Concerning the Death Penalty by Joe Delgado

Introduction

In the article “The Case Against the Death Penalty,” which appears in Crime and Criminals: Opposing Viewpoints, Eric Freedman argues that the death penalty not only does not deter violent crime but also works against reducing the crime rate. Freedman says, “The death penalty not only is useless in itself, but counterproductive . . . ” (140). This paper will analyze Freedman’s article from the viewpoints of a middle-age working man, a poor person, and a politician.

Summary

Freedman argues that the death penalty does not deter crime. In his article, he argues that states that use the death penalty have crime rates nearly indistinguishable from those states that do not have the death penalty. He also adds that criminal cases in which the death penalty is sought are much more expensive to investigate and try, thus denying much-needed funds to programs that have been proven to reduce crime.

A Middle-Age Working Man

A middle-age working man would probably agree with Freedman’s point of view with relation to the financial aspect of capital punishment because Freedman talks about how much more the death penalty costs than life imprisonment. He says, “In Florida, each execution costs $3,200,000, six times the expense of life imprisonment” (141). The workingman would probably be amazed at how much the execution actually costs compared to how much life imprisonment costs. The workingman would probably wonder why the death penalty is even sought when life imprisonment seems to accomplish the same goal for much less money.

The working man would also probably agree with Freedman because the workingman would rather see his tax money spent on more productive programs. Freedman says, “The reality is that, in a time of fixed or declining budgets, those