Group Video: "The Regretful Life of a Death Row Executioner (Prison Documentary)"

The argument regarding capital punishment is something that's become incredibly politicized. It's often split fifty-fifty; many are still in favor while many are firmly against it. It brings up many questions: if someone takes someone else's life then do they deserve to have their life taken? And it the death penalty is a punishment supposed to be reserved for the worst of the worst then why has it been used so many times?

In my senior year of high school, I was in an English class that focused on social justice. In this class, I did a presentation on the death penalty with some of my friends. Prior to this project, I was in favor of the death penalty. But as I conducted by research on the topic, I became more and more convinced that capital punishment is not the way to go. Even now, as I begin to study it again thanks to this group, I continue to be firmly against the death penalty.

Aside from the fact that it's literally punishing someone by taking their life, there are several issues with death row. A big issue is that it's tainted with racial disparity and inmates on death row are predominantly POC, especially Black. Additionally, it takes a lot of time and money to hold someone on death row. The documentary stated that after someone is convicted and sentenced to death, it'll take another 15-20 years for the execution to actually happen. Something I remember from my research for my high school presentation (unfortunately I don't have a source--the fact only lives in my memory at this point) is that it actually costs more money to hold someone on death row than it does to keep them in prison for life. But one of the biggest issues though, in my opinion, is that there have been many punished with death who have later been proved to be innocent. According to the documentary, for every nine inmates there is one that will be found innocent. This means that one in ten inmates put on death row will be wrongfully sentenced to death. Let that sink in.

The video consisted of interviews from people who have had someone close to them killed and they must decide what they would do if they found the person who committed the act against their loved one. The thing is, many of these interviewees whose loved one's murderer was executed stated that the execution did not give them closure. It begs the question: perhaps a murderer deserves to die but do we as a society deserve to kill them?

If someone killed someone I loved, I do think my first thought would be that I'd want them dead and I'd want to be the one to kill them. But at the end of the day, I think that I'd rather they rot in prison. Death is too merciful.

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