Death Penalty Essay -- essays research papers

In society today there are murders committed everyday. Everyday the people who commit these crimes are found guilty in a court of law and sentenced in prison. Some even get chances for parole. What the courts should do is take every murderer, give every one of them the death penalty, and follow through with it. The death penalty should be legal in all 50 states and carried through when given out as a sentence. Gary Gilmore faced a firing squad at the Utah State Prison on January 17, 1977. There have been 55 murders in that state during 1976. During 1977, in wake of the Gilmore execution, there were 44 murders: a 20 percent decrease. As you can see, the execution had some effect on the murder rate in Utah (Solotaroff 2001). There are very few proven facts about capital punishment decreasing crime at this time. This is so because capital punishment is not used enough to actually have an effect on people. It is a fact that of all murder sentences that 38 percent get the death penalty. Of that 38 percent only 0.1 percent are executed. If we use the death penalty more often and actually carry through with it, it will have an effect on the crime rate in the country. People will see that finally we have justice in this country and if they do this, there is a good chance they are going to be caught and they are going to receive the death penalty. We also need the death penalty in this country because if we execute the murderer that person has no chance to ever kill or harm another p...