Capital Punishment By Garrett Emberton Thesis Statement Capital

Capital Punishment By Garrett Emberton

Thesis Statement Capital punishment is acceptable under certain circumstances, and offers some benefits.

Capital Punishment Capital punishment, or to be specific the death penalty. Is indeed a gruesome thing that should not be taken lightly. Taking someone’s life should always be the last resort to solving a conflict.

The Death Penalty The death penalty is something that shouldn’t be needed. But, sadly the world we live in today is full of degenerate psychopaths and sexual predators, and because of the large quantities of these kinds of people it is hard to handle all of them. These people are beyond saving and are a waste of taxpayers money, effort, and time.

When is it right? There are two types of people who deserve the death penalty. 1)People who commit a horrendous crime that cannot be forgiven. 2)Repeat offenders who are beyond saving and refuse help.

People who commit unforgivable crimes Crimes such as this include mass murders, extremely violent or disturbing murders, and people who are pedophiles. Some people may argue that maybe pedophiles could get help for their “condition”. But I simply think this is an excuse to hide behind. If you have any desire to have sexual relations with a child you are a disgusting individual and the only “cure” for you is prolonged lack of oxygen.

People who refuse or neglect help Lets say you’re a petty thief or meth junkie, Who does nothing but cause death, pain, and misery. When offered help you completely ignore the advice and continue in your low life ways. To me you’re a menace to society and since you don’t want the help there is no reforming you. You don’t deserve to peacefully serve out your sentence by bumming off taxpayers money.

When is it right? These things are complete monsters who are deeply psychologically troubled and cannot be reformed. We can either give one of these psychos three hot meals a day, free room and board, and paid television. Or we can nip the problem in the bud and stop wasting time and money on vermin like this.

People worth saving there are some who kill and are not, in my opinion, worthy of the death penalty. Such as when a crime is morally justifiable. For instance, if a parent’s child was murdered senselessly or sexually assaulted in any form. And He/She, in a fit of rage, killed the assailant. I do not think he/she should be executed. For the assailant deserved it and deserves no sympathy.

People worth saving cont. There are some people in the past who have been executed who I do not think rightfully deserved it. There are countless scenarios where the death penalty isn’t the best thing to do. Execution isn’t always the proper punishment. Such as Edith Thompson, who was tried as an accessory to murder and lynched.

Edith Thompson was bored with her husband started having an affair with a sea merchant named Freddy Bywaters. She would sleep with him when he was at port and while he was away, write him letters describing how she was trying to murder husband, proclaiming her extreme devotion to him to try and persuade Bywaters to stay faithful to her.

Edith Thompson Cont. One day Edith was walking with her husband Bywaters jumped out and stabbed him to death. Bywaters was soon arrested, along with Edith, when the police found all the letters that she had sent him while he was away. When she found out she was going to hang, she was inconsolable. They had to drag her kicking and screaming to the gallows and tie her down to the trapdoor.

Edith Thompson Execution When the trapdoor fell and the rope jerked Edith’s neck it caused a huge torrent of blood to gush from her and onto the ground. And the fact that since she had gained weight while refusing food while waiting to be hanged implied that she was pregnant. The hangman John Ellis was mortified, and immediately quit his job and became a reclusive drunk who eventually took is own life by cutting his throat.

Was it right? In my opinion she did not deserve to die. Her actions and choices were not morally good by any means but it doesn’t mean she should die for it. I think that a much more suitable punishment would be life in prison. If she had committed the crime then I think she should die. But she obviously regretted the decision, so there was a possibility she could have been reformed.

Benefits of the death penalty Money is saved by not having to feed, cloth, house, and entertain psychopaths. Keeps psychopaths out of the streets and helps keep innocent people safe. Serves as a deterrent to would be psychopaths and makes them think twice about doing horrible things.

Money Saved If people who need to be executed are swiftly dealt with it saves the prison money, because they don’t have to baby sit the criminal by paying for his food, water use, and other luxuries. All this money is wasted by keeping death row inmates in jail.

Money Saved the cost of keeping a criminal locked up is very expensive. Let’s say the average cost per meal for a prisoner is 4$. At 3 meals per day, seven days a week for a year. The total amount of money spent on this criminal is 4, 380 dollars every year. And that is just ONE prisoner and doesn’t include clothes, water and sanitary supplies, or entertainment.

Money Saved all of this money could be used to strengthen or better equip our police forces. Anywhere would be a suitable place as long as it’s not wasted on housing criminals.

Keeps Public Safe if all the psychopaths are in jail waiting to be or have been executed then we don’t have to worry about them terrorizing innocent civilians. These people are menaces who will always go back to harming people and cannot be helped to do otherwise.

Keeping Public Safe cont. So every “rightful” execution keeps a dangerous criminal off the streets and saves more innocent lives in exchange for one soiled one. And is a reasonable act for the greater good.

Deterrence Capital punishment does, to some extent, deter criminals from performing crimes or at least lessens the severity of them. I agree that some people who commit crimes such as this don’t care whether they live or die. But the people that do care, means that they may not commit a heinous crime out of fear of being erxecuted.

Deterrence cont. If this one person lessens his crime, such as stealing someone's car with no intent to kill them, or doesn’t commit one at all, then 1 life or multiple lives can be saved. And if only one life was saved then it was worth it.

Capital Punishment can be a valuable asset used to deal with heartless criminals or be abused and make us no different than the culprits that we persecute.

Source 1 King, Florence, . "Hankie for a Hangman. " National Review. 31 10 2011: p 41 -41.

Source 2 Mnaton, Kevin, . "Labour Governments and Capital Punishment, 1924 -1970. " Labour History Review (Maney Publishing). 4 2011: p 16 -33.