I was never quite certain about how I felt about the death penalty, which remains legal in 30 states, Texas being the state where it is most prevalent. It seems like a waste of our tax dollars to imprison perpetrators for lifetime sentences. They are fed, clothed, and provided medical care, while millions of people are homeless and do not know where their next meal is coming from. If someone has committed a heinous crime, it seems that execution is letting them off the hook, so that they do not have to pay the consequences of (or learn from) their wrong doing. Delving deeper, the problem becomes more complicated because if you look into a criminal’s past, you find that quite often he endured abuse as a child, which led to his criminal act. The prevelence of pornography, child sexual abuse, pedophiles, and children being sold into slavery, is providing a grim future for thousands of children. Ending the life of the worst criminals will not solve the problem. We must begin caring for our children, ensuring that they receive adequate nutrition (because sugar overload can lead to violence) and that they are kept off drugs, including pharmaceuticals (because it teaches them that drugs are the answers to life’s problems). It is the disease within society itself that is producing unstable adults who commit crimes. In some cases, the criminals can – and have been rehabilitated.
The other blaring and disturbing problem with the death penalty, is the alarmingly large number of innocent people who are being put to death for crimes they did not commit. This is due to the surprisingly large number of public officials who withhold evidence, pay off witnesses to lie, look the other way, and who generally, contribute to a corrupt and broken legal system. In many cases, prisoners have already served sentences of several years before finally being put to death. The means by which the death sentencing is carried out, is often faulty. The equipment for electrocution may fail, or the drugs used in lethal injection causes intense suffering.
A large percentage of incarcerated individuals are there because of drug possession or drug related crimes. Many have turned to drugs because poverty drove them there. Our capitalist society has contributed to these problems by allowing only the rich to get richer. Until we at least make an attempt to rehabilitate those convicted of crimes, a death penalty should not even be considered. Prison sentences should have a maximum of ten years. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone changes. Everyone has the ability to grow and to change. These are facts. We cannot continue to sweep these people under the rug as though their life doesn’t matter – because all lives matter.
