Now isn't that something to be proud of?" ... This is false because the death penalty has been proven NOT to deter crime. ... The death penalty is not now, nor has it ever been a more economical alternative to life imprisonment. ... If the death penalty is not an effective way to deter crime, then what is? ... New York lowered crime rates by putting more police officers on the street, not by longer jail terms or death penalty. ...

• Word Count: 2255
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

Teens are not allowed to drink, drive, nor can they sign their own parental consent; therefore, they are not capable of fully being responsible adults. Teens are not mature until they reach nearly the age 20. ... Sentencing teens to the death penalty is cruel and unreasonable; therefore, juveniles should not be sentenced to the death penalty. ... Murderers do not expect to be caught or to be sentenced to death, so the threat of the death penalty has no effect on them. ... She had been there, and wasn't proud of it, but she knew nothing else. ...

• Word Count: 2202
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

On the other hand, the state of Florida is barbaric, shortsighted and counterproductive in its Draconian practice of putting people to death to teach them not to kill. ... I am against state-sanctioned killing not because of a partisan political position or religious scruple, but because it is illogical and it does not work. ... We are getting more, not less, violent. This tragic irony is not at all surprising. ... Facts like this make me proud of my Catholicism. ...

• Word Count: 2517
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Other points death penalty proponents emphasize is that it costs less than imprisonment and that the life imprisonment without possibility of parole option does not incapacitate convicted murderers from committing murders in prison or on escape. ... Quite to the contrary, capital punishment does not reduce crime. According to a September 22, 2000 article in the Houston Chronicle, abolitionists" assertions that criminals are not deterred by the threat of the death penalty are valid. The article reports that a recent New York Times survey shows that the dozen states that have chosen not to en...

• Word Count: 3235
• Approx Pages: 13
• Grade Level: High School