Death Penalty: Right or Wrong? For Some

Death Penalty: Right or Wrong?

For some time I have believed that the death penalty is a necessary part of our legal system, for the protection of society as a whole. In forming this opinion, I looked at Ted Bundy, who was convicted of monstrously killing four college sorority sisters and a 13-year-old girl he happened upon while she was walking home from school. He held the poor 13-year-old girl for several days in a deserted pigsty in the hot scrub woods of northern Florida before finally killing her. Some authorities think that he may be responsible for over 100 murders, and not the thirty or so he admitted to before his death. Ted Bundy tried to negotiate his way out of being put to death by hinting that the police could clear a lot more murders, but that he would only talk if his death sentence were reversed. Authorities decided that he had been less than straightforward in the past and that he would just continue to manipulate.

Another terrible case of serial murder was John Wayne Gacy of Chicago, who preyed on young teenaged boys, burying them in the crawl space under his own house. Then there was Jeffrey Dahmer, who preyed on young homosexual men. Now, more recently, we have the case of two small girls horribly murdered by two different men in southern California. David Westerfield has been tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. While he killed only one person, he killed a small child who hadn't had a chance to begin to live her life. It seems likely that if he had gotten away with it, he would have done it again, as scenes of violence against little girls were found on his computer.

Putting all of these together, it seems that no segment of society is safe from such predators. That's one of the arguments put forth for the death penalty: that it protects society from the worst people in it. The examples given above are certainly examples of the worst in our society.

However, this certainly isn't a simple issue, and there are compelling arguments on the other side of the fence. For instance, an organization of law students at Northwestern University has researched numerous death penalty cases and have caused multiple men to be released from prison from death row. Such evidence as DNA clearly proved that someone else had committed the crimes for which they had been convicted. These students do not have time to investigate every single case on Death Row. California alone has over 500 waiting on Death Row.

Since California has so many Death Row inmates, it might be worth thinking about some other notorious murderers from California. Neither Sirhan, who killed Robert F. Kennedy, nor Charlie Manson, whose followers terrorized the Los Angeles area as he tried to incite a race war, are on death row. Even worse in theory for society, they have both had opportunities to be considered for parole. They of course did not receive parole, but perhaps this is because of their notoriety. One has to wonder how many murderers are released.