1

Can the Death Penalty be Effective?

Student name

University

Course

Professor Name

Date
 2

Can the Death Penalty be Effective?

The existence of the death penalty has caused an uproar and resulted in a dilemma among

global nations. While many people have different opinions, there are still countries where it has

been instituted. The number of criminal offenses can measure the effectiveness of this decree.

This piece of work seeks to critique the death penalty through the lens of its failures where it has

been made legal.

The death penalty is primarily instituted to reduce the number of horrendous crimes

within a given jurisdiction. However, many scholars from the law department have provided

adequate statistics that reflect the death penalty as a failure since it has not yielded positive

impacts as expected. Tures (2017) alludes that the death penalty is standardized among the 20

states with the highest crime rates. This, therefore, means that the reverse is true for the death

penalty as these states have the highest number of crimes compared to those that have not

legalized the act. If the death penalty was effective in reducing crime rates, the statistics could

have reflected a decline or low levels of crime among those states.

By and large, there is zero evidence that proves the death penalty as an effective

punishment to curb criminal acts and their prevalence. The action poses an ethical dilemma as no

one has the moral authority to take life. Offenders charged with this type of punishment have a

high chance of being innocent. The 2017 statistics report saw 137 prison inmates released

following their innocence after trial (Sampathkumar, 2018). The death penalty is ineffective as

people are wrongfully accused.

Over and above, people executed by the death penalty may turn out to be innocent.

Goodman (2021) provided unwavering evidence that depicting a proportion of 4% of people

executed by death as innocent. This act is based on the assumption that people convicted of
 3

criminal acts will fall prey to recidivism. With this kind of thinking, the state decides to end their

lives. However, various programs are set to curb recidivism and welcome such individuals back

to the community as changed individuals rather than offenders. This, therefore, brands the death

penalty as an ineffective punishment and one that should be banned.

From the above analysis, death penalty does not bar individuals from committing

criminal acts. Statistics have proved that states with death penalty are hotbed of criminal acts. In

addition, most people charged with death penalty turn out to be innocent after a profound probe

on their crime files. From the moral dimension, it causes an ethical dilemma as no one has the

authority to take life. Capital punishment is, therefore, an ineffective punishment as it fails to

deliver to its capacity.

 4

References

Goodman, P. (2021 05 July). The Pros and Cons of the Death Penalty. Soapboxie. Retrieved 13

October 2021, from https://soapboxie.com/government/Death-Penalty-Pros-and-Cons.

Sampathkumar, M. (2018). Record number of innocent prison inmates released last year over

misconduct by police, prosecutors, or government officials. The Independent. Retrieved

13 October 2021, from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/prison-

innocent-police-misconduct-prosecutors-inmates-released-exonerations-2017-

a8256521.html.

Tures, J. (2017). Does The Death Penalty Reduce The Murder Rate?. HuffPost. Retrieved 13

October 2021, from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/does-the-death-penalty-

re_b_13362760.