Death Penalty Final

                I feel that getting rid of the death penalty in Illinois was unjust. Letting a man who has killed someone live the rest of his life in prison where he can watch television and live a simple life is wrong. Giving a murderer life in prison is a waste of space and money. He should not be allowed to live and, when we allow him to live, it costs money that comes from the general public including the family of the victim. Clearly it is cruel and unusual punishment to make the victim’s family pay for the life of the man who ruined their lives. Gov. Ryan said “Some inmates on death row don't want a sentence of life without parole.” The wants and needs of a killer should not matter. They give up their rights the second they take the life of another human. The governor says that the death penalty is only enforced on people who cannot defend themselves. This issue can be avoided by enforcing death on all non-accidental murder cases regardless of who the killer is. In his speech Gov. Ryan says, “And while many people believe Illinois never executed an innocent man, others disagree. The 1995 execution of Girvies Davis for a downstate murder was long controversial and relied heavily on a disputed confession, one the police got when they took him out of jail in the middle of the night and, according to Davis, threatened him. In fact, Davis confessed to numerous crimes that night and, authorities later acknowledged, many of the confessions were false, with other people later convicted of those crimes.” Even though this is true, the issue is not with the death penalty. The police made the mistake and convicted an innocent man. The law enforcement officers need to make sure they have the right man. This is not something the death penalty can do. It is just a punishment, when it is enforced it is assumed that the police caught the right person. Gov. Ryan believes that the death penalty doesn’t discourage murderers from acting. If we had a much harsher concept for punishment, more murders would be deterred. Anton Szandor LaVey states in the Satanic Bible, “If a man smites you on the cheek, smash him on the other!” Meaning we should do worse to the killer than what he has done to his victim. I feel it will strike fear into the minds of anyone plotting murder and haunt the murderers who have not yet been caught. I feel this will be a more active deterrent than just execution. There is nothing wrong with the death penalty or the people who enforce it, they are told to assume that the defendant is guilty. If anything, the problem is with the people who investigate and charge the wrong people with the crime.