Arguments for Capital Punishment

  • Humans who take the life of others do not have the right to live themselves.
  • The death penalty is the appropriate punishment for criminals who have committed brutal crimes.
  • The death penalty serves as a deterrent for potential criminals who might think twice before they do something awful.
  • Life imprisonment is expensive and costs the state too much money.



Arguments against Capital Punishment

  • Lower class citizens and ethnic minorities are sentenced to death more often than middle or upper classes and whites.
  • The death penalty is always immoral. We have no right to take the lives of others, even if they have committed a serious crime.
  • The death penalty is not the appropriate penalty for crimes other than murder.
  • The judicial system makes mistakes. There have been a number of wrongful executions in the past. DNA testing can prove that an executed inmate was, in fact, innocent.
  • Life imprisonment is a more effective way of punishing a criminal.



Words

  • appropriate = right, correct
  • awful = terrible
  • citizen = a person who lives in a country and has rights there
  • commit = carry out
  • deterrent = strong warning; if you show someone that doing something illegal will have bad results
  • DNA = material that carries the genetic information of the cells in your body
  • effective = useful, successful
  • ethnic minorities = small groups of people from other countries and nationalities
  • immoral = not right
  • inmate = prisoner
  • innocent = not guilty
  • judicial system = system of laws and courts in a country
  • life imprisonment = being locked up in prison for your whole life
  • potential = possible, future
  • punishment = you make someone suffer because they have done something illegal
  • sentence = to give someone a form of punishment
  • serious = grave, bad
  • serve = here: works as
  • wrongful execution = here: when a person who has been executed later turns out to have been innocent