How to Write a Death Penalty Essay (Guide, Tips, & Topics)

Last Updated: 16 February 2023

Sometimes as a student, a chance shows up for you to become an essayist of an argumentative essay about the death penalty. Some institutions call it an essay on capital punishment instead.  

Before writing a death penalty essay, you must ask yourself the type of essay you need to write. Even though most essays on the death penalty are persuasive or argumentative, we have seen a rising trend of analytical and death penalty opinion essays.

One way of knowing the type of essay is by reading the essay prompt. The other method is to ask your professor or instructor. Nevertheless, the question should guide you as to what type of essay you should write.

Death penalty essays are common when pursuing English Major, Philosophy, Ethics, Criminology, Criminal Justice, and Law studies.

Given a chance to evaluate the meaning and essence of life in your persuasive essay on the death penalty, you can only do it the best way possible. Nobody knows what awaits our afterlife. Even though Christians believe there is eternal life after death, atheists believe otherwise.

What is the Death Penalty/ Capital Punishment?

By definition, capital punishment is a government-endorsed practice that involves the killing of a person by the state as a punitive measure for their crime. People who undergo the death penalty are those with a death sentence, and the act of killing them is called execution. Learn more on death penalty laws across the world; you will be surprised that to date, most countries have so far abolished the death penalty.

Only serious or heinous crimes warrant for the use of the death penalty. Some of the crimes include treason, fraud (in some countries), rape, adultery, murder, genocide, and other capital crimes as per various jurisdictions.

Capital punishment or the death penalty is a punitive approach used by many countries. However, as of 2012, close to over 141 countries globally had abolished the death penalty.

It has been determined that most Asian countries execute people. For instance, according to Amnesty International and the BBC China executes the largest population and is considered the most active death penalty country. Look at capital punishment by country.

death penalty by country

Read this article on an example of a death penalty essay- an opinion essay.

Top 10 Arguments for the Death Penalty

  1. It is tough on crime. An eye for an eye kind of approach.
  2. The death penalty costs the government less compared to life imprisonment.
  3. Capital punishment is a good deterrent mechanism for crimes.
  4. The abolition of capital punishment has led to increased crimes.
  5. The death penalty is enshrined in the constitution and does not violate the Eighth Amendment that prohibits excessive bail, cruel punishments, fines, and torture by the federal government.
  6. The death penalty is a punitive approach for serious crimes against humanity, rights to life, safety, and freedom.
  7. It is the best approach that gets instant justice for the victims.
  8. The chances of executing the wrong person are slim.
  9. It clears society of the burden of seeing someone who committed a serious crime alive and boasting.
  10. Death penalty saves the citizenry some taxes that are otherwise channeled to useful projects.

If you are keen enough, the moment you start writing your argumentative essay on the death penalty ideas will start flowing. Check out some more reasons why people prefer the death penalty while others are against it.

As per Amnesty International Australia, Australians believe the death penalty should be restored

Top Essay Topics on the Death Penalty

These topics can also be great research papers or term paper topics on the death penalty. 

  1. Different cases of the death penalty in different United States of America States
  2. Question of Death Penalty.
  3. Death penalty issues in Texas.
  4. Is the death penalty justified?
  5. The Death Penalty is wrong.
  6. Pros and Cons of Death Penalty.
  7. Death Penalty Essay ? Against.
  8. Essay for Death Penalty.
  9. A 5 minutes speech on the death penalty
  10. Persuasive essay on the death penalty.
  11. The case for Abolishing the Death Penalty.
  12. Arguments in favor of the death penalty.
  13. Can the death penalty be effective?
  14. Should the UK reintroduce the death penalty?
  15. Exploring Death Penalty in The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe.
  16. Should the death penalty be abolished?
  17. Death penalty ? To be or not to be?
  18. Problems with the death penalty system.
  19. Death penalty dilemma.
  20. What crimes warrant for or inflict the death penalty in the world?
  21. Comparing death penalty policies in China and the U.S.
  22. Death Penalty in the United Arabs Emirates.
  23. Sharia Law and Death Penalty.
  24. Methods of Execution during capital punishment.
  25. Countries that have abolished the death penalty?
  26. Death penalty or life sentence?
  27. Is taking another person?s life justified?
  28. What crimes qualify for the death penalty?
  29. What are the benefits of Capital Punishment?
  30. Death penalty in the era of police violence, discrimination, and corruption in the criminal justice system.

Composing a Capital Punishment Argumentative Essay

Like any argumentative or persuasive essay, the essays on the death penalty need to have an outline. The choice of a good topic for your capital punishment essay precedes the outline.

Your outline should mostly follow the five-paragraph essay format. The introduction of your support for the death penalty essay or death penalty essay against the practice should be short and clear.

Begin by stating useful facts, including quoting statistics from credible scholarly sources. If necessary, give a funnel approach to the death penalty essay introduction.

Without forgetting, ensure you have a strong death penalty argumentative essay thesis that outlines the idea in your essay. The death penalty thesis comes in your introduction paragraph's last two or one sentences.

If you check most death penalty essay examples, you will realize they do not have jargon. So, keep it simple, well-formatted, and neatly knotted using transitions and flowing paragraphs.

The body is where you write your major points for or against capital punishment. Each paragraph should have just one idea.

Finally, the conclusion for an argumentative essay against or for the death penalty should be clear and informative. Again, restate the thesis in a re-invented fashion and highlight some of the issues raised in the paper. Your closing statement must alert the reader to prepare for the end.

If asked to write an argumentative essay about the death penalty, five paragraphs in the above format is the best.

Do You Need Help with Death Penalty Essays?

?Can someone write my essay on the death penalty?? Yes, our pro essay writers for hire can do that. We have the best argumentative essay experts. You can buy cheap argumentative essays on capital punishment/the death penalty today.

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