Dear Future President,

The death penalty allows us to slaughter people who are accused of committing major crimes. However, if we kill these criminals, who is to say we’re superior to them? If the death penalty isn't eliminated, certain states will continue to kill guilty and innocent people. As the next President, you have the power to stop this unconstitutional punishment.

Since 1976, 1438 inmates have been executed by the death penalty. In addition, 280 people on the death row were given clemency because of possible innocence or other reasons.  An additional 156 people were exonerated or proven innocent. Although freed, these people can sometimes spend over 30 years of their lives in prison for a crime they didn't commit. Sure, they may keep their life, but now they are without a job, a house, any personal possessions, and a big portion of their lives.  Only 1.6 percent of the inmates are exonerated. That's not even half of the 4.1 percent of the innocents that have been executed. One out of every twenty-five people that were executed where innocent. That may not seem like many, but imagine the difference it makes to that one person’s family.

Killing people is inhumane and unnecessary. The methods of our killing make it all the worse. Not only does the death penalty go against morals but at times it goes against the Constitution. The last botched Oklahoma execution made the inmate writhe in pain for two hours while the drugs seeped into his body. The curtains had to be shut to hide what the warden called a “bloody mess.” The fear that must have already been running through his head must have been undoubtedly gruesome. We tortured and killed him and many others. How come this outrageous penalty is still maintained? Even drug corporations see what we’re doing as appalling, so some have stopped supplying drugs for the executions. Some states have gotten impatient and taken matters into their own hands. Now in certain states, firing squads, the electric chair, and gassing inmates is now legal. These methods violate the Eighth Amendment which bans cruel and unusual punishments. These methods are so unacceptably cruel how could you stand by this barbaric savagery?

If you were to rightfully obliterate the death penalty, quite a few things would have to be modified. For instance, the capital punishment would no longer be death, but a life sentence into not a prison but a less harsh labor camp. This way, criminals would be helping our community, but not wasting as much of our tax dollars. If downstream, an inmate was proved innocent we could call him back from the labor camp. The way things are going now, the innocent inmate won’t be coming back, ever.

There is no way for us as a country to justify our actions. We stoop to the same level as the people we’re killing! How is it that the states with the death penalty find themselves superior to the inmates, when these states are doing the same thing? As kids are often told, two wrongs don’t make a right and yet somehow the death penalty is thought of as justice. I don’t have the power to influence a nation. As the President of the United States you do.  Whether innocent or guilty, you have the power to save lives, use it.

Sincerely,

Leila S