The Regretful Life of a Death Row Executioner

The death penalty is something that can be useful but also unnecessary. In the documentary, we saw different instances where families lost a loved one to another. It shows us how there are families who want to see the killer get punished by being given the death penalty but there are others who wouldn't be able to live with the guilt of having another person killed by the death penalty. Not only that but this documentary gave us insight into how being a death row executioner can affect people. Some people feel as if they have a lot of power in their hands and feel no remorse when executing prisoners.  Others may not like it and leave having to regret a lot of what they had done later on in life. It's a sad watch because on one hand, you sympathize with many families and their decision not to push for the death penalty and the same goes for those who do want to push for the death penalty. 

While watching the documentary, I personally thought that the death penalty was a rightful way to punish prisoners who have committed horrible crimes. As I got older, I started to realize that it was not as useful as I once thought. I started watching how different countries in the world fight against crime and I didn't see a single European country use the death penalty on people who commit crimes. Countries like Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, etc, rehabilitate their prisoners no matter what crime they have committed and even help them find jobs once they're out of jail. In the U.S., prisoners are subject to psychological torture due to all of the time a lot of prisoners spend in solitary confinement getting little to no contact with the sun. Our prison system is so backward. My thoughts about the death penalty are split but I feel more in the middle. I don't FULLY agree with both sides of each argument because I feel as if anything were to happen to a loved one and the judge was offering the death penalty, I'd push for that death penalty. I don't think I'd like the fact that the person who did the crime was alive. I'd rather have him gone. Then I start to think about Earl Washington Jr and how he was wrongfully put on death row and how there have been people who were innocent like Earl Washington Jr who didn't get as lucky as he was.