Open Letter to Death Penalty Supporters

Dear death penalty supporters,

Is the Death Penalty really necessary to have as a punishment? Do we really need to kill people for doing something wrong? I believe that the death penalty should not be used in any country under any circumstance, unless it is a very very special case, because it is discriminatory, a denial of human rights, and does not deter crime. My goal is to make you realize that sentencing someone to the death penalty is inhumane and wrong.

The first reason that the death penalty should be abolished is because it discriminatory. Studies have shown that you are more likely to be sentenced with the death penalty if you are poor or you belong to a racial, ethnic or religious minority group. According to Death Penalty Information Center, jurors in Washington are 3 times more likely to suggest a death penalty for black defendants compared to white defendants. In Louisiana, the chance of a death sentence is 97% higher if the victim was white compared to if the victim was black. These types of racial discriminations lead to completely unreasonable death sentences, leading to the death of someone who probably did not deserve to be killed.

The justice system is taking the lives of people based of their race. They are taking the lives of parents, daughters and sons because they are from a discriminated minority.

Another reason that the death penalty should be banned is because it is inhumane and a denial of human rights. The legal methods of execution are deemed ‘painless’ but they sound terrifying to almost anyone. In the US, the 5 legal methods of execution are lethal injection, electrocution, firing squad, hanging, and gassing. Electrocution requires the death row inmate to be strapped to a chair and one of the conductions (with a metal bar) is secured around a shaved, wet scalp. The electricity is to be conducted straight to the brain causing the brain to shut off. The firing squad involves 5 men with high powered rifles shooting at the heart of the death row inmate numerous times causing the heart to rupture and explode. Hanging causes the death row inmate’s neck to snap around the second vertebrae in the spine, shutting off the brain and causing the heart to stop. The gas used in the gas chamber is most commonly hydrogen cyanide, which in theory shuts off the brain like a switch, but that requires the death row inmate to breathe deeply. These 5 methods are described as painless, but they are still incredibly terrifying to almost anyone. Would you want to be executed like that?

Sentencing someone to death already takes away their right to live, but it also denies them their only chance to regret their misdeeds and transform for the better. Execution takes away their right to live and learn. All human beings make mistakes, just some more severe than others, so shouldn’t everyone be given the chance to at least live and regret?

People say and believe that having execution as a potential sentence causes people to be scared and therefore lower the crime rates, but there is no statistical evidence that the death penalty deters crime. According to NCCADP, North Carolina’s murder rate declined after the executions stopped. In some years, the murder rate in states where there is no death penalty was 46% lower than states where there was a death penalty.

The death penalty does not help us in any way. When an individual does something wrong, the reason why they are imprisoned is so they can be punished and reflect on what they have done. The purpose of punishment is to teach someone that what they did was wrong, and that cannot happen if you kill the person. Don’t they deserve a second chance? Life is already hard enough if they have been to jail before, but killing them does not allow them to learn any further. Instead it takes away their chance to learn. Isn’t executing someone because of murder, a murder within itself? People deserve the right to live, so why kill them?

I believe that the death penalty should not exist. I, and many other people, do not want the death penalty to exist. The death penalty should not exist.

So, please take this moment to think about the people whose lives were affected or taken because of the death penalty. The world would be a better place without the existence of the death penalty.

Regards,

An advocate for human rights.