Right now, convicted murderers and rapists are walking free because they were not given the death penalty. They managed to go free because they get out of prison on parole or they plea bargain their case. People are trying to abolish the death penalty because they say it is inhumane and they fear that innocent people may be wrongfully executed. In 1999, out of almost 1.5 million violent crimes, there were over 15,000 murders and just under 90,000 forcible rapes (www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_00/00crime2_2.pdf). However, there were only 98 executions(Alter pg. 26). Capital punishment should not be abolished because is keeps criminals from ever getting back out where they can cause more harm, it is not inhumane or cruel and it is the harshest punishment possible within the Constitution , and it is an effective deterrent of violent crime.
Many convicted criminals who should be kept away from society forever are able to get out and cause more harm. For example, up to 13,000 American citizens are murdered each year by released and paroled criminals. Obviously, this is much worse than the twenty-three wrongful executions in the United States in the past century (www.geocities.com/Area51/Capsule/2698/cp.html#risk). There needs to be increased usage of the death penalty in order to lower the number of people murdered by already convicted criminals. Also, on February 11, 1990, six inmates escaped from a maximum-security prison in Illinois (Wekesser pg. 102). It seems that the prison system is not enough protection for Americans. Parole is another fault in our prison system. Every few years an inmate goes a parole board that determines whether our not he deserves to be set free before the end of his sentence, which in many cases is life (Alter pg. 35). If the person is set free his is able to cause even more harm to society. This is the unfortunate truth that many death penalty abolitionists fail to notice.