Death Penalty Final Response

The day we started studying the death penatly I came home from school and had a conversation with my dad about my viewpoints on the issue. I remember telling him that the main reason I believed the death penalty was unjust was because it can and has killed innocent men in the past. In my opinion there are plenty of ways to go about punishment then to kill. I believe that life in prison is just as bad. The murderer has to live in one place for the rest of his life and think about the murder they commited. If the murderer dies then never have to think about what they did because, its simple; theyll be dead. It doesnt matter if one innocent man is dead, innocence is innocence, that person did not commit the crime. In Govener Ryans speech, he noted Northwestern University. He noted that they found proof that a man was innocent on death row. This man would have died if it wasnt for the efort put in my those law students. Not everyone man on death row is provided with an effort like that. If they were and ther was 100% proof that a man was guilty, it may be a little different, but for the most part, no everyone on death row has he resources to put so much effort into every case. Another thing we learned was the concept of retribution which I do not agree with. In the rebuttal to retribution it says, "We do not allow torturing the torturer or raping the rapist." This is something i aree with, the conceptof revenge is not the same as the concept of justice. Justice is what the victims family are seeking and killing another person is not gonna achieve justice just revenge. Its kind of like what we are talking about in English class as we are finishing reading Hamlet. The biggest thing question that came up is, "is the revenge worth the feeling of justice?" Will getting revenge on somebody by putting them to death really make a victims family feel that much better? In Govener Ryans speech he quoted Govener Brown, "Beyond its honor and incredibility, it has neither protected the innocent nor deterred the killers. Publicly sanctioned killing has cheapened human life and dignity without the redeeming grace which comes from justice metered out swiftly, evenly, humanely." To me the biggest part about this is that the death penalty doesnt make murderers stop and it doesnt stop the innocent from being killed. Illinois was commpletely just in taking away the death penatly and I hope it stays this way forever.