as a society, and whether we can join all other industrialized countries in condemning this foolish act.
#1.884029:1661942133.jpg:Goetz, Justin.jpg:Justin Goetz, From the Left:
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