Anecdotal Essay: The Death Penalty Through My Eyes

I remember the first time I really thought about the death penalty.

It wasn’t during a heated political debate or in a law textbook. It was a Tuesday evening, during a quiet dinner at home, when the news showed a breaking headline: “Convicted Killer Executed After 15 Years on Death Row.” I glanced at my father, whose expression shifted to one of deep thought.

He put down his fork and said softly, “His victim never got 15 years.”

I was only 16 at the time. I didn’t understand all the legal complexities, but I knew that something about that moment had planted a seed. Over the years, especially during my online class on criminal justice in college, I found myself returning to that dinner table conversation over and over again.

A Personal Conflict

My views on the death penalty weren't always clear. At times, I believed in second chances. At other times, I felt that some crimes were so horrific they demanded the ultimate consequence.

But then I remembered James.

He was my friend’s older brother—a bright, artistic guy who volunteered at shelters and tutored kids on weekends. He was stabbed to death by a stranger on his way home from work. The man who did it? A repeat offender who’d been released just months before.

The ripple effect of that murder was devastating. I saw what grief did to James’ family. His mother, who used to bake cookies for every school fundraiser, stopped showing up altogether. His sister dropped out for a semester. His father barely spoke. Justice, for them, didn’t come in the form of life behind bars. It came in the form of finality the knowledge that the man who took James’ life could never hurt another soul again.

Wrestling With Reality

It’s easy to be against the death penalty when you only read about it in theory. But when you’ve seen the emptiness left by violent crime, the argument feels different.

In one of our assignments for an online class, we had to write about the ethics of capital punishment. Most of my classmates quoted philosophers, legal precedents, and human rights charters. But I wrote about James—and what it meant to live in a world where someone like him was gone forever.

I wasn’t trying to win a debate. I was just telling the truth as I knew it.

Closure, Not Revenge

Supporters of the death penalty are often accused of wanting revenge. But in my experience, it’s rarely about that. It’s about closure. It’s about knowing that justice doesn’t let some crimes slip through the cracks. It's about ensuring public safety when some individuals have shown, through repeated violence, that they cannot coexist with society.

Am I saying the death penalty is perfect? No. Mistakes happen. And we must be vigilant about making sure those mistakes are never fatal. But when the system works, and guilt is clear beyond doubt, I believe the death penalty can be justice served not just for victims, but for the society that failed to protect them in the first place.

Final Thoughts

The death penalty isn’t a topic you can approach casually. It’s loaded with emotion, legal complexity, and ethical tension. But real stories personal, painful, and honest—deserve to be part of the conversation.

Whether you’re debating this in a classroom, a courtroom, or even an online class, don’t forget that behind every statistic is a real person, a real family, and a story that never got its happy ending.