Is the Death Penalty an effective punishment? I would say yes. Once a killer is executed they can never kill again, but the Death Penalty does not stop people from killing others, the only thing it does stop is killers from killing again. I think a functionalist would support the Death Penalty saying that it would help reinforce normal behavior in society. I feel we really are not supposed to kill each other, and two wrongs don't make a right, but I also feel that if someone kills a person they should be sentenced to death themselves. No one deserves to die unless god is ready to take them. I don't feel like anyone's life should be taken from them by another human being for any reason. Most people don't really think about what consequences they will have to face when they are committing the crimes they do. If a person commits a crime as horrific as murder, I think they would probably rather die themselves then sit in prison for the rest of their life, and have to deal with the fact that they have took someone's life,. But the flip side of this matter is many people feel like Death is the easy way out for the killer. Why not let the killer sit in jail for the rest of their life and have to wake up every morning knowing that they are in jail for life because they killed someone, so now they will have to suffer just like their victim did. Most people who kill turn around and take their own life so once again they won't have to deal with the fact that they took someone's life. Personally, I think that if I killed someone, I would want to die because I would not and could not want to live my life knowing that I killed someone. I feel like by sitting in jail day after day, I would have so much time to think about what I did and how it was wrong, but I am still be living, receiving my three meals a day, watching television sleeping etc. and my victim is dead. I don't think that is fair, they should have to go through what their victim went through.