on death row awaiting execution. The enormous cost of maintaining the death penalty could be saved if the legal system would treat capital crime appeals in the same manner as ordinary criminal cases (Kronenwetter, 30). Habeas Corpus is intended to protect the rights of defendants by allowing them to appeal their convictions and sentences. This right is being used to delay the death sentence (Schonebaum, 17).The death penalty provides the necessary punishment and deterrent for criminals.The less the death sentence is used, the more conflicting it becomes when it is used. If capital punishment were carried out more, it would prove to be the crime deterrent it was partly intended to be. Use of the death penalty as intended by law could actually reduce the number of violent murders by eliminating some of the repeat offenders thus being used as a system of justice, not just a method of deterrence. The number of potential murderers that are deterred by the threat of a death penalty may never be known; just as it may never be known how many lives are saved with it. A life sentence only gives a convict his or her entire life to escape and repeat his or her crimes. With all the violence of today, capital punishment is not an option; it is a necessity. No executed murderer has ever killed again....
