The year is 2015 and yet the U.S. still practices capital punishment.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to justify such a social practice, considering the data is starting to fall exclusively on one side of this issue.

And yet 32 states, including Kentucky, still have the death penalty.

The Bluegrass State reinstated the death penalty in 1976 along with the rest of the country, and since then has executed three death row inmates.

One of the main arguments that proponents of capital punishment spout is that the death penalty deters crime.

This claim sounds very believable, yet numerous studies and extensive research confirmed that there is no evidence capital punishment is a deterrent to crime.

States within the U.S. that have abolished the death penalty haven’t spiraled into dystopian chaos. The data shows that if anything, states without capital punishment have lower murder rates.

Supporters are also likely to ask, “Why should we have to pay for the housing of a convicted criminal for the rest of his or her life?”

While it does seem unfair that the state should have to spend money on a criminal who is probably responsible for a heinous crime, it should be pointed out that executing a prisoner actually costs nearly 10 times as much as keeping someone in prison for life.

Some people say that we should use cheaper, more effective methods of execution to save money, but the chemicals used for lethal injection only run about $83 per case.

The vast majority of the expenses come from the excruciating appeals process.

Since we’re talking about the appeals process, we should point out that incorrect convictions are more common than one would think.

Recent research found that around four percent of death row inmates are given false convictions.

While four percent may not seem significant, it becomes extremely significant when you realize that we are executing people based on faulty convictions.

Finally, the most important point that pro-capital punishment advocates spout is that executions give solace to the victims’ families.

This is probably the most credible point, because I certainly sympathize with anyone who has ever lost a loved one to murder or another serious crime.

However, the fact is the U.S. ranks 5th in the world for executions behind China, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

We tend to distance ourselves from the social policies of these countries and aspire to be more like the rest of the developed world.

Most developed countries have thrown out capital punishment, while some have the option of using capital punishment but simply refuse to do so.

They have come to the conclusion that the death penalty’s drawbacks outweigh its benefits. It’s time we came to the same conclusion.