Dear Future President,

I believe that the death penalty is a punishment unnecessary to be given to people who are criminals. The death penalty is still legal in 31 states and it needs to be brought down to zero. We need to make it illegal in the US.

One major problem with the death penalty is that people who are on death row or who have been on death row view the death penalty is better than having to get life in prison. For example a man named David Zink who was executed because of the death penalty had said, “ For those who remain on death row, understand that everyone is going to die. … Statistically speaking, we have a much easier death than most, so I encourage you to embrace it and celebrate our true liberation before society figures it out and condemns us to life without parole and we too will die a lingering death.” (Holloway 2). Another major problem with the death penalty is the cost to convict someone of the death penalty costs $3.5 million where if someone was convicted of the death penalty it would cost $150,000. This happens because of how long it takes to settle a death penalty case that usually takes 25 years. One of the worst things that can happen in the situation of the death penalty is wrongful conviction where innocent people end up on death row and also get executed when they have done nothing wrong. One example of this is a man named Henry McCollum who through DNA evidence was found not guilty of killing an 11 year old girl after he had already spent 30 years on death row.

The death penalty is the wrong thing to be punishment for the worst criminals. Instead of the death penalty people should receive life in prison without parole where it will be a harder way of life the worst people who have done terrible things. Life in prison is way cheaper than the death penalty and it is a way shorter than the death penalty for a conviction.The death penalty from now on should be replaced with life in prison for the better of the people of the US.

Sincerely,

Brian

Work Cited

Holloway, Philip. "Death Penalty: Why America Needs a Rethink." CNN. Cable News Network, 26 July 2015. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.