Every day, people are executed and sentenced to death for a variety of reasons. Some are for minor offenses while others for bigger crimes like terrorism or murder. Regardless of the crime and circumstances, the death penalty should not be inflicted as a punishment. 

Reason 1: The death penalty is inhumane. Execution methods include beheading, electrocution, lethal injection, hanging, and shooting. After being sentenced, U.S. prisoners are put on death row where they are typically put in solitary confinement. Generally, with the exception of showering, being in their cell, or the prison exercise yard, the prisoners are constantly handcuffed until their death.

Reason 2: It is irreversible. Since 1973, more than 160 people sent to death row have been exonerated of all crimes and many have been executed despite serious doubts of guilt. There are many programs like the Innocence Project which work to exonerate wrongly convicted people, but no matter how many people they find, they won’t be able to free everyone. Since there is always a chance of executing an innocent person, the death penalty should be abolished.

Reason 3: It is outdated. 142 countries have abolished the death penalty with Mongolia, Guinea, and Guatemala being some of the most recent. Only one country in Europe and Central Asia still allows it and the U.S. is the only country in the Americas to still use it. 

Reason 4: It does not deter crime. One of the most common arguments for the death penalty is that it deters crime but there is no evidence supporting that or that proves it to be more effective at deterring crime than life imprisonment.

Reason 5: It is discriminatory. The Death Penalty is disproportionately given to those with less advantaged socio-economic backgrounds or belonging to a racial, ethnic, or religious minority. Being unable to afford expensive attorneys should not be a reason for being given harsher sentences and the fact that it is disproportionately given to minorities proves the corruption within the criminal justice system; no one with any bias should be allowed to determine who lives and who dies.

Capital Punishment should be abolished. The fact that people can be executed for crimes committed as juveniles or drug-related offenses (even though it is against international law) is outright despicable. The Death Penalty should not be used as a means of punishment as it is inhumane, irreversible, outdated, ineffective at deterring crimes, and discriminatory, among other reasons.