The death penalty is a tough debate and an overwhelming argument in this country. We as Americans put Timothy McVeigh to death by lethal injection just three months ago. Arguments can be made for and against the death penalty, but this is not the problem. Capital Punishment is supposed to be a deterrent to crime, but is the death penalty really a deterrent? Capital Punishment is not a deterrent for crime, and the effects of Capital Punishment are actually hurting the American citizens. Capital Punishment affects the American citizens by having those citizens pay millions of dollars for death row inmates, and these criminals affect those same citizens because the Death Penalty does not deter crime like it was intended for.Citizens across the United States pay a lot of money each year to sentence someone to death. These millions of dollars are being wasted on Capital Punishment while every state could be saving money by sentencing someone to life without parole. California alone spends over $90 million dollars annually on death-row inmates, while $78 million of that being spent at the trial level (Dieter). On September 9, 1999, The Joint Legislative Budget Committee of the California Legislature stated that, "Elimination of the death penalty would result in a net savings to the state of at least several tens of millions of dollars annually, and a net savings to local governments in the millions to tens of millions of dollars on a statewide basis." California is not the only state to spend millions of dollars on death row inmates, in Florida it costs an estimated $24 million dollars to kill one criminal (DPIC), and Florida has only had 44 executions since 1976. These numbers are not only alarming but at what point do we look at these statistics and stop this ridiculous policy on capital punishment? Americans could spend so much more money on more important things such as improving the schools around the nation or educating our ...
