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As Gandhi once said, “ An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

” This is certainly true when it comes to the death penalty. The death penalty or capital punishment is death as a form of  punishment given by a court of law for very serious crimes like murder, treason, espionage, etc.   When capital punishment is being used on a criminal, people tend to say “ it serves them right.” People who advocate for the death penalty or people who have lost a loved one from these criminals , are blinded by vengeance and is to the point where there is no justice in the death penalty. I believe that this is not the right mindset. If our society goes back to the barbaric ways of ” an eye for an eye,” many people would be metaphorically blind and people will turn a blind eye to the horrendous ways they keep the death row inmates. According to a quarterly report titled “ Death Row” by the Criminal Justice Project of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.

, as of July 1, 2017, there are currently 2817 death row inmates in prison (1). These death row prisoners are psychologically tortured and tormented daily. Although there are many supporters of the death penalty, I believe that the death penalty should be abolished in the United States because it is too expensive, it is inhumane, and it runs the risk of executing innocent victims. The United States should outlaw the death penalty because death penalty cases cost much more than other criminal cases and is more expensive than life in prison.  One of the biggest reasons why the death penalty should be abolished is because it is a cruel and inhumane punishment both physically and psychologically. Everyone who who lives in America are protected by The Bill of Rights.  The Bill of Rights are the first ten amendments of the constitution and these amendments are there to protect people’s basic human rights.

According to the eighth amendment, “ excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted”(14). These cruel and unusual punishments usually involve a type of torture. The death penalty system is riddled with many types to torture, especially psychological torture. Before they are sentenced to death, they are kept in solitary confinement. As stated by the Death Penalty Information Center in an article titled “ Time On Death Row”, “ Death-row prisoners in the U. S. typically spend more than a decade awaiting execution ..

. spending as many as 23 hours a day alone in their cells”(pp. 2). This means that these death row prisoners are stuck in isolation for up to twenty three hours a day for ten to thirty years. Having that many hours in isolation without any form of social interaction can cause some psychological damage. In the article, “ Extreme Solitary Confinement: What Did Bradley Manning Experience?”, Caitlin Dickson mentions many psychiatrist that study solitary confinement.

One of these psychiatrist is Terry Kupers, who has studied the mental effects of solitary confinement on prisoners. Kupers said isolation is very damaging to anyone and it is hard to recover from it (Dickson, pp. 14). Kuper also stated some mental effects “ range from paranoia and claustrophobia to full-blown mental illness and deterioration” (Dickson, pp. 15). This means that the death penalty use of solitary confinement is mentally torturing death row inmates by giving them mental illnesses.

This is why the United States should abolish the death penalty. It violates these prisoners basic right to have a humane punishment. But these prisoners are met with an inhumane punishment by psychologically torturing these inmates. These criminals have done heinous crime, but they still have their most basic human rights granted to them by The Bill of Rights. Due to the psychological  torture the death penalty and death row cause, the federal government should abolish the death penalty completely. The death penalty should be taken down because it has the risk of killing innocent lives. The death penalty is always susceptible to human error, causing for innocent lives to be lost. Unlike a prison sentence, death is irreversible and non repairable.

Although some people think that the death penalty might deter other people from committing heinous acts, there is actually no statistical research that has ever proved that. The death penalty is a very serious matter because death is irreversible. Although these men and women have done heinous crimes, the government cannot infringe on these prisoners basic human right to live and have a reasonable punishment. Also, the death penalty affects everyone else too because we are wasting our taxpayers money on a system that threatens prisoners basic rights.

On top of that, a system that threatens killing and torturing innocent lives should never exist. The death penalty should be abolished because it waste taxpayers money, it is a cruel and unusual punishment, and it can cause the death of many innocent lives. As said in the beginning, “ An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” We should resist the death penalty before the we lose sight of what is right.