Capital Punishment

In the essay The Death Penalty: Is It Ever Justified? Written by Edward I. Koch, this exact issue is discussed. Koch believes capital punishment in the form of the death penalty

Death penalty, or also known as capital punishment, today is still used. Many oppose many support it. In the case Furman v. Georgia, the death penalty was abolished. But not fully, because it is still used today. In 1991 more than 2,600 people awaited execution but only fourteen were executed. Capital punishment should be legal, and should be used more often.

Historically, executions have been around for a long time. The first established death penalty laws date as far back as the Eighteenth Century B.C. but didn’t make an appearance in the United States until 1608 (Part 1, n.d.). Death penalty is seen as a form of accountability for someone’s action. Most easily understood when you take a life, you lose your life--an eye for an eye. Nonetheless, over time people have started humanizing the situation and creating controversy. The Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments were interpreted as permitting the death penalty, until the early 1960s, when it was suggested that the death penalty was a "cruel and unusual" punishment, and therefore arguing it as unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment (Part

In his essay with regard to capital punishment entitled “Death and Justice”, which first appeared in The New Republic on April 15, 1985, Edward I. Koch aggressively refutes the claims of individuals who are opposed to the subject matter with seven firm and satisfying points. A native of New York, born 1924, Koch was an American lawyer, politician, political commentator and a reality television arbitrator. He earned his law degree in 1948 from New York University and practiced law in New York City for some two decades thereafter. He was a member of the U.S House of Representatives, serving from 1969 to 1977 and in the later year, he was then elected

In addition to being racially prejudiced, capital punishment places innocent lives at risk. Recently in Chicago, a black man was released from death row after nearly sixteen years in prison. This man, Anthony Porter, came within two days of receiving a lethal injection, until the courts finally agreed hearing on his mental capacity. Porter was very lucky to receive an excellent attorney who managed to prove that Porter was innocent and led the police to a prisoner in Milwaukee who confessed (Kile). This shows the importance of the appeal process found in the courts, which serve to protect the lives of innocent citizens of the United States of America. A writer for The Christian Century writes, "Porter's case brings to light the very real danger that overzealous prosecutors, sloppy legal work and poor legal defense teams will send people to their deaths for crimes they didn't commit," (Kile). If Porter had an equipped defense attorney from the start, he would never have been to prison and nearly killed. Ryan Cummings of The Economist observed that more crimes are punishable by execution, more states have adopted the death penalty and the appeals process has been shortened. The overall expansion of capital punishment endangers innocent lives. Cumulatively, there is now less time and fewer tools to save innocent men and women

While criminals must be punished for their criminal actions, “legalized murder”, as author Coretta Scott King put it, is immoral. The death penalty is legalizing the very thing that many on death row are charged for, murder. There is a multitude of lawful alternatives, to the death penalty, of reestablishing a better reputation for the criminals. The Constitution has no true right to allow such a felonious form of rehabilitation.

Death is the ultimate unknown that has never and will never be discovered. It is here that man meets his day of reckoning. To put a man to death is to force a premature end put to his life. The death sentence is a measure by which the United States government uses as a penalty for capital crimes in 38 of its states (www.amnesty.org). The list of capital crimes differs depending on the state that the murder is committed. The range of crimes that are punishable by death run from murder of the first-degree which is similar in all 38 states, to states such as Kentucky where aggravated kidnapping is punishable by death. The list of capital crimes is based upon what the state feels to be crimes that deserve a punishment of

Putting people to death for committing murder makes other potential murderers think twice about killing someone. Capital punishment deters many murders every day. If all that had to be done was spend life in jail, getting free meals, having a roof over their head, and place to sleep at night, then killing

Criminal law is imposed by almost every nation in the world to reduce crime rate and maintain law and order of the society. An individual who found guilty of a crime will have to face corresponding punishments. Among all penalties, capital punishment is considered to be the most severe and cruelest one which takes away criminal’s most valuable right in the world, that is, right to live. It is a heated debate for centuries whether capital punishment should be completely abolished world widely. The world seems to have mixed opinion regarding this issue. According to Amnesty International (2010), currently, 97 countries in the world have already abolished capital punishment while only 58 nations still actively adopt death penalty.

The death penalty is something about which many people do not have a clear opinion. It is considered to be the punishment of execution, administered to someone convicted of a capital crime. Many people support the death penalty, while others wish for the death penalty to be abolished. My personal opinion on the death penalty is that it should be administered only in cases of certain crimes such as: serial murder, serial rape, and terrorism.

In 2011 I was watching TV when I heard it announced that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. I observed thousands of Americans celebrating with chants, fireworks, tears, hugs, and smiles. I heard a speech by the Mayor of New York. He stated that this killing was a victory and would finally bring peace to all of the families and friends of the people who lost their lives in the attacks on 9/11. This idea, that the death of a murderer brings peace to the victim’s family and friends, was not only accepted but trusted that day. This idea isn’t always accepted when a murderer is sentenced to the death penalty in a court of law in the United States. In “Death and Justice: How Capital Punishment Affirms Life”, Mayor Ed Koch argues that the death penalty strengthens the value of human life through focus on the importance of justice as well as focus on the victim and their families.

One of the most controversial issues in the rights of juveniles today is addressed in the question, "Should the death penalty be applied to juveniles"? For nearly a century the juvenile courts have existed to shield the majority of juvenile offenders from the full weight of criminal law and to protect their entitled "special rights and immunities." In the case of Kent vs. United states in 1996, Justice Fortas stated some of these "special rights" which include; Protection from publicity, confinement only to twenty-one years of age, no confinement with adults, and protection against the consequences of adult conviction such as the loss of civil rights, the use of adjudication against him in subsequent

Furthermore, on top of not reducing criminal activities, Capital punishment is a waste of money. Dieter state that Over two-thirds of the states and the federal government have installed an exorbitantly expensive system of capital punishment which has been a failure by any measure of effectiveness. Literally, hundreds of millions of dollars have already been spent on a response to crime which is calculated to be carried out on a few people each year and which has done nothing to stem the rise in violent crime (Dieter n.d.)When in fact there is another way to go about it. The death penalty is much more expensive than its closest alternative -- life imprisonment with no parole. Capital trials are longer and more expensive at every step than other murder trials. (Dieter n.d.)Over the past three decades, there has been a downward trend in the number of murders that lead to arrest and conviction to the point that only

Death penalty sends a bad message to the society. The people in the society are made to believe that human life has no value, and when one commits a heinous crime like murder, they deserve to die. This is a bad message to the society because, the society should be taught to respect each others life and that every individual has a right to life. A humane society does not kill or support the killing of their fellow human beings, therefore, capital punishment is a violent homicide that teaches the society the permissibility of killing in order to solve social issues, and this is a bad sign. Hence, death penalty should not be allowed because it is the worst example to the society.

Have you ever thought of the person next to you is a killer or a rapist? If he is, what would you want from the government if he had killed someone you know? He should receive the capital punishment. The capital punishment is the ultimate punishment given to the precarious crimes. It is the last stage of capital punishment. There are different methods of like hanging, electric chair, lethal injection, firing squad, gas chamber. Murderers and rapist should be given extreme punishment, and they have to pay for their wrongdoing. We can observe crime rates are accelerating day-by-day. The government should enforce such laws to create a high alert around the society and endorse a secure ruling to its people. But before talking about the essential role of a death penalty, we have to think about the meaning and purpose of any punishment. According to Muhlhausen, 67% of American favor the death for these convicted of murder, while 28 percent are opposed, which shows that there are still more people who believe that capital punishment is the best way to reduce the crime rates. Capital punishment is the best answer to murder and final warning which all that would – be criminals fear. Similarly, it helps to solve the overcrowding problems and provide closure for victims. Criminals fear death penalty so it can be a final warning so that we can solve overcrowding problems and provide closure for victims.