The New York Times did an article on, Scott Raymond Dozier, an inmate in Nevada, and was sentenced the death penalty after he was convicted of murdering a man from Las Vegas. He ended up waiting years while his lawyers were appealing his sentencing, and Dozier felt that him having to wait was a punishment, so he started telling the judge to just set a date for him to be executed. Dozier ended up taking his own life because he could not handle waiting to be executed (Oppel Jr.). An inmate should not be allowed to choose if they want the death penalty or not because then life in prison is not a punishment because the death penalty would be what the inmate would want.
Life in prison was put in place to punish people who commit serious crimes. It was not put in place for prisoners who decide they do not want to be in prison anymore to decide to be executed. If inmates are allowed to decide if they want to be executed then they are not really getting punished, so they should not get to say that they want to die at any point. By allowing prisoners to choose they would be scared to go and commit a crime because they can just say “Can I be executed,” then they would be put out of their misery. They would not have the full punishment of the life sentence. “ The Bible is our greatest source of moral inspiration,” and the Bible states that humans should not kill (Koch 319). Since this is our biggest moral inspiration we should punish people who break a law, and humans would not be punishing inmates if we let them decide they want to be executed halfway through their life sentence. It’s cheaper to have someone spend life in prison then give them the death penalty (Drehle).
Secondly the death penalty cost a lot of money. “The American death-penalty system is so slow, inconsistent and inefficient that it costs far more than the life-without-parole alternative,” so if the death penalty cost more money why would we let inmates choose to do that (Drehle). As a country that is already tight on money if we allow inmates to say they want the death penalty whenever then the country would spend way too much money. The country needs to save money, and one way for that to happen would be by not allowing inmates to be executed while they are in life in prison.
Opponents may argue that the death penalty is cheaper than life in prison. Many Americans are fooled when they hear “The American death-penalty system is so slow, inconsistent and inefficient that it costs far more than the life-without-parole alternative” (Drehle). “This fact may puzzle many Americans,” (Drehle). This shows how people can be fooled into believing something just so they will join their side. For this reason, opponents could believe that because they are being tricked into believing that the death penalty is cheaper. However, it is cheaper for inmates to serve life in prison.
In conclusion, inmates should not be allowed to choose to get the death penalty while in a life sentence. They should not be allowed to because it would then make a life sentence not even a punishment because the people could just choose to be executed. Prisoners should also not be allowed to because it cost way to much money for someone to get be given the death penalty compared to someone serving a life sentence. The country needs to make sure that inmates who are serving a life sentence are not wasting money by choosing to be executed. That is why prisoners should not be allowed to choose to get the death penalty while serving a life sentence.
