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Should America Continue to Use Capital Punishment

In: English and Literature

Submitted By Sweet73
Words 985
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Heather Burrus GE 217 11/27/13 Project Part E

Should America Continue to Use Capital Punishment?

Capital punishment can have many different affects on people, depending on the circumstances at hand. No one really knows if they are for or against capital punishment until something personally happens to them or a family member which makes them see the issue in a whole different light. My own personal experience has made me look at capital punishment a completely different way. I have very mixed emotions on the death penalty; a part of me believes that if a person takes another person’s life that they should get the death penalty and than there is the other part of me that believes that the person should spend the rest of their life in prison without parole, so they can suffer the consequences of there actions.
There are numerous families and loved ones of murder victims that support alternatives to the death penalty for many reasons. For instance, the death penalty process has a traumatizing experience on the families, which is often requires them to relive the pain and suffering of the death of their loved one for many years. Having life without parole provides certain punishment without the endless reopening of wounds. “There are hundreds of millions of dollars that are spent on the death penalty each year. If we were to replace the death penalty with life in prison without parole, we would save million of dollars which than could be spent on violence-prevention efforts, solving unsolved cases and increasing the victims services.” (Death Penalty ProCon.org)
On the other hand there are numerous families and loved ones of murder victims that support the death penalty. The criminal gets caught, is tried and convicted of the crime. While the punishment is going to be severe, the person's life the criminal has taken can no longer

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