The ultimate punishment is death. The death penalty is administered when an individual is convicted of committing serious crimes in which people were killed. The death penalty is a very hot topic. Arguments are made through moral, economic, and practical perspectives. Many issues, such as whether the death penalty deters crime, are debated back and forth by research, making the death penalty a very complex and difficult subject. The many arguments put forward in favor of the death penalty clearly pit two sides against each other, and although both sides have very valuable data and many arguments, the final decision is that the death penalty should not be abolished. Some of the arguments made against the death penalty concern the morality of people. issue. Some people argue that all death penalty cases in Washington cost over a million dollars more than cases where there is no death penalty (Financial Facts About the Death Penalty). When morality is out of the question, the death penalty is not the right choice because it costs too much. Amnesty International reports that the current system in California costs $137 million per year, but without the death penalty it would only cost about $11.5 million (Death Penalty Cost). All that money saved by not using the death penalty could be diverted to other programs that might include improving police forces or Professor Lamperti concluded that research showed no deterrent effect, while others affirm that it has an effect (Lamperti). Ernest van den Haag, a professor of jurisprudence at Fordham University, states that states with high murder rates that have the death penalty would have an even higher murder rate without the death penalty (The Death Penalty Prevents Murders future). Furthermore, if life in prison was a worse sentence, then why are convicted criminals like Tsnaravez, one of the perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombings, trying to get life in prison instead of death ?