The death penalty is the highest punishment available to the U.S. Government. It is only used in rare cases and has a enormous amount of filters in place in order to insure that no innocent person is put to death. But is this necessary action? Do we not have prisons that allow for absolutely no escape, if the persons crimes deserve it? Do we not offer closure to families who have lost there loved ones by taking away all meaning of a criminals life by hiding them in a room? Charles Manson for example is still alive today. He is accepted by most as one of the most disturbing individuals to ever exist as well as one of the most dreaded murderers in our nations history. Charles Manson was responsible for the death of nine people, a crime where if the rule “an eye for an eye” applied, we would have to kill this man nine times over. But instead we have stowed him away in a cell. He will never hurt anyone again and has effectively been removed from society. This allows us, as a people, to do something that separates us from such monsters; show mercy. By executing a murderer we are effectively stooping to their level. Some might say the difference is is that we do it for revenge for our lost people when a killer could very easily have the same motivations that to them, could seem nobler than any form of justice. Then there is the question of whether or not, as a nation, we can take someones life. As a people, Americans have entered into a social contract with our government where in order to have the services that our government provides, we have had to sacrifice some of our rights. For social security we sacrifice the property of money just like for protection we sacrifice the freedom to commit a crime and harm society. But where does this line end; in our contract as American citizens have we unwillingly put the one thing that absolutely defines humanity into the equation? “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”-The Declaration of independence. A life is priceless and I believe that our society can rise above the sense of revenge that plagues human history and recognize this basic unalienable right to life. This is why the death penalty is wrong and why life imprisonment should be the highest punishment.
This blog post is an official entry for the <a href=”http://www.joshuapondlaw.com/scholarship”>Law Blogger’s Scholarship</a>, sponsored by The Law Office of Joshua Pond, <a href=”http://www.joshuapondlaw.com/”>http://www.joshuapondlaw.com</a>.
