Downfalls of Capital Punishment

        Looking out for the state of the publics satisfaction in the
scheme of capital sentencing does not constitute serving justice.
Todays system of capital punishment is frought with inequalities and
injustices. The commonly offered arguments for the death penalty are
filled with holes. It was a deterrent. It removed killers. It was the
ultimate punishment. It is biblical. It satisfied the publics need
for retribution. It relieved the anguish of the victims
family.(Grisham 120) Realistically, imposing the death penalty is
expensive and time consuming. Retroactively, it has yet to be proven
as a deterrent. Morally, it is a continuation of the cycle of violence
and ...degrades all who are involved in its enforcement, as well as
its victim.(Stewart 1)

        Perhaps the most frequent argument for capital punishment is
that of deterrence. The prevailing thought is that imposition of the
death penalty will act to dissuade other criminals from committing
violent acts. Numerous studies have been created attempting to prove
this belief; however, [a]ll the evidence taken together makes it hard
to be confident that capital punishment deters more than long prison
terms do.(Cavanagh 4) Going ever farther, Bryan Stevenson, the
executive director of the Montgomery based Equal Justice Initiative,
has stated that people are increasingly realizing that the more we
resort to killing as a legitimate response to our frustration and
anger with violence, the more violent our society becomesWe could
execute all three thousand people on death row, and most people would
not feel any safer tomorrow.(Frame 51) In addition, with the growing
humanitarianism of modern society, the number of inmates actually put
to death is substantially lower than 50 years ago. This decline
creates a situation in which the death penalty ceases to be a
deterrent when the populace begins to think that one can get away with
a crime and go unpunished....