Capital Punishment

I have been watching a lot of WeTV right now and there's a new show coming on about women on death row. While I hate the thought of killing someone and I'd rather have a peaceful world I cannot help but agree with it.

Why should the tax payers of the United States of America be paying to keep murderers in jail, when they have killed an innocent victim? They shouldn't have the right to live, as they choose to end someone else's destiny when they killed in cold blood. For those who don't know, capital Punishment, or the death penalty, is when a person is proven guilty and is sentenced to death, either through lethal injection, electrocution, gas chamber and in early years, hanging or by firing squad.

Right now, capital punishment is used in 38 states and also in the US Military and in the US Government. Since it was instated in 1976 there have been 1045 executions in these 38 states. According to the Death Penalty Information Center at the moment California has the most criminals on death row, 652 inmates, followed by Texas with 404.

In all of the cases of executions race really plays no part. 57% of those executed were Caucasian, followed by 34% being African Americans, 7% Hispanic and 2% being of another race.

The biggest cause for concern found in most people is that an innocent person could receive the verdict of death. However, in all the years of capital punishment only 120 people were found innocent of their crimes and were released. These cases that end in capital punishment usually go on for ten years or more before death is sentenced as the defendants appeal many times and as more evidence is given.

Many also plead the case for self-defense, in which the murderer was also a victim. Those pleading self-defense must be spared the death penalty, as they never had the intent to kill and as it was not a premeditated crime.

Keeping inmates in jail is very expensive to the tax payers of the country and to keep criminals in jail facilities costs us more than it would for them to receive the death sentence. Especially in the "luxury jails" we provide them today.

According to many people that have been to jail that I have spoken with, jail is better than what some people lived in before. Jails have cable television, some cater food from local restaurants and most inmates are allowed to roam free, depending on severity of crime and despite that they are in fact locked in jail

It costs tax payers $114 million to keep inmates in jail every single year. However, in all the years of the death penalty it has cost tax payers $250 million. In two years of keeping all prisoners alive, we have paid what it has cost in the past 30 years.

Not only are these people who are being kept in jail living in a facility that may or may not be better than where they are living, but they are costing the innocent citizens and victims families to keep them alive. These families who are paying to keep these murderers alive have lost part of their life and deserve to see justice.

In the 1960's Charles Manson and his group of followers, The Manson Family, brutally killed many innocent people, the most notorious murder being that of Sharon Tate/La Bianca murders. The convicted murderers included, Charles Watson. Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Linda Kasabian. They did not know their victims, and did it as "message" to the rich that soon having money would basically mean nothing, and that they couldn't control the country. They wrote the messages, "Death to pigs" and "Helter Skelter" on the walls of their victims homes in the blood.

Each member was found guilty, along with many others who were convicted of other murders not associated with the Tate/ La Bianca murders. Many served prison sentences, however, most of these criminals now live among us in society today. Charles Manson is still in jail for being the leader of this group and for "brainwashing", however, he gets bail within the next year after his appeal. Charles Watson is still in jail for the murders, however, he has 4 children and is a trainer for ministers of religion.

Susan Atkins was quoted to have said to Sharon Tate as she plead for her life and the life of her baby, " Look bitch, I don't care about you. I don't care if you're going to have a baby. You had better be ready. You're going to die and I don't feel anything about it... and then in a few minutes I killed her." Then she also went on to describe licking the blood of Sharon Tate off her hands and also that she had wished to cut out the baby to kill it, had wanted to cut out the victims eyes and squish them against the walls and to cut off and mutilate their fingers but there wasn't the time. Do you know where this woman is now? She's teaching Sunday School to elementary school children. The same woman who laughed about killing a woman and child is now teaching Sunday School, after only facing about 20 years in prison. Many of the others involved are now out of jail and living normal lives, saying that they were brainwashed and not taking responsibility of their own actions.

Ted Bundy was a ladies man who killed and raped over 35 young women, ages 15 - to college age. He broke into college sorority houses and lured woman out on dates with him. All girls had the same features, and all disappeared at night.

He was sentenced to death, but kept appealing, furthering the date of his impending death. Right before he died he admitted that heads of some of his victims were hidden in his home, that he engaged in necrophilia and that he did in fact murder 36 woman. When he was electrocuted people cheered and fireworks lit up the night sky.

Jeffrey Dahmer first killed a 14 year old boy, raped dead body and dismembered him and kept skull as a trophy. Killed many more young men and women, was arrested and was let out of jail against his family's wishes. Ended up killing 17 people, 2 of which the court let go.

He claimed temporary insanity saying that at the time it wasn't him killing his victims and said that god had saved him. He was sentenced to 957 years in prison, but was soon murdered by two inmates.

Gacy Killed at least 30 people, many raped, murdered, mouths stuffed with theiunderwear and buried under his house. Gacy was well-liked by everyone and was often a clown at many children's parties in his neighborhood and the local hospital. He bragged in jail that at that time he held the record in the Guinness Book of World Records for killing the most people. He was killed by lethal injection.

These murders may seem outrageous, after all, serial killers may seem like a "thing of the past" but sick murders, such as these, are still occurring.

On September 5^th, in Newry, Maine, near Sunday River, 31 year old Christian Nielsen murdered 1 man and burned his body and murdered 3 other woman and dismembered their bodies, also killing 3 dogs. The two orphaned 11 and 9,children were sent to San Francisco to live with relatives, as their father died in a car accident and both mother and grandmother were the victims in this case.

On August 21, 2004, at 8 a.m. a 51 year old man murdered his mother and estranged wife. A fight ensued between him and the two women. He then proceeded down to his car and brought out a gun. The women locked the doors but he shot through it, and killed both women, as his 9 year old daughter and 6 year old son watched, according to testimony by his daughter. He was kept in a minimum security prison and had his trial moved as it was a concern he would not "get a fair trial." Got 30 years in jail for each count of murder, however soon became acquitted and pleaded insanity.

There are many still on death row, and are being executed daily. One execution in 2007 was the longest running case with the inmate on death row, with the crime occurring in 1983 when Pedro Sosa kidnaped and murdered a state police officer.

Others occurring recently were that of a man in Texas who in 1991 murdered his uncle by stabbing him, murdered a 91 year old woman whose lawn he mowed by beating her in the head with a hammer because she wouldn't give him $10 and brutally beat a 74 year old woman enough so that she now is brain damaged. Another was a man who drowned his three year old over ten years ago, another executuion of a man who murdered his four children and that of a man who bit his 13-month old daugher, broke her ribs, beat her in the head among other things, then left her to die in her crib. Tell me, why should people like these be allowed to live when they so brutally committed these murders? Why should we have to pay to keep them alive?

These people who have killed their own children, have killed people they didn't know and have killed family members should not be allowed to live. The families of these victims deserve justice. I for one could not sleep at night knowing that the murderer of my loved one was alive, breathing the same air I was, and that they might be out on bail and could potentially kill more people. I also believe that murders would decrease if potential murderers knew that they would face death. Death is a deterrent. In closing I would like to leave you with a quote from Sharon Tate's father, "Thirty one years ago I sat in a courtroom with a jury and watched with others. I saw a young woman (Susan Atkins) who giggled, snickered and shouted insults, even while testifying about my daugher's last breath, she laughed. My family was ripped apart. If Susan Atkins is released to join her family, where is the justice."

Where is the justice if there criminals can live amongst us, live in jails with cable, and not pay for their brutal crimes, and what's stopping others from following in their footsteps. Capital Punishment is justice.