Eliminating crime is a part of our duty as humans. Criminals have become part of our daily lives. Ensuring a just punishment for the rightly convicted is very important. Not everyone who commits a crime should be sentenced to death. For example, a petty thief should not be executed. However, a serial killer that preys on unsuspecting young children does deserve to die. "The worst criminal act is the willful and malicious taking of another's life." (Cullins 113) The death penalty should continue to be used to eliminate the people that have been convicted of severe crimes and as a result are detrimental to our society. "The founding fathers who adopted the Bill of Rights banning 'cruel and unusual punishment' had not problem with implementing the death penalty." (Eddlem 5) The death penalty serves as a deterrent to help reduce crime. It is very difficult to execute an innocent person due to the justice process. The death penalty is not applied based on race. I believe in a life for a life.
"Men should be punished for their own crimes and not merely to deter others. That said, the death penalty undoubtedly does deter in some cases. For starters, those executed will no longer be around to commit any more crimes." (Eddlem 7) The meaning of deterrence is to punish somebody as an example and to create fear in other people for the punishment. Most sane people would fear the extreme punishment of the death penalty. Most criminals would think twice about their actions if they knew that their own lives were at stake. Anti-death penalty advocates argue that life in prison by itself could deter criminals. However, there is nothing stopping inmates from committing further crimes if they are already serving the maximum sentence. "In 1985, a study was published by economist Stephan K. Layson at the University of North Carolina that showed that every execution of a murderer deters, on average, 18 murders.
