Proposition 34
First degree murder is generally defined as the unlawful killing of a human being that was either deliberate or premeditated or takes place at the same time as certain other crimes such as, kidnapping. Current state laws make first degree murder punishable by death or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole when specific “Special Circumstances” of the crime have been charged or been proven in court. It is possible though to be released by the parole board after a minimum of 25 years if they feel you are worthy. The death penalty is a topic that the United States is divided on. Currently there are 31 states with the death penalty and California is on that list. In 2012 a ballot was proposed that would appeal the death penalty as the maximum punishment for people found guilty of murder and replaces it with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. I am against prop 34 because keeping these inmates alive is very costly to the government and shows low morals for the victim’s family members. At the time of the election California currently had 725 people on death row who had exhausted all their appeals and were eligible for execution. Each inmate in prison costs $63,000 a year when that amount of money could go to road construction, education, military funding, etc. Due to the drawn out appeals process the cost of incarceration is increased and our social morals insure the health of a convicted criminal are part of the increased
4% of the criminals on death row have been wrongly accused of a crime and ended up being killed. You have a say in whether or not you want this atrocity to continue. California's death penalty system has failed. Tax payers money is being wasted on the death penalty and is also a empty promise to victims families and carries the unavoidable risk of executing an innocent person. The article Yes on prop 62 states that “there is no evidence that the death penalty lowers crime” (Hastings) The astronomical costs associated with putting a person on death row – including criminal investigations, lengthy trials and appeals – are leading many states to reevaluate and reconsider having this flawed and unjust system on the books. Proposition 62 is the
The people of California spoke their minds when they decided to keep the death penalty but they also decided to speed up the process by reducing the amount of appeals a convicted inmate is allowed to have. The death penalty pertains to criminals who commit crimes such as; during a kidnapping the victim dies, train wrecking if anyone dies, if a life prisoner assaults someone and that victim dies within a year, treason, first- degree murder under specific conditions (for hire, of a witness to prevent testimony, if committed during a robbery or burglary, of a peace officer, if committed during the course of a rape by force, if committed during performance of lewd and lascivious acts upon children, or by persons previously convicted of murder). The death penalty is not for petty crimes or mild offenses, but it is for those criminals who have done something so horrendously wrong that the community has deemed it fair that they are given the ultimate punishment for their actions. Putting another person to death is a heavy decision but once decided it should be done right away. There should not be years and years of waiting and appeals by the defendant when they have already been found guilty. This is a waste of time and money. They have already been convicted of their
In the article "The Case Against the Death Penalty," which shows up in Crime and Criminals: Opposing Viewpoints, Eric Freedman contends that capital punishment does not discourage fierce crime as well as conflicts with decreasing the crime rate. This essay will analyse Freedman 's article from the perspectives of a working man, a needy individual, and a government official.
Since 1978 the state of California has successfully executed 13 people on death row. For decades capital punishment still remains the answer to violent and heinous crimes of the convicted. The death penalty delays closure for the families and majority are often flawed and overturned. Capital punishment causes problems within itself, those such as the cost to keep the public policy running. It is committed by an individual or insisted upon by the government, killing is still cruel in any form that it is given. Even though it is a
I completely disagree with the archaic and obsolete way of the death penalty since it's way to expensive, it doesn't make the crime go away and the person could be innocent. First off , the amount of money spent on the death penalty is tremendous. Los Angeles Times Study Finds California Spends $250 Million per Execution in a 2005 article, ACLU has reported that "California taxpayers pay at least $117 million each year post-trial seeking execution of the people currently on death row;Executing all of the people currently on death row, or waiting for them to die there of other causes, will cost California an estimated $4 billion more than if they had been sentenced to die in prison of disease, injury, or old age; California death penalty trials
for and 52.8% against repealing the law. As a result, California’s death penalty system has become backlogged and many offenders continue to wither away on death row. Something to bear in mind is the fact that just because a state has a capital punishment law on the books, doesn’t necessarily mean that the condemned will be executed soon after conviction. As already discussed, multiple trials, appeals, and petitions will delay the process, which will likely result in years, sometimes decades before the convicted is ever executed, if at all. Sometimes an offender dies on death row before he ever receives an execution date.
In the debate over capital punishment, the opponents argue that capital punishment should not be practiced because it has a civilizing effect and practicing capital punishment has do deterrent effect. On the other side of the debate, the supporters argue that capital punishment should not be abolished because it is just retribution and has a deterrent effect. In this paper, I will argue that capital punishment should not be practiced.
In 1940, Lawrence Bittaker, an infamous serial killer from the 1970’s, was born to two unloving parents in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was adopted but eventually left abandoned by his adoptive parents who could not put up with him anymore (Chojnaki, M. & Danz, E. p. 1). By the age of 17, Bittaker dropped out of high school, never to obtain his GED. From the ages of 21 to 26, Bittaker was diagnosed “borderline psychotic” and “basically paranoid” multiple times by different doctors (Chojnaki, M. & Danz, E. p. 1). Bittaker was in and out of jail before murdering five teenage girls in 1979 with a partner, Roy Norris (Chojnaki, M. & Danz, E. p. 2). In 1981, Bittaker was sentenced to death. As of today, he is 70 years old and is still on death row at San Quentin Prison in California (Chojnaki, M. & Danz, E. p. 3).
What is Capital punishment? Capital punishment is defined as the legal process whereby a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime in which they committed. There are a number of crimes that can be punishable by the death penalty. (Harper, 2013) The first and most prominent of the crimes punishable by death is first-degree murder. First-degree murder is the killing of another human being with malice aforethought characterized by deliberation or
I have been on death row for twenty-five years now despite the fact that I am innocent. No matter what I say or do, I cannot be freed. It all started one day when I was nonchalantly walking down the street. Out of nowhere, I was tackled and arrested by several policemen for the “murder” of a wealthy businessman. The only evidence they had was low-quality security camera footage of an African-American man attacking this wealthy white man. It clearly wasn’t me, but that didn’t stop the team of plush lawyers his family hired from putting me on death row. The lawyer provided by the court didn’t stand a chance against them, and most likely in the five other cases he was handling at the time. It wasn’t his fault, but it is unfair that I only have
“Why do we kill people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong”, what makes us different from those individuals who we execute? Where do we get the right to take someone's life anymore than they? Many individuals have been executed without physical evidence, how are we to know that the individual is actually guilty? Till this day, there are thirty-one states with the death penalty and nineteen without.
The death penalty helps bring justice to the victims along with their families. In California their current policies for the death sentence, is not being imposed; they haven’t executed a murder in 10 years (Jacoby). In the article by Jacoby said, “California voters voted 76-to-24 ratio for support of a second death penalty measure.” (Jacoby). With the death penalty consistently enforced a
Life is sacred. This is an ideal that the majority of people can agree upon to a certain extent. For this reason taking the life of another has always been considered the most deplorable of crimes, one worthy of the harshest available punishment. Thus arises one of the great moral dilemmas of our time. Should taking the life of one who has taken the life of others be considered an available punishment? Is a murderer's life any less sacred than the victim's is? Can capital punishment, the death penalty, execution, legal murder, or whatever a society wishes to call it, be morally justifiable? The underlying question in this issue is if any kind of killing, regardless of reason, can be accepted. In this
In regards to the argument in support of capital punishment, the means do not come from thinking about the death penalty in theoretical ways, but is justified as a form of retribution for individual cases. Certainty, instances of individual stories are important, however, dangers do exist as a result of such stories dictating the overall thinking about an issue that has profound social consequences. Abolitionists argue that capital punishment has never been proved to be effective in deterring others from committing murder, thus, the evil that follows capital punishment far overshadows any possible beneficial factors the opposing argument may state. Quite the reverse, murder demonstrates a lack of respect for the human life. Any life is valuable
We should use the death penalty for sex offenders and violent criminals. Do you know anyone who has been the victim of murder? If you have, then how did it make you feel when you found out they were murdered? We should use the death penalty for sex offenders and violent criminals. While many people disagree with capital punishment, here are some reasons why it is perfectly justifiable.