Persuasive Essay About Capital Punishment

One thing that everyone can agree on is that people tend to disagree with each other. The disagreement was very common in the past and is just as prevalent in today 's society. Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is one of those topics that raises eyebrows and may cause a lot of controversy and disagreement. The reason for this is when discussing whether a person should live or die based on a decision that they made, the morality of the person arguing comes into play. Morality differs from person to person depending on how they were raised and other factors in their life. This causes a black and white situation to turn grey. After researching both sides of the argument, I have come to the conclusion that capital punishment is a necessary evil in today’s society. The first reason that capital punishment is justifiable is its mere presence in the judicial system. Most humans tend to have a natural fear of death. Since the death penalty is a possible punishment for any serious crimes that they commit, this will cause people think about the consequences of their actions. This is a very powerful tool since humans value their life very dearly, and any threat to their life can cause them to change their behaviour to protect it. Capital punishment acts as a deterrent to anyone considering committing a felony or any serious crime. If capital punishment was prohibited, there are some people who are very content with spending the rest of their lives in jail. With capital punishment as an available prosecution, there are not many people who will contently end their lives prematurely. Another reason that capital punishment is justifiable is the fact that the victim 's family, in the case of a murder, will be able to gain closure. Even though the victim 's family may never be able to go back to the way things were before the crime was committed, the execution of the offender will bring closure to the murderer 's offense. Not only will this bring the family closure, but they will know for sure that no one else will fall victim to the perpetrator. In the event that capital punishment was not allowed, the murderer would spend his time watching television, sleeping on clean sheets, eating three meals a day, and an endless amount of appeals to attempt to reduce the prison sentence. Just the idea of this to some victims families, that the murderer of their loved one is living comfortably, can be devastating emotionally. …show more content…
It has the capability to deter people from committing crimes due to the fact that they are afraid of the death penalty. Although numbers for this can not be measured, the fear of capital punishment itself has probably prevented many crimes from being committed. Not only does it deter the criminal, but in the event that they follow through with their action, it will provide the family of the victim with the closure of the perpetrator 's crime. They can rest easy knowing that the offender can not hurt anyone else. Another reason is that executions have come a long way from how they were done in the past. In today 's society, the execution of the inmate is completely painless and humane. Because of these reasons, capital punishment in today 's society seems to be a necessary