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Wawarofsky 1
Hannah Wawarofsky
English 3, Period 1
Mrs.Imhoff
17 April 2024
Why should the Death Penalty be legal?
The room has an eerie feel. The lights are so bright they are almost blue and the room
looks as if it has a filter on it. There is a small window across from the much larger one I'm
looking through. Then there in the middle of the room lies a chair and suddenly I can feel all the
death around me. I am only brought back to reality when I hear the door swing open and several
people walk in talking their seats behind me. A few moments later a man walks in. He has guards
surrounding him and he has chains around his ankles and a longer chain leading to his hands
which are also cuffed. The man who killed my parents was about to be put to his death. I felt no
remorse as the man was being strapped to the chair and being injected. The death penalty puts
those who are evil out of this world.
Throughout human history the death penalty has been used as punishment to numerous
crimes (“...Death penalty’’). The first death penalty laws date back to the Eighteenth Century
BCE, which ordered the death penalty for 25 different crimes. The death penalty was also used in
the Fourteenth Century BCE, and the Seventh Century BCE Draconian Code of Athens, where
death was the only punishment for all crimes. Death sentences were carried out by crucifixion,
beating to death, burning alive, impalement, poison gas, electrocution, shooting, and lethal
injection. The first execution in the colonies was of a man Captain George Kendall in the
Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1608, for being a spy for Spain (“Arguments’’). Today all states
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with the death penalty use lethal injection and might offer another way if the death row inmate
wishes to use it. Throughout the fifties and sixties there were protests over capital punishment
which put a decline on executions. The United States had no executions from 1968 through
1976. In the 1972 case Furman v. Georgia, the supreme court declared capital punishment
unconstitutional as it was done then. The court wanted there to be more laws around what
permitted someone to get the death sentence. In reason there were two groups of states that came
up with their take on what the laws should be. The first group consisted of Texas, Georgia, and
Florida and they outlined a law in which set capital crimes would be punished by death. The law
also had a process of weighing for deciding when the penalty should be applied. The second
group of laws from North Carolina and Louisiana, wanted to overrule the courts objections and
make the death penalty mandatory for anyone convicted of capital crimes. The court ruled the
first group's laws make it constitutional while the second group was declared unconstitutional.
Later in 2005 the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to execute murderers who were under
18 when they commited the crime. More than 3,000 prisoners await on death row across
America, the main reason for the backlog is appeals and that it takes an average of 14 years from
sentence to execution ( “ A history…”). Today there are 55 countries across the world with a
legal death penalty for ordinary crimes. Nine more countries reserve the death sentence for
exceptional crimes. Meanwhile, 112 countries have banned the death penalty legally and 23
more have banned it in practice (“.....Death penalty”).
The death penalty should be legal because criminals who can't be rehabilitated won't have
the chance of parole so they can hurt someone again. “When someone takes a life, the balance of
justice is disturbed. Unless that balance is restored, society succumbs to a rule of violence. Only
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the taking of the murderer’s life restores the balance and allows society to show convincingly
that murder is an intolerable crime which will be punished in kind.’’(Arguments for …. penalty).
Simply put, these people who have committed the worst of crimes should be given the worst of
punishment. Most of the criminals that are condemned to death aren’t sorry for what they have
done, in fact only ⅓ of criminals on death row actually apologize. “In 1991, a young mother
was rendered helpless and made to watch as her baby was executed. The mother was then
mutilated and killed. The killer should not lie in some prison with three meals a day, clean
sheets, cable TV, family visits and endless appeals. For justice to prevail, some killers just need
to die.”(Robert Macy, District Attorney of Oklahoma City)(Arguments for …. penalty).
Although this is only one of millions of cases in which another monster has killed innocents. The
first act of serious murderous activity they should be institutionalized. This keeps more people
safe and even though it wouldn’t solve the problem completely it would decrease the murders of
innocents. The death penalty is in place to prevent the murder who we capture from being
released and killing again.
There is a long extensive process to giving someone a death penalty; it is just something
the court system takes lightly (Federal …. System). They must be able to justify why you are
giving someone the death penalty. The prosecutor first must file a notice of intent to seek the
death penalty. This notice of intent must be filed in a reasonable amount of time before the trial
or before the court's acceptance to plead guilty(Arguments for..). There must be an aggravating
factor in the case in order to pursue the death penalty. Given that the death penalty is only given
to those who commit capital offense such as murder of any kind(not self defense), terrorism,
rape, or war crimes. Most of the people who believe like me the death penalty is a constitutional
and humane punishment for murder, because they have taken a life, therefore forfeiting their
right to their own.
“However, one could debate that this way to pick who gets the death penalty and who
does not is some sort of state-run lottery and only the unfortunate will get their number called.’’
The death penalty could be considered cruel and unusual punishment. 78% of most Americans
believe there is a high chance that one sentence to death is innocent. This is highly plausible
considering that the number of innocent killed so far is about 197. According to the amnesty it is
ultimately cruel to sentence someone to death.

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Wawarofsky 1

Why should the Death Penalty be legal?

those who are evil out of this world.

more have banned it in practice (“.....Death penalty”).

to die.”(Robert Macy, District Attorney of Oklahoma City)(Arguments for …. penalty).

released and killing again.

right to their own.

ultimately cruel to sentence someone to death.

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