The death penalty; What should Tennessee do about this. The Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution states that prisoners sentenced to death should not be executed after the death penalty and should not be treated less than eighteenth-century prisoners. So why is capital punishment still legal in the state of Tennessee? It's true that Tennessee doesn't keep up with a lot of its cost-recording data, but the records they do have have shown how expensive it is to prosecute someone. Survey data indicate that capital trials cost an average of $46,791; life in prison without the possibility of parole trials costs an average of $31,494; and life in prison with the possibility of parole trials costs an average of $31,622. The average life sentence without parole does not include defense attorney costs, as the defense attorney did not respond to requests for data. Death penalty trials cost an average of 48% more than the average cost of trials in which prosecutors seek a life sentence. (Casale 2012) Tennessee should create an innocent project like the California School of Law did; Criminals would stay off the streets for the rest of their lives, and the money saved could be spent on improving the criminal justice system, such as increasing public safety or providing resources to help prevent wrongful convictions. You'll find some case examples and research that has been conducted, why you can't be something without nothing, what exactly capital punishment is, the closest thing Tennessee has to the innocent bill, and where repeal is today. Cases and research In recent decades, American correctional policy has focused on a "tough" approach towards all crimes and punishments that have occurred. Say they are... middle of paper... and the Supreme Court to throw it overboard. The Court emphasized that it is not so much the number of these states that is significant, but the consistency of the direction of change. Regarding legislative repeal of the death penalty, the direction of change is clear: five states have abolished the death penalty since 2004, four with a statue and the other in New York with a hybrid judicial legislative process. Meanwhile, no state has permanently reinstated the death penalty since Kansas in 1994. Although that state has not actually executed anyone since 1965. In the years since repeal legislation began to take hold, there has There has been a complete absence of states passing laws restoring the power to conduct executions. And in none of the states that have legislatively abolished capital punishment has a reinstatement bill actually reached a full vote. (Parker 2013)