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Austin Bowers

4/18/16
Miss. Reed
Comp 1

Death Penalty
People die every day, thats just a fact, but why should one die from the death penalty?
The death penalty has been around since the first civilizations. So far, 1,188 people
were executed in the US from 1977 through 2009, primarily by means of lethal injection
(procon). Knowing this, ask yourself these questions, why do we do this and what is the
protocol to enact this, how can nonlethal action be beneficial, and how humane is this?
There are reasons that people support the death penalty; here are the pros for
using the death penalty. They being that murderers/serial killers and terrorist will no
longer have an opportunity to hurt or kill people. Another point may be that some people
may get closure by having that person out of their lives. But, then again, where there is
a pro, there has to be a con. The cons of the death penalty are that to kill one person,
taxpayers pay up to $1.26 million. $90,000 of which is just for maintaining the death row
prisoner. Other than paying over a million dollars to keep and kill someone on death
row, there is the possibility that s/he may have been innocent. One example is Carlos
DeLuna. In 1983, Carlos was convicted and killed for the fatal stabbing of Texas
convenience store clerk Wanda Lopez. Later, new evidence came to light of a man,
Carlos Hernandez, with a similar criminal record, had confessed to the murder. This
shows that the court system isnt perfect, and mistakes like these can and will happen.
Lets now ask the question, why would you get put on death row? Most death
penalty cases involve the execution of murderers although capital punishment can also
be applied for treason, espionage, and other crimes (procon). This definition goes on

the premise of an eye for an eye. This could be a good way to look at it, on paper, but
its flawed. A better way of looking at it may be an eye for a foot. The eye represents a
crime and the foot represents non-lethal action. The non-lethal action would be life
without parole (LWOP). LWOP does come with benefits.
Choosing the nonlethal option can actually be a good thing. This being that the
inmate may get put to work such as community service or a prison job. These
opportunities are awarded to inmates that go an amount of days, weeks, months, or
years without infractions or write-ups, basically good behavior. Examples of a prison
jobs would be food service, orderly, plumber, painter, or groundskeeper. The payment
for each job can be between 12 and 40 per hour. (Federal Bureau of Prisons) These
jobs may teach inmates new skills to help them earn money, and put them on a good
track for a good or more enjoyable life.
What if you dont choose the nonlethal option? What happens? To answer that,
imagine the scenario of your death, will it be peaceful in your sleep, or will it be strapped
into a chair, having dangerous drugs injected into you. Which would you want to
happen? With that in mind, lets take a look at Image 1 down below. This image shows
the process of how Lethal Injection (LI) is applied. This process makes the inmate go
brain dead. Panel one is the most humane part of the process, the person receiving LI
is knocked out. Panel two is basically suffocating the inmate by using Pancuronium
bromide, which is a muscle relaxant paralyzes the diaphragm and lungs, preventing the
inmate from breathing. In the third and final panel, Potassium Chloride is pumped into
the heart which makes it stop beating. By using these three steps, the executioner will
have stopped the blood flow and oxygen to the brain. Take out the first step and you

have torture. So, apparently this is the most humane option the government could think
of. Think for a minute about what humane means to you. Is this humane?
In closing, these are the reasons why the death penalty shouldnt be used by
todays standards. The flaws are that your innocent until proven guilty isnt always right,
Carlos DeLuna was killed an innocent man. Sentencing people to LWOP will give jobs
to convicts that may help out a community in need of community service. Lastly, the
process is one step away from torture. Is cutting off the oxygen and blood flow to a
persons brain more humane than just keeping them alive and working for the greater
good?

(Image 1)

Work Cited
BOP: Work Programs. Federal Bureau of Prisons. N.p. n.d. Web. April 8, 2016
https://www.bop.gov/inmates/custody_and_care/work_programs.jsp
ProConorg Headlines. Death Penalty ProCon.org. N.p. n.d. Web. April 8, 2016
http://deathpenalty.procon.org/

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