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In the last few years in America, the debate over the death penalty
has grown more widespread. A recent argument against the death
penalty is that some of the people who are found guilty and
sentenced to die are not actually guilty.
New methods of verifying
evidence, such as DNA testing, have helped free many
death-row
inmates. Because in many cases, criminals cannot be proven 100
percent guilty, it is not right to sentence them to death,
opponents say. There is a chance that they may be innocent. In
fact, the
governor of Illinois recently halted all executions in his
state. In Illinois, some death-row inmates were shown later to be
innocent of the crime for which they were imprisoned. After that,
the governor was afraid that some
people being executed were
wrongly convicted.
Another argument against the death penalty is the high cost of executing a
prisoner. Someone sentenced to die has the right to appeal the sentence several
times. The state has to defend its case each time before a higher court. One study
found that it costs more than $1,000,000 in legal costs for a prisoner to
exhaust all appeals against the death penalty. Despite
the often-heated national
debate, the majority of Americans are still in favor of the death penalty.
According to a recent study, approximately 65 percent of Americans still believe
that the death penalty is appropriate for crimes such as
first-degree murder. In
cases of mass murder,
the percentage in favor of capital punishment is even
higher. More than 80 percent of Americans wanted the death penalty given to
Timothy McVeigh, the man who killed hundreds in the Oklahoma City bombing.
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555 words
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death-row --- the part of a prison where people
sentenced to death are held
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halt --- to stop
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exhaust --- to use completely
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first-degree murder --- killing on purpose or with a plan
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in favor of --- for;
supporting
