"The death penalty is constitutional and comports with prevailing understandings of justice. Capital punishment provides the only penalty for murder that is proportionate to the crime committed. Capital punishment deters future murders, provides a means by which society can express its outrage at the crime of murder, and provides closure to the families of victims of this heinous crime. Opponents of capital punishment who argue that this crime is improper or constitutional because it is disproportionately used against people of color and the poor mistake an argument against unjust applications of capital punishment for an argument against its use altogether. Procedures should be developed that insure that capital punishment is administered fairly and equally across races and classes, but once this is done the death penalty should be sued as a means of punishment against murders.".
Since biblical times, society has used "an eye for an eye" as their strategic solution for those who have committed murder. "The first person sentenced to death in the U.S was in 1608 for spying for the Spanish government." (http://www.antideathpenalty.org/history.html). Crime, criminals, and the overall aspect of the criminal justice system have always been intriguing and debatably controversial. Why does the government deem murder against the law when, as a solution, they are executing those who commit murder, themselves? Does capital punishment deter crime? Should the United States abolish the death penalty due to the enormous financial deficit that comes with keeping someone on death row?.
In this day and age, research not only illustrates that the death penalty is complex, in more ways than one, but has also raised questions about its relation to deterring crime and the financial impact that it has on society. Retentionists are those who place themselves for the death penalty. "They argue that only the death penalty can adequately protect society; because criminals who are given a life sentence are often paroled and thus able to commit other crimes" (Neumayer, 2007).
