Go look at how many people have been exonerated after being on death row. Now think about how many actually were put to death because they didn’t get lucky enough to be exonerated. As long as there’s the chance that we are putting innocent people to death, I am against the death penalty.

There’s also the main argument that we shouldn’t be killing people at all no matter what, but I feel my former argument hits home a bit more.

A: The government should not have the power to execute its own citizens.

B: Fear of the death penalty does not deter heinous crimes.

C: The justice system is about justice, the death penalty is inherently based on revenge and emotion, two things that do not belong in a modern judicial system.

I straight up don’t believe some people deserve to live. I also don’t trust the government to make that decision. Abolish the death penalty.

You can actually download the 300-page report commissioned by the Wolf administration studying factors related to the death penalty. A diverse team of experts spent three years on it and found 16 categories of reasons to not execute anyone. Besides innocent people being executed, widespread lying by cops, systemic racism, and flawed technology, execution costs many times more money than life imprisonment. We also know that "general deterrent" is a myth. There is no moral, ethical, civil, or financial reason to execute.

There is a link in this article to the report on the death penalty. It took 7 years (not 3), and was published in 2018. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-and-federal-info/state-by-state/pennsylvania

https://deathpenalty.procon.org/

The only "pro" for the death penalty is that people who would refuse to use violence against others get to witness the state use violence on people they consider "sub par".

I would argue that death is probably better than "sit in this prison until you die".