Research Based Argument - The Necessity of Capital Punishment Essay

Research Based Argument - The Necessity of Capital Punishment - Essay Example The stunning revelation in the article is that in the State of California, the annual legal costs related to capital punishment are estimated at $184 million. Also, it is claimed that by replacing death penalty with life sentences, this amount can be brought down to just $ 11.5 million. Admittedly, this claim Fagan makes seems attractive only to some hardcore do-gooders. People with a sane mind will easily identify that the lives of the citizens in a country cannot be put into jeopardy for economic benefits. It can be admitted that capital punishment invites extensive legal jargons in the forms of appeals and reviews. However, one has to remember the fact that this delay and higher expenditure only shows the ineffectiveness of our legal system; not the ineffectiveness of capital punishment. So, it is evidently irrational to set serial killers free to save the money spent on legal works. Also, as Nugent argues, locking up such insane shooters in jails for the rest of their lifetime wi ll cost taxpayers millions of dollars. One is forced to think whether it would not be a better administration of justice if the killer is executed and this millions of dollars are paid as compensation to the next of kin of the victims. Moreover, as Nugent points out, it costs only ‘a 25 cent bullet’ to eliminate the criminal in cases like the Tucson shootout. If any money more than that is spent on legal battles, it is the justice system to be blamed; not capital punishment. Also, the figures put forward by Fagan are under criticism for lack of evidence. In fact, the work ‘Death penalty and sentencing information’ by Sharp points out that life without parole (LWOP) is nearly $1.2 to $3.6 million more expensive than death penalty. Another minor argument seen in the article of Fagan is that sometimes the society seems as guilty as the culprit in certain crimes. For example, the killer of a 22 year old female is found to be mentally unstable and brain-damaged. The investigation proves that the killer had a very horrible upbringing as a child as he had his birth as an impoverished Mono tribe American Indian. Also, he was taken away from his alcoholic parents at a very early age and was molested and abused in foster homes and other institutions. As a result, he was addicted to heroin and other drugs by the time he turned 5. Thus, Fagan argues that in such cases, giving capital punishment to the criminal is unjustifiable as the culprit is not guiltier than the family and society he lives in. It is with this insight that the article says that if capital punishment is replaced with life imprisonment, â€Å"you would also run no chance of executing an innocent person† (Fagan). However, the fact is that laymen or the citizens of a country cannot bear the brunt of setting mentally deranged people free. For example, Nugent writes in The Washington Times about the Tucson shootout which killed six and wounded 13. As Fagan argues in his artic le, in this case too, the culprit was mentally deranged. As a result, he is going to spend the rest of his life in the comfort of jail eating up the tax paid by obedient citizens. As Nugent argues, â€Å"you don’t need to be an overpaid prison psychologist to determine that (the criminal is mentally deranged) no