Death Penalty Final Response

The death penalty is the sentence of death to people by the state as a punishment for a crime. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. Due to this many people have been put to death as punishment of their crimes. However, because the process is not perfect there have been many innocent people put to death also. I believe that the abolishment of the death penalty in Illinois is just because it will save many innocent lives that could have possibly been killed because of the death penalty. The death penalty has proven that although it has released many innocent people, it has also killed many. During Gov. Ryan’s speech, he stated “Together they spared the lives and secured the freedom of 17 men - men who were wrongfully convicted and rotting in the condemned units of our state prisons. What you have achieved is of the highest calling - thank you!” This shows that there are many people who are wrongfully convicted people and it was because of the death penalty that they were even facing the possibility of death. I believe that the death penalty was abolished because too many innocent people were being killed. Gov. Ryan was saying how having to free seventeen people was too many and how they shouldn’t have been sent to death in the first place.

There are any people that argue over the death penalty and whether or not it should be legal or not. The death penalty has been killing people who are guilty and innocent, but even though this has been know, the debate for the death penalty has never gone far from the main topic of morals. The newspaper article stated “But for decades, the debate over capital punishment rarely strayed from whether it was right or wrong, a moral argument that was waged mostly by a narrow group of attorneys and abolition supporters that could be easily dismissed.” This shows that the innocent people being killed weren’t really taken into account when arguing if the death penalty should be legal or not. Due to this more innocent people continued to be killed and ignored. However now that more people are starting to realize this, as part of the reason more states are starting to ban the death penalty to save the innocent. I believe that to save lives of the possibly condemned innocent, the death penalty should be abolished so that they can be saved.