Death. Such a gloomy and off-putting word. It seems as though just saying the word can strike the deepest sorrow and desolation in many people’s minds; and for good reason. Death is the last part of the circle of life, the final frontier, the ending of creation, and most of all, the end of a life. And because such somber and bleak words are associated with death, it seems as though it would be the cruelest way to punish a criminal who had crossed the thin line of committing a petty crime to a life-ending atrocity. However, for 18 states, the District of Columbia, and now Nebraska, this isn’t the case.

On May 27, 2015, Senators, and Governor Pete Ricketts huddled inside Lincoln’s voting house, debating whether or not their pride and joy, Nebraska should ban the death penalty or not. As soon as the topic of the death penalty was even brought up in Nebraska, Governor Ricketts made it crystal clear that he supported the death penalty by vetoing the bill to repeal the death penalty. However, the Senators in the one-house legislative were obstinate and persistent in proving their side of the argument.  So, you can imagine, when May 27, 2015 finally came around, just how excited they were. Today was their day to put this topic to rest. As soon as the debate began, it became evident that this was going to long fought battle as neither side were willing to give up any ground. As time passed, hours began piling on top of each other, but the debate continued. Finally, as the day drew to a close, and the sun shined its sunkist orange rays on the Cornhusker state, the final vote was taken.

30-19. The vote to ban the death penalty had barely passed the 30 needed votes to override the veto and with that, Nebraska had etched themselves in the fabric of the history of death. The had officially joined 18 other states and the District of Columbia as the only places to have banned the death penalty. Not only that, they became the only traditionally conservative state since North Dakota in 1973 to ban the death penalty. All of this seems great and all on the outside, but it’s when you dig deep and pick out the nitty and gritty details that one begins to realize just how many questions this event sparks. How does this landslide of votes from a traditionally conservative state affect other states and their decision? Was this a good decision moving forward for Nebraska? How does this affect the death penalty moving forward? However, no matter the question, it seems as though all of them lead back to the head of all crossroads. Should the death penalty be banned or not?

I for one, do not support the death penalty. Capital Punishment, or the death penalty, is just a depressing excuse for today’s society to handle murderers and serial killers. It seems as though we have become content with literally killing off our problems in hopes that they seemingly disappear into thin air. Society than masks this hard truth by saying it is a way to intimidate the next set of criminals into not committing a crime. While this may seem logical and an effective way to stop crime, statistics tell another story. According to Deathpenaltyinfo.org, a credible website which has consistently won the top nonprofit badge for 3 years straight, in every single year from 1991 to 2011, states with the death penalty have had higher murder rates than states without the death penalty. But the difference wasn’t miniscule either, as, over the 20 years, there was an average 33.5% difference between the two murder rates. Not only that, the states that had banned the death penalty had a reported sharp decrease in murders. New York being the main leader which, despite being a sprawling metropolis with populations over reaching 10 million, has had a lower murder rate than the national average. To top everything off, the states that banned the death penalty were not small states that didn’t have a high crime rate to begin with. New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts are just small handful of states that have banned the death penalty and have seen a decrease in their murder rate.

But these numbers don’t just represent some random anomaly, as using logic, it becomes palpable as to why the numbers are the way they are. When a murderer or a serial killer gets his/her mind set on murdering someone, chances are, they aren’t sitting in their ramshackle hut contemplating the consequences of their actions. They are murderers for God’s sake! Logic has been ripped out of their dictionary and thrown into the trash and burned if they are contemplating murder. Furthermore, as I have stated before, the death penalty does anything but its intention (to intimidate people from doing crimes). This is because if a criminal has the guts to try to break the law, he/she probably has no problem with staring death in the eye. Death doesn’t deter or make these criminals quiver in their boot in the slightest. Lastly, the death penalty just being put in a society creates violence and havoc. Just having this sour and violent atmosphere can have a negative effect on areas where crime is already sky-high, which can translate into increased murder rates. Not only that, death also causes need for revenge. Any known associates or partners the criminal might have had may come seeking revenge, which can result in a devastating snowball effect, complete with murder and crime.

And as we expand our visions even further and start to take into account the public and societal development with Capital Punishment, we find even more pitfalls Capital Punishment brings to the table. For one, the costs and expenses that Capital Punishment brings to the table are unbelievably high and present economical obstacles that can be easily avoided by banning the death penalty. An average case can run millions of dollars deep and above. Just putting prisoners into a holding cell for a lifetime would be much economically smart. Not only that, we can also attack the fact that putting a criminal to death does not erase the heinous crime he/her has committed. Putting the criminal to death doesn’t do anything to help and is actually quite useless. Instead, I propose that we allocate that exact same execution money to something more useful such as prevention campaigns. Lastly, and probably most obvious, putting someone of your own kind to death is just flat-out outdated, primitive, and quite childish. As a society, how can we sit there and act like petulant children and try to exact revenge when we should be figuring out ways to stop it from happening in the future.

As all these reasons start to pile on top of each other, the answer becomes more and more clear. It’s time that we, as society, humans, and a community, have the death of the death penalty.