The Death Penalty: Justice, Safety, and Deterrence

The Death Penalty: Justice, Safety, and Deterrence

      Have you ever wondered why the United States has the death penalty? The United States uses the death penalty as capital punishment, so criminals can realize that doing such horrible crimes will lead to punishment, sooner or later. So therefore, the death penalty is a reasonable punishment system for those who committed a horrible crime because it provides justice, public safety, and deterrence.

First of all, the death penalty provides justice to the victim’s close friends and family because the criminal is killed. The death penalty punishes those who murdered. The victim can rest in peace knowing that the murder is punished by the death penalty. Although oppositionists would argue that once the criminal is executed, the victim still wouldn’t come back, it gives the victim’s family a closure on that matter. They can see that the criminal got what he deserved for killing their beloved. By giving justice to the victim, the death penalty can also provide respect to human life. Edward Koch once said, “It is by extracting the highest penalty for the taking of human life that we affirm the highest value of human life.” To respect human life, we have to execute those who had taken a life before them. Just like the old say, “an eye for an eye”, they have to pay for what they had done. Thus, the death penalty provides justice and respect to the families of victims.

In addition, the death penalty provides public safety. Once a criminal is executed, there is no way that the criminal will be let out to do even more crimes. In an article from The Boston Globe, Execution Saves Innocents, Jacoby says, “But there is more to executions than justice for the dead. There is also protection for the living”. [i] The citizens would not appreciate killers and criminals being out in the open. We would have a higher risk of danger if criminals were not executed. There are many cases where criminals, who were sentenced to...