Capital Punishment And Our Nation

3 Pages 822 Words

The issue of capital punishment has forever torn our nation. As many plead for the undoubted necessity of it, others pity the cruelty of such an act. Looking beyond this primary disagreement, justice cannot be served until the debate on capital punishment is resolved and all states have come to agree that the death penalty is the best way to stop crime completely.
Many people who are against capital punishment are only thinking of the criminal and how cruel it is for them. But, shouldn’t we think of the families that are broken apart now because of the merciless acts of these criminals? Think of Susan Smith, how she knowingly drove her car off into a lake with her two children strapped to the seats. Think of how they must have felt as the cold water started to fill the cabin of the car, and then ultimately drown them. Barbaric is exactly the word I would use to describe her actions. But yet, the jury rejected the death penalty and chose a life sentence instead.
But, was it justice that she was not put to death for killing her two children? How could someone possibly let her off the hook of such a crime? They said it would be just as bad for her to be in that cell alone because of her depression, but does it justify her
cutting short the lives of the two children, who had no idea of their oncoming death? If we give up our punishing a deadly criminal, then we throw our society into chaos and let the criminals freely do as they please. I would know that I was safe if anyone that tried to fatally harm me would be put to death. But in this society when someone can kill someone, get sentenced to life, get paroled and then be freed to go about and do the same crime again frankly scares me. Another thing that scares me is the fact that this country has softened up on criminals. Right now, everyone has a right to appeal their conduct even though you go against the law and is put in prison; you are supposed to be stripped of...