It is always a difficult decision to come up with the sentencing for a convicted criminal.  The judicial system spends much of its time trying to first decide the guilt or innocence of the individual and then if guilty assign the appropriate punishment.  This decision becomes even more difficult when the guilty party is being convicted of murder.  In the case of murder there are only two alternatives for sentencing, either a prison term or the death penalty.  However, due to the ineffectiveness and later problems of the death penalty, the prison term is the better solution.

One of the main problems with the death penalty is that it does not accomplish what it set out to do.  One purpose of the death penalty is to deter people from committing murder by threatening to take away their lives.  However, this effort has shown not to be effective in decreasing the murder rate.  A good example of this is Florida which is one of the southern states that does allow the death penalty.  During a year in which Florida had a high number of executions, its murder rate was compared to those of other states.  It was found that the murder rate in Florida was higher than other states, even though it had a large number of executions for that year.  The people of florida knew that they could and would be sentenced to death if they committed murder, yet they continued to break the law.

The threat of the death penalty is not working because those who commit murder know that though it is easy to sentence someone to death to actually carry out the execution is very difficult.  Once sentenced to death there are many ways in which the defense can delay the execution.  With murder cases there are often many appeals that cost large sums of money and only increase the amount of time that the prisoner stays in prison.  These appeals tie up the legal system when there are other cases with as much if not more importance than the death sentence.  Dealing with the death sentence takes up so much time that the state of Florida is considering building a separate prison for the isolation and execution of those on death row.  The government of Florida is also recognizing the fact that they may need to create an entire department devoted to dealing with death penalty appeals.  It sometimes takes as much as five years to reach a decision on one case.

What the legislatures are overlooking is that while they are spending years to execute one person, there are several probable murderers on the streets ready to replace those who have been arrested.  The number of murderers who are arrested, convicted and sentenced to death are very few.  Those who are sentenced to death may spend long periods of time in prison due to delays in their execution.  For each person waiting on death row there are many individuals on the streets who are ready to take the convicted criminals places.  Therefore, the number of murderers on the street are quickly replenished by those individuals that have the potential to kill. 

The death penalty's failure to frighten people away from killing is only one of its downfalls.  Another problem is that some people get carried away with the uses of the death penalty, primarily those who utilize it for revenge.  For example, there are several people who recognize that the death penalty has no effect on deterring people from murder.  Nonetheless, they want to punish at least some of those responsible for murders in general and therefore randomly sentence individuals that have murdered someone to death, according to Koch.  The time is not taken to examine each case thoroughly.  Many people that work with murderers are happy if some of the murderers are sentenced to death.  This haphazard way of sentencing leads to errors, sending innocent people to prison or letting some murderers slip though the system to be set free.

Another negative effect of the death penalty is unfair trials.  What happens if those sentenced to death are executed and then later found out to be innocent.  If the individuals are sentenced to life in prison they can be released, but there is no way to bring people back to life if they are sentenced to death.  By automatically sentencing someone to death is taking that individuals right to be rehabilitated away.  Part of the purpose of prisons is to rehabilitate the prisoner.  They are to show remorse, understand what they did wrong, and if possible make up for their crime.  By sentencing these people to death it is assumed that these individuals are unable to be rehabilitated.

Trials can also be biased based on race.  Several studies show that black murderers are almost always sentenced to death, especially if they killed or raped a white woman.  Whereas white murderers are usually sentenced to life in prison, not depending on the race of the victim.  It is impossible to remove racism from society and extremely difficult to decrease it.  For that reason it is unfair to have the death penalty due to the fact that it is hard to provide an unbiased jury for minorities.  This statement is true for all trials, however, with death penalty trials an individuals' life may be taken away due to racism.  This kind of behavior shows that the country is regressing when it comes to combating the issue of racism.

Another aspect of unfair trials to consider is that of money.  Someone with an expensive, well- known lawyer has a better chance of winning the case or getting less of a punishment then someone represented by the District Attorney.  The District Attorney is worked extremely hard and does not receive large salaries for their work.  Therefore the District Attorney may not be able to put as much time and effort into the case.  Consequently, those who have less money and cannot afford an expensive lawyer have less of a chance of getting off the hook then someone with large sums of money.

The solution to the problems of unfair trials is life in prison without parole.  This makes sure that the offender is not allowed back on the streets to repeat the previous crime.  Some argue that if these criminals are not executed, but kept in a prison that it would lead to overcrowding.  The answer to the overcrowding problem is to build more prisons.  The national budget can be rearranged so that money is reallocated to help fund prisons.  There are several areas, such as defense, that are given healthy sums of money each year which can be spared.

Besides overcrowding many are concerned about the safety of the prison guards if murderers are placed in prisons as opposed to being executed.  If a law was implemented stating that convicted murderers were to be executed, some would still slip through the cracks and find their way into the prison system.  Murderers are not the only ones who are able to kill a prison guard, prisoners who have committed lesser crimes are just as capable.  The protection of the guards is important, so there should be strict training so guards are prepared for what may happen. It must be remembered that prison guards are aware of the risks that their job entails.  It is their job to watch the prisoners.  Some jobs are riskier and more life-threatening than others, but it is the individuals choice whether or not to accept that job.

It must be realized that the choices of what to do with a convicted murderer are not the death penalty or a luxurious life in prison.  In the fight for humane treatment, some forget that prisoners are in jail because they broke the law.  Due to their breach in the law they lose many of their previous rights to freedom.  Prison is a punishment and only humane rights such as feeding prisoners, giving them shelter and clothing are appropriate.  The prisoners must be punished for their crime.  Life in prison covers all the purposes the death penalty was created for, keeping murderers of the streets to prevent them from repeating their crime and taking the victim's feelings into consideration.  It is much easier on the criminal to simply be put to death.  It is nothing compared to what they did to their victims.  Life in prison is much more painful than passing on peacefully with the help of an injection.  In prison the prisoners know that they will never be able to leave unless it is when they die.  The many years in prison also gives the prisoners time to reflect on the wrong they did.  Therefore, it is clear that because of the difficulties and problems created by use of the death penalty that life in prison without parole is a more beneficial answer to the question of what to do with convicted murderers.