different and because each defendant is unique. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that a mandatory death penalty, which applied to everyone convicted of first-degree murder, would be unconstitutional. (Paris) Hence, we must give prosecutors and juries some visible guidelines. The death penalty punishes those whose crimes are heinous enough to justify capital punishment. This is why guidelines that clearly illustrate the prerequisites needed to obtain such a punishment as the death penalty. The guilty should still be punished appropriately, even if their crimes are not punishable by death. High paid, skillful lawyers should not be able to get selected defendants off on technicalities. The existence of some systemic problems is no reason to abandon the whole capital punishment system.Finally, the death penalty certainly deters the murderer who is executed. Strictly speaking, this is a form of incapacitation; similar to the way a robber put in prison is prevented from committing crimes on the streets. Vicious murderers must be killed to prevent them from murdering again. Both as a deterrent and as a form of permanent incapacitation, the death penalty helps to prevent future crime....
