Yes it should be and here are 5 reasons why:

It is a huge financial burden

The United States government is spending far too much money just to kill their own prisoners. Abolishing the death penalty would save several millions of dollars a year we are essentially wasting. For instance, a report from the state of New Jersey showed that taxpayers have payed a total of $253 million since 1983 to fund the death penalty. A sentence of life with parole would go a long way to cut down the costly expenses that arise from the U.S. choosing to keep the death penalty. Furthermore, the typical death penalty case exceeds $1 million over three times more expensive than non-capital cases. Now think of how much this would cost when considering the robust number of death penalty cases annually.

It is immoral and unethical

An unhealthy number of death row prisoners are executed via electrocution. Something out of horror movies has long been a reality in United States prisons. Furthermore several executions a year are botched leading to harsh killings detailed in Bryan Stevenson’s book, Just Mercy. Stevenson, a Harvard Law School graduate was a lawyer who defended numerous clients on death row. In his book he explains the dire state of these prisoners and goes out of his way to create a troubling image of the executions they were facing.

False convictions can lead to premature executions

The justice system isn’t perfect. It never will be. Due to this reality, we must realize that a portion of executions are used on innocent people. In other cases, the death penalty shouldn’t be the first punishment we look towards. Sentences in which the criminal serves jail time can be reviewed later on. In Just Mercy, Walter McMillian, a black man living in Alabama, is wrongfully convicted for a murder and is sent to death row. After years of intense and draining work, Stevenson eventually won Walter’s freedom. If Walter had served his death penalty, he would never have had a chance to redeem himself. This story can be applied to many other instances where the death penalty has been something the U.S. has been overeager to use.

It prevents the opportunity for rehabilitation

The U.S. killing the number of prisoners it does every year shows their inability to provide proper sources of rehabilitation. Prisoners should still be treated as humans even with the crimes they have committed. Those who are sent to death row are caged up and left with little to no contact with outsiders. They are essentially written off by society and reduced to the worst versions of themselves. The U.S. would be better off if death row prisoners were given life sentences like in other parts of the world.

Many nations across the world have either suspended or completely abolished the Death Penalty

Canada and Mexico are North American countries that have abolished the death penalty. Likewise nearly all of Europe has abolished the death penalty as well. Even though the U.S. uses the death penalty to threaten against crime, they still are at the top of the list of countries with the most crime in the world. Based on the map below we can see that about half the world has completely abolished the death while several other nations have either suspended it for the time being or delegated it to extremely rare occasions.

The United States should follow suit and abolish the death penalty.

Red – Death penalty is still legal in law and practice

Orange – Death penalty is abolished in practice (No executions in over 10 years)

Green – Death penalty is abolished in law except during war or other exceptional circumstances

Blue – Death penalty is abolished in law and practice