Is the Death Penalty Right or Wrong?

The death penalty has been in the news a lot lately due to executions and criminals that are on death row. With all this executing it makes me wonder if it is really necessary. Capital punishment has been around in Texas since 1819 and since then a little over 1,000 people have been executed. Most executions were for murder, but other crimes such as piracy, cattle rustling, treason, desertion, and rape. Executions have been carried out by a variety of methods including hanging, firing squad, electrocution and lethal injection. Executions are done today by lethal injection and can cost the state over $80 for the chemicals used in the procedure. You also have to think about how much it costs the state just to keep prisoners in jail everyday. It must cost a lot for keeping them in prison under decent living conditions. In this day and age the only crime of "capital murder" or a second conviction for the rape of someone under 14 is eligible for the death penalty.

In my opinion, I think the death penalty is right sometimes and sometimes not. I am the kind of person that agrees with the old saying of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." Although many people don't agree with this there are times that I do. If someone was brutally murdered and/or raped, then I think they deserve the death penalty. Maybe this is because I grew up in Texas and I have been brain washed to accept the death penalty. But at the same time it might be more painful for a murderer to wait out his/her life in a jail cell just rotting away. The other side of me makes me think that the death penalty is wrong because no one should have to go through lethal injection. Plus what kind of a message is it sending to children and the rest of the world if we execute people all the time. What if the person that was just executed is found to be innocent after the execution. That makes me skeptical of there being capital punishment. It also seems like in some counties they just jump at the opportunity of an execution and that's just wrong. Maybe one day the death penalty will be outlawed. Until now the number of executions keep on adding up.