Since nobody answered, I thought I would give the other side of the debate.
There are many reasons for abolishing the death penalty. They encompass practical, ethical, and other complex issues. Full disclosure requires me to explain that I am a family member of a man murdered in order to take his car. I wanted the people responsible to be sentenced to death. I no longer feel that way. After spending a number of years advocating to end the death penalty, the following are key reasons I hope people will understand:
There is a risk of executing innocent people. There have been a great many instances where innocent individuals have been sentenced to death. This number is growing, and the irreversible nature of the death penalty means that any mistakes made cannot be rectified.
Many people know that the death penalty means living each day knowing that their execution is a stark reality. What is not known by the general public is that the majority of death row prisoners live under conditions of extreme isolation affecting their physical and mental health. Extreme isolation has been found to be similar to physical torture.
A sentence of death is, in reality, two sentences with the end result being death. However, before that happens, the inmates can spend multiple decades on death row. Critics of the death penalty argue that it constitutes cruel and inhumane punishment. The process of execution, which can involve methods such as lethal injection, electrocution, or gas chamber, can be prone to errors and can lead to unnecessary suffering.
For the justice system must be fair, it must be humane. Whether you are for or against the death penalty, it is important to be aware of the harm inflicted by solitary confinement. Solitary confinement is not part of the sentence. On death row, prisoners are locked alone in small cells for 22 to 24 hours a day. There is little human contact, reduced or no natural light, and severe constraints on visitation, including the inability to ever touch another person. No air conditioning in the summer means living in intolerable heat. Limited heat means intolerable cold in the winter.
The death penalty means we are executing a person who has killed someone to show that killing will not be tolerated. The death penalty is not a deterrence, and it does not cause a cycle of violence and revenge.
I understand why some feel it is needed because I used to be one. Google the death penalty and conditions on death row. This does not even scratch the surface of why the death penalty needs to be abolished. What I wrote doesn’t begin to describe the horrors that most people are not aware are happening.
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