Think from a teacher’s perspective for a second: Billy vandalizes Joe’s property. Joe asks you (his teacher) what he should do. You tell him to vandalize Billy’s property, “After all, he did that to you!” Wait a minute! “That’s not right,” you might be thinking, and you are correct. So why would killing someone because they killed someone else be right? The thing is, its not.

Capital punishment is wrong. People shouldn’t decide life or death sentences for other people.

Capital punishment is a deadly paradox: it teaches humans that killing is fair, when also trying to teach that killing is wrong. “In civilized society, we reject the principle of literally doing to criminals what they do to their victims: The penalty for rape cannot be rape...” says The New York Times (http://theproscons.com/pros-cons-death-penalty/). If someone burns your house down, does that mean you, in turn, have the right to burn their house down? No. This principle has been repeatedly brought up since kindergarten: “Just because someone does something to you, doesn't mean you have the right to do it to them.” Yet when it comes to the big things, the United States doesn’t “turn the other cheek.” The “eye for an eye” principle, originally a Biblical term, now surrounds Americans’ everyday lives. If you think about the death penalty from a critical perspective, you see exactly that: someone murdering someone else and you in turn murdering them.

So why do we do it?
The family members or victims of the crime committed may feel justified or safe. After all, death clears any chance of a recurrence. The thing is that family members may resort to depression watching a loved one die, then seeing the criminal die. They may feel it is there fault, and become mentally unstable, which may lead to them harming/murdering someone else. It is a never ending process that would not occur without the death penalty.

Capital punishment leaves no room or margin for error- it is final. As The New york times says, "Death is... an unusually severe punishment, unusual in its pain, in its finality...”. Not only is death final, but in its finality it removes any option of feeling remorse or becoming a better person. The criminal in jail with the memory of what they did to get there will haunt them for the rest of their life. Therefore, it is more of a punishment then killing them; killing them makes sure they won’t have to deal with the guilt the follows. With guilt comes remorse. Remorse is possibly one of the most pivotal emotions that humans feel. While that prisoner is in jail they are surrounded by guilt. Guilt is the only thing that fuels remorse; the deeper the guilt, the deeper the remorse. Would you ever have learned to be a better person if your parents killed you when you harmed someone else? No. In fact, you wouldn’t even be reading this article. The same concept applies for criminals, once they’re dead, there's no chance of them becoming a better person. But what about the families of the victims? Don’t they deserve the “closure” or “finality” that death gives?

Many people would say “yes”, that death is the only proper punishment for criminals. Especially family members of the loved ones who were murdered; they feel they need “revenge”. But our justice system is not set up that way. We are the people of the law. We are not a people of the Bible, we are a people of the Constitution.
Capital punishment is not an effective deterrent.

States that have death penalty laws do not have lower crime rates or murder rates than states without death penalty laws. “There is no effective evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than long terms of imprisonment”, says The New York Times. So why do we do it? Are we that cruel that we kill just for the sake of it?

Well, some people would say that it scares other criminals into behaving. The evidence? There is none. In fact a The New York Times article says that, “States that have death penalty laws do not have lower crime rates or murder rates than states without such laws.” This is a major red flag that capital punishment is not effective and should be banned. Life in prison is considered to be a worse form of punishment and a more effective deterrent.
Now what? People are killed all around the United States when there isn't even a benefit from their deaths. But yet you read thousands of papers, including this one, and you sit on your butts and do nothing. It’s time to take a stand.

Bibliographies:
Death Penalty ProCon.org." ProConorg Headlines. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Feb. 2015.
"Do Families of Victims Feel Justice with the Death Penalty?" Do Families of Victims Feel   Justice with the Death Penalty? N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Feb. 2015.
"Pros & Cons: Death Penalty - The Pros & Cons." The Pros Cons. N.p., 17 June 2014. Web. 04 Feb. 2015.
"Top 10 Pros and Cons - Death Penalty - ProCon.org." ProConorg Headlines. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Feb. 2015.