Dear Next President,

The death penalty has been “getting rid of criminals” since 1864. Now we use it to “get rid of people who are thought to be criminals.” Over the years, almost 200 innocent people have died by the hand of the United States death penalty. There are ways to prevent this from happening. We should be doing more investigation before putting people on death row, and making our criminal justice system more like other countries' criminal justice system.

Some people say the death penalty is inhumane in many ways, because if someone commits murder and we kill them for it, isn’t that breaking a moral law? No, it’s not, because the people who die by the hand of the death penalty are criminals, and criminals who committed many offenses should get what they deserve.

I’m all for the death penalty, but I think that we just need to take more time and effort to make sure we have the right people before "flipping the switch" or sticking in the needle. Also, I think you, Next President, should be the one to change the United States forever and make it a lot safer with fewer innocent deaths.

The criminal justice system in other countries works well and I believe that if we do what they do and investigate more, we could save hundreds of innocent lives. The criminal justice system in other countries is a lot better than the US’s criminal justice, because they do a lot more to prevent innocent deaths in their countries. They do more investigation and listen to more of the details before sentencing people to death.

So, in conclusion, the death penalty could be better in the US than it is now. Please, Next President, make our criminal justice system safer.

Sincerely,

Jaxon Todd

8th Grade

Evart Middle School

Evart, Michigan