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<title> How do you justify executions? </title>
Three quarters of all states in America has the death penalty. Many people think that it is a fair and well functioning punishment, but I think the opposite. Who are we, ordinary people to decide who is going to live, and who is not? In this essay I will describe how very wrong it is to have a punishment like the death penalty in USA, and what I believe can replace it.

How do you justify taking an other humans life? No matter what crime he or she has committed, no one on earth should have the power to decide about life or death. There is just no logic here. People supporting the death penalty claim that if you have taken an other persons life, you do not have the right to live anymore. But who decides that? Isn't execution proving the opposite? By taking a persons life we show that you are not allowed to kill. This is as illogic as it sounds, moreover it is a savage act and something that a modern country like America should have abandoned a long time ago. 

Sadly the question of death penalty or not have lately been focused on money rather than on human rights. People advocating the cruel punishment often argue that it is cheaper to execute people than to put them in jail for life time. Of course it coast money to keep criminals behind bars, however it also coast a lot of money having the prisoner waiting in jail for execution, and for he or she to appeal the sentence. 

Often when there are debates involving the death penalty you hear words like money and politics. People in general tend to forget about the most important issue namely that execution is a cruel punishment. A convicted felony usually sit a long time in prison before he or she is being executed. The weeks, months and very often years in the cell are periods of uncertainty and anxiety for the prison. Sometimes there is a decided date for the execution, but by appealing that date can sometimes be changed. Life for a person sentenced to death is very much like a roller coaster. Their situation is inhuman.

Many of those being executed in USA are just teenagers. The execution of these kids who has had a bad start in life, and never have had the chance to create and participate in a normal life does not solve any problems. On the contrary it only creates new ones because I think that death penalties and executions helps to brutalise the society.

But what are we going to do with the criminals? Set them free? Off course not. Many of the prisoners needs to stay in jail, and they need to be watched over 24 hours a day. However there are many of the prisoners who can be trained to become functioning, well adjusted citizens. There are rehabilitation programs in USA that have very satisfying results and which have helped a lot of criminals to deal with their problems and to change their lives. These programs may coast a little more than to just switch on the electricity on the electric chair, but once again money should not be an issue when it comes to preserve human lives. 

So, what can we do? Are we going to allow people, very often youths to be executed, meanwhile we know that it exist rehabilitation programs that could help criminals back to a new start in life? Are we going to tolerate that execution is being chosen instead of this because of economic reasons? Humans are certainly not meant to play some sort of gods and when we do that it is wrong, terribly wrong.
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