Franklin Diaz

March 21, 2011

AP English: Ms.Devaney

The Plan

Why should capital punishment be banned? Capital punishment has killed people who really had

no idea of what they did. Capital punishment is being used in 35 states, and it started in the

1800’s, Capital punishment became widespread during the middle Ages. From Rome to modern

era, the death penalty was applied throughout Western Europe for more than two thousand

years. England had more than 200 capital offenses in the 1700’s. There are five types of capital

punishments such as stoning, electric chair, lethal injection, hanged, and beheading. United

States has the most killing rate.

Mentally ill people may be put to death. People who kill may not have the idea of what

they are doing, their minds are corrupted because their parents abused of them, or made them do

or see things they weren’t supposed to see or do or know about. John Penry has been mentally

retarded since childhood, possibly as the result of organic brain damage. He has the mind of a

seven year old, with an I.Q. somewhere between 50 and 63. Like a child, he has grave difficulties

in communication, learning, foresight, logic, attention, memory and understanding

consequences. He is limited in his ability to learn from experience, to control his impulses, to

understand causality. Penry's development was also dramatically affected by the vicious,

relentless beatings and abuse he endured as a child at the hands of his mother, a woman who

even made her son eat his own waste. It also send the wrong message: “Why kill people who kill
people to show killing is wrong?”, I agree with this because adults always taught kids not to

commit violence act but yet adults kill killers even though they taught young ones not to kill, and

also if you kill someone that killed someone it just makes you the bigger killer.

“I do not believe any civilized society should be at the service of death. I don’t think it’s

human to become an agent of the angel of death.” A quote by Elie Wiesel, I chose this quote

because in my opinion killing is wrong, I don’t like the idea of killing. "An eye for an eye makes

a world go blind’ a famous quote by ghandi, this quote is the perfect example because revenge is

never the best option, like I had said earlier if you kill one that killed it just makes you a bigger

killer. “No man has the right to take God’s place and say another man should die. It destroyed

my life.” This quote is Perry Cobb, who spent 8 years on death row in Illinois for a crime he did

not commit. He was exonerated in 1987. I agree with this quote because God is our creator and

only he can choose whether we shall live or not, no human being has the right to call themselves

god or have the power to take someone’s life away.

Statistics show that the cost for an execution costs 1.26 million dollars and the cost for

non-death penalties cost up to 740,000 dollars. Annual death sentences in the U.S. have dropped

dramatically since the year 2000. In the last four years the number of death sentences has been

lower than any time since reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. People should have the

decision whether they want to spend life in prison or death. The state can stop using the money

used to buy the materials that are used to kill people and start using it to help out those in need or
build more schools, parks, better security in areas, and help out people get out of poverty. Every

million dollar they use to kill people could be used to help make our country a better place.

In definite conclusion capital punishment should be banned. States should look at what

people have done or learn about their past before killing an innocent person that didn’t know or

didn’t have the idea of what they were doing, it should be banned because it makes us look like

bad people and makes our country look worse, and they should stop using money to kill someone

and use it to a good cause like helping out a homeless person or help make our country stronger

or at least pay to make cops get better experience.