I live in the UK where the death penalty was abolished when we signed the Geneva Agreement; however the death penalty still exists worldwide. While there are many arguments in favour of the death penalty, there are several arguments against it.

Executions are immoral because they turn ordinary civilians into killers; in the US, doctors don’t carry out executions as it goes against what they are sworn to do as medical health professionals, instead the “killers” are prison guards. Having to kill another person can leave anyone scared and suffering from PTSD no matter how much some people “deserve” it.

The state is disobeying its own laws, if it is wrong and against the law to kill a person, then why should the state be allowed to kill a person. Does he or she become less of a human because they have killed another person?

International human rights agreements argue for an end to the death penalty, the US ranks alongside countries where human rights abuses are common. More than 117 nations worldwide have abolished the death penalty.

When people who don’t really understand the severity of their crimes are put to death, does this not constitute a human rights abuse? Although nobody with an Intellectual Disability is allowed to be killed by US law, laws about mental illness vary from state to state. Some inmates cannot fully participate in the trial and have to be forcibly medicated before the death warrant is issued.

It is not applied consistently, there are approximately 15,000 to 17,000 homicides each year in the US, and of them only 120 people are ever sentenced to death. That’s less than one percent, it has been compared to a “Lethal Lottery”.

No studies have proved that capital punishment deters crime, although many have been launched to find out. In fact, in the US, states without the death penalty have a lower murder rate than those which do.

Many would argue that the death penalty is cheaper, but due to the length of the stay and the method of execution, the average death row inmate costs the US system more than even inmates serving Life without parole. In addition, because of the nature of the justice system the multiple trials of those convicted can cost upward of one million dollars.

It’s easy to say that murders killed someone so they deserve to be killed, but in the US you can be sentenced to death for a wide variety of crimes other than murder. You can be put to death for: treason, espionage, kidnapping, drug trafficking, hijacking a plane, placing a bomb, attempting authorising or advising on a death, aggravated assault (when incarcerated).

You can never prove that someone is guilty; the death penalty puts innocent people at risk of being killed. 138 people have been released from death row since 1978; we can’t risk killing another person.

In conclusion, the death penalty is not the solution either for those convicted, those carrying out the crimes and those who are the victims. The state taking a life is never the solution.