Lopez 1

Pedro Lopez
Ms. Burnett/ Mr. Okamoto
Eng Per.1/Econ Per.5
23 November 2014
The Systems Expensive Solution is a Waste
The death penalty has been a way to punish a person for crimes that they have committed
and is a practice used worldwide. Over the years there has been several adjustments to the death
penalty system. One of the gruesome killing methods that were at some point considered the
norm was quartering. Quartering is when the person convicted of the crime was tide up from
every limb to a horse. When the horses received the order, they would run in different directions
at once, leaving the convicts body parts scattered. Today, now considered capital punishment, is
not allowed. Stoning however is still in use today in other countries in the Middle East. New
methods for executions have been introduced since then. One of which is the lethal injection that
is now facing questioning for recent incidents. The reason that the death penalty has changed
over time is because peoples perspectives have change over time as well. Around the time
America was born, hanging was a popular method for execution. Today, however, we now
consider hanging cruel and unusual, this is called capital punishment. Not only is hanging a
person considered cruel, but it is also considered inhumane. Some people believe that the death
penalty is the right thing to do; while others believe it is unjustified. The death penalty is
functional because taxpayers pay for it. The death penalty should not be allowed because the
whole process of execution is inhumane and the money that taxpayers pay to keep the death
penalty functional can be use for other uses.

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The death penalty is practiced in the United States, as well as in other countries. The
article, The Death Penalty Is Never Humane, by James A. Fox, is about the systems new method
to execute its inmates. The U.S. now joins the Top 5 Execution List, and is among China, Iran,
Iraq, and Pakistan. This is a problem that has to stop because the U.S. has too many executions
which has caused the U.S. to become known for this practice around the world. According to Bill
Mears, a news reporter for CNN that wrote, Study: States Cant Afford Death Penalty, California
has the nations largest death row population. A large number of inmates are still waiting for their
sentence. Many of the inmates who are waiting for their sentence end up dying before having a
chance to say their part of the story. Ian Urbina wrote an article titled, New Execution Method
Used in Ohio, for the New York Times; in it she states that the new method to be used to execute
inmates is a lethal injection. This type of injection is very similar to the kind of injections that are
used to euthanize animals. Lethal injections are used in vast majority of executions, but
electrocution, the gas chamber, hanging and firing squad remain as alternative methods (Mears).
Experts have made claims that this one-drug lethal injection is painless (Urbina). Yet, an inmate
convicted of murder whom was sentenced to death in Ohio, was the first victim of capital
punishment to use this new method. This case was considered capital punishment because this
inmate seemed to be the lab rat of the experiment. He was the first person in the U.S. to ever
receive this untested drug.
Most Americans believe the death penalty is justified because it gets rid of dangerous
criminals. Nora Caplan-Bricker, the publisher of the article Mr. Death Penalty, talks about
several cases in which the killing process of the death penalty goes terribly wrong. 60% of
Americans, according to ABC News, support capital punishment (Caplan). Most of these
people do not really understand that inmates do not just die, but during the process they suffer.

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Michael Gonchar, publisher of the article Should the United States Stop Using the Death
Penalty?, said, the courts looks to the number of states whether its use is frequent or declining.
If the states stop using the punishment, it is considered cruel and unusual (Gonchar). This means
that courts can end capital punishment if they stop executions. In the Glass V. Louisiana case of
1985, Jimmy L. Glass and his lawyers argued that death by the electric chair violates the Eight
Amendment. But they lost to the court and Glass was sentenced to death by the state of
Louisiana. Such conclusions were reached, because the method of electrocution does not violate
the Eight Amendment (Fox).
The death penalty is inhumane and needs to stop for various reasons. There is no good
way to kill a person, says Nick Gillespie, the publisher of the article Why the Death Penalty
Needs To Die. In this article Gillespie writes about his point of view towards the death penalty.
The death penalty should end because it is a moral disaster. Fox said, the death penalty is an
archaic and barbaric practice. I agree with both Gillespie and Fox because the end result is still
the same; the inmates die by the courts decision. Whether someone is taking a persons life
under the name of justice, to me this is still capital punishment.
The system is also inhumane because innocent people end up in death row. Eighteen
documented innocent people have been saved from executions over the past fifteen years
(Gillespie). In 2008, a state appointed commission stated that the system was plagued with
excessive delay. Erick Eckholm, and John Schwartz the publishers of the article, California
Death Penalty System is Unconstitutional, Federal Judge Rules, writes about the system being
unconstitutional because of time-consuming delays. According to Eckholm and Schwartz,
forty percent of Californias 748 death row inmates have been there for more than nineteen
years. Some inmates die before their case file gets in the hands of a judge.

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Supporters of the death penalty also say that the lethal injection is more effective than
other methods. Certain nations prohibit execution drugs to be exported to the U.S. drug
manufactures (Fox). The reason for prohibiting this drug is because in some cases, the drug does
not work correctly and the nation that exported the drug can be blamed for the incident. The first
to use the lethal injection in the U.S. was with a person convicted of murder in Ohio (Urbina).
The reason they decided to start the lethal injection as a new method to execute inmates
sentenced to death was because of a failure earlier in Ohio, November 2009. The publishers of
the article Arizona Killer Takes 2 Hours to Die, Fueling Lethal-Injection Debate, by Cindy
Carcamo, Matt Pearce, and Maya Srickrishnan, said that the governor of Arizona had to order an
investigation because of the botched execution that occur in July 23rd of this year.
Supporters say the lethal injection is humane but is not because recent cases have proved
them wrong. The one-drug lethal injection takes around 10 minutes to take effect (Urbina). In
those 10 minutes while the drug takes effect, the inmate is well aware of its surroundings.
Inmates know that they will die physically but while they wait for the drug to take effect they are
being hurt mentally. Leigh Jones, the publisher of the article Midday Roundup: Oklahoma
Investigates Execution That Went Horribly Wrong, writes about the execution that happened in
Oklahoma where an inmate began writhing on the gurney after being injected by the one-drug
injection. After prison officials noticed something was obviously wrong, they stopped the
execution, but Lockett died 40 minutes after of a heart attack (Jones). In another case, inmate
Michael Wilsons last agonizing word were I feel my whole body burning (Caplan), this is
another example that the death penalty is in no doubt inhumane. But most surprising was Joseph
Woods execution. The Arizona execution apparently botched, as the inmate Joseph Wood took
two hours to die. According to witnesses there, Wood was gasping for air struggling to breathe.

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The process took too long that his attorneys filled emergency appeals to save his life. But while
the attorneys where on the phone, they were told that Wood was pronounced dead (Pearce,
Carcamo, Srickrishnan).
Opponents of the death penalty also make claims that these practices are costly.
According to Gillespie, the death penalty is and always has been a financial and moral disaster.
Gillespie has a point because it is not just the killing part of the process that is expensive, but
also the whole process of finding enough evidence to convict the prosecutor to death. Taxpayers
pay and waste money for a system that gets rid of dangerous criminals in an inhumane way. In
2009, Florida put to death two men; each execution was around $24 million dollars (Mears).
According to a member of California Crime Victims (CCV), the death penalty cost hundreds of
millions of dollars, more than life without parole. This means that it cost less to keep inmates
alive than to kill them.

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The Following data come from the Death Penalty Information Center:
The data above shows how much the death penalty system costs in just California and
this is not including other states. Between 1980-2012, California spent $4 billion dollars
administering death penalty cases while actually executing 13 individuals, said Gillespie. This
means that in thirty-two years, billions of dollars have been wasted and only thirteen persons
have been executed. Death Penalty cost an average $10 million dollars more than per year per
state than life sentences (Mears). This means that it benefits the states more if they keep their
inmates alive.
Americans not only waste money in something useless, but in something that is un-talked
about. According to Caplan, most Americans dont spent time thinking about the death
penalty. If taxpayers do not know much about the death penalty, why do states use the money
from the taxpayers to pay for the death penalty? The death penalty is becoming irrelevant in
American Society and it may not last another 10 years (Gonchar). States should stop wasting
that money in the death penalty system and get criminals off the streets. 46% of murder goes

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unsolved every year in California (member of CCV). The death penalty is a waste of money and
it has no effect on murder rates, said Gillespie in his article.
The solution is not to kill criminals already captured; rather the solution is to get
dangerous criminals off the streets. States should use the money from taxpayers to increase
homicide investigators instead of using the money for the death penalty. Inmates have it worse
being sentenced without a chance of parole than being executed. If they are in prison, they will
constantly be reminded of the horrible act they committed. With more homicide investigators,
more criminals will get captured and keep taxpayers safe in the streets. The death penalty system
should end because it is already considered dysfunctional according to the Chief of Justice,
Ronald M. George (Eckholm). Part of this problem is that the states have added unnecessary,
time-consuming delays (Mears). According to Gonchar, 18 states have already ended capital
punishment and governors of 3 other states have halted their executions. This means that the
executions stop but the cycle continues. Due to several incidents with the lethal injection, death
penalty states are experimenting with other drug combinations and are now looking for new
methods to execute its inmates (Jones). Although, states that still have the death penalty system
are decreasing (Gonchar).
To conclude, the death penalty should end in and outside U.S. boundaries. Although some
believe the death penalty is justified, it is still not because of the large amount of money being
wasted in the death penalty system itself. The death penalty system is inhumane and
dysfunctional. It has time-consuming delays; the longer the trial takes the more money will end
up being wasted. Several recent cases are examples that the lethal injection is not humane and
inmates suffer before they actually die. This in other words is considered capital punishment.
There is not a single good reason why a person should suffer while going through the whole

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process of the death penalty. The purpose of the death penalty is for the inmate to be executed
humanely. Inmates should be sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole instead of
being executed. Some people believe that death is an inmates easy way out. They would rather
die than be reminded of their crime everyday in prison. The solution is simply to use the money
that the death penalty system uses from taxpayers and increase the number of homicides
investigators. An increase of homicide investigators will put to use the money in a beneficial
way, to capture dangerous criminals of the streets where innocent lives are at risk. Not only
should the taxpayers money be use for homicides investigators, but also be used for education,
public parks and many other public uses to better our society.

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Works Cited
Caplan-Bricker, Nora. "Mr. Death Penalty." Www.nationaljournal.com. National Journal,
6 Sept. 2014. Web. 30 Oct. 2014.
Carcamo, Cindy, Matt Pearce, and Maya Srikrishnan. "Arizona Killer Takes 2 Hours to
Die, Fueling Lethal-injection Debate." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 23 July
2014. Web. 30 Oct. 2014.
Eckholm, Erik, and John Schwartz. "California Death Penalty System Is
Unconstitutional, Federal Judge Rules." The New York Times. The New York Times, 16
July 2014. Web. 30 Oct. 2014.
Fox, James Alan. "The Death Penalty Is Never Humane." OnFaith. Religion News Service,
28 July 2014. Web. 30 Oct. 2014.
Gillespie, Nick. "Why the Death Penalty Needs to Die." The Daily Beast.
Newsweek/Daily Beast, 31 July 2014. Web. 30 Oct. 2014.
Gonchar, Michael. "Should the United States Stop Using the Death Penalty?" The
Learning Network Should the United States Stop Using the Death Penalty
Comments. The New York Times, 8 Apr. 2014. Web. 30 Oct. 2014.
In CCV, Memember. "The Silent Crisis in California: Unsolved Murders." California Crime
Victims. California Crime Victims, 7 Apr. 2010. Web. 30 Oct. 2014.
Jones, Leigh. "WORLD | Midday Roundup: Oklahoma Investigates Execution That Went
Horribly Wrong | Leigh Jones | April 30, 2014." WORLD. WORLD Real Matters, 30 Apr.
2014. Web. 30 Oct. 2014.
Mears, Bill. "Study: States Can't Afford Death Penalty." CNN. Cable News Network, 20
Oct. 2009. Web. 30 Oct. 2014.
Urbina, Ian. "New Execution Method Is Used in Ohio." The New York Times. The New
York Times, 08 Dec. 2009. Web. 30 Oct. 2014.