Advantages of Death Penalty in the United States

Pros/Advantages

There are many pros for having the death penalty in the United States. Many people think of the death penalty as murder, but if execution is murder, than killing someone in war is murder. Does this mean that our country should stop fighting wars? In this case executing someone is not murder, it is a punishment by society for a deserving criminal. The death penalty gives closure to the victim's families who have suffered so much. Many family members of crime victims take years to recover from the shock and loss of a loved one. Life in prison for the murderer just means the criminal is still around to haunt the victim. A death sentence brings finality to a horrible chapter in the lives of those family members.

The death penalty also creates another form of crime deterrent. Prison time is a effective deterrent, but with some people, more punishment is needed. Prosecutors should have the option of using a variety of punishments in order to minimize crime. With this happening there would be less prisoners in prison each year and crime would slowly but surely decrease. It also provides a deterrent for prisoners already serving a life sentence. This would stop the prisoners from constantly murdering people while in prison. This would also decrease the chance of a person, who's already serving a life sentence, who happens to escape and would stop him from killing anyone who might try to bring him in or curb his crime spree. Furthermore in the Furman v. Georgia case Furman was burglarizing a private home when one of the family members discovered him. He started to flee from the house, but in doing this he tripped and fell and the gun he was carrying went off and killed one of the members. He was convicted of murder and was sentenced to death. This case obviously violated the eight amendment of cruel and unusual punishment for it's time but wouldn't you think that was the right thing to do? Furman had no business in the first place to invade the family's house and even though he tripped and he didn't intentionally mean to open fire, he still was carrying the weapon in his hand. Obviously he wasn't carrying the weapon as an accessory so therefore his intentions were to kill in the first place.

On the contrary it's said that most people have a natural fear of death. If every murderer who killed someone died instantly, the