Death Penalty As A Form Of Punishment

In conclusion, the death penalty is used in different states and it used for people that the state think deserve it. It is used for when a person convict a really bad crime and it depends on if the person has mental problems and didn’t know what they were doing. People think that the death penalty is wrong and tried to address it but none have be

That question is a debate that has been occuring for years. The supreme court has previously ruled that the dealth penalty is not cruel and unusual punishment there for it is not violating the eighth amendment in any way. Despite how the supreme court has ruled the death penalty, there is still many arguments till this day on whether or not it should fall under cruel and unusual punishment. In 1972, the case Furman V. Georgia was brought in front of the supreme court to rule whether or not they believed the dealth penality was cruel and unusual. This case almost ruled out the death penalty, but that didn't last very long. In 1976, the case Gregg V. Georgia came in front of the Supreme Court and the earlier decision was changed because a majority vote believed that the dealth penalty was not cruel and unusual. Eventually four principals were established to decided whether or not punishment was cruel and unusual. The four questions were, is it degrading to human dignity? Is it arbitary? Is it rejected throughout society? Is it unnecessary? Which many states ended up believing that the death penalty were along the lines of those four principals. Clayton Lockett might be a tragic example of the death penalty going bad. He was getting injected, but the injection didn't kill him up until an hour after it was injected. He had to sit there and suffer and many would of

Professor Robert B. Ekelund of Auburn University and his colleagues analyzed the effect that executions have on single murder rates, while there was no effect on multiple murder rates”. In another study, Professor Robert B. Ekelund did find that “capital punishment does, in fact, save lives. Each additional execution appears to deter between three and 18 murders”. Professor Joanna M. Shepherd of Emory University found that each execution, on average, results in 18 fewer murders. By using state-level panel data from 1960 to 2000 they came up with three crucial findings. “First, each execution, on average, is associated with three fewer muders. The deterred murders include both crimes of passion and murders by inmates. Second, executions deter

Defenders of the death penalty often claim that the execution of criminals will teach others not to do bad, initially decreasing crime rates. This hasty form of generalization statistically proves to be wrong. “When it comes to criminals, Texas has the toughest punishments along with a strict court system. The state of Texas spent four hundred and seventy million dollars in 2001 just for punishing convicts. Despite all that money and stern punishment, the crime rate is still twenty four percent higher than the national average, according to 2003 data” (Gonzales). This supports the fact that tough punishment doesn’t necessarily help crime. Ironically, the harshest state in the U.S continues to house the maximum number of criminal acts. The death penalty, a harsh form of punishment, clearly doesn’t lower crime rate.

The death penalty has been around for several around for several years but consists of flaws. The death penalty is costly, it does not deter crime, it has not ended wrongful executions, it goes against almost every religion, abuses human rights, has been persuaded by the types of jury, and can be affected by terrible lawyers.

Statistics back up the fact that the death penalty doesn’t deter crime. In 1999, the murder rate in states with the death penalty was 5.5, and in non-death penalty states was 3.6 (Jillette, Teller, & Price, 2006). In 2004, the murder rate in death penalty states was 5.1, and in non-death penalty states was 2.9 (Jillette, Teller, & Price, 2006). Topping these particular statistics is the state that uses the death penalty the most frequently, Texas, which had from 1996 through 2006 a murder rate of 6.7 at the time when the national murder rate was 6.23 (Jillette, Teller, & Price, 2006). With the murder rate being higher in states with the death penalty, it shows little evidence of deterrence.

Punishment by death dates back in multiple cultures and societies for as long as records have been kept. According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), 4th century’s Roman Law of the Twelve Tablets through 18th century Babylon, where around 25 crimes preempted punishment by death, included some documented forms of the death penalty. Common methods in these times included crucifixion, beatings, and burning while alive. European influence brought capital punishment to the Americas where the first execution, occurring in the early 1600s, brought death to Captain George Kendall for holding secretive loyalties to Spain according to DPIC. In the late 1700s Cesare Beccaria composed “On Crimes and Punishment” which strengthened the abolitionist movement (DPIC). Since this time, a movement toward tighter death penalty laws took form. Thomas Jefferson proposed a bill that ultimately fell to defeat in Virginia that would have increased the strictness on whom receives the death penalty and what act constitutes the penalty. In present the day United States, 16 states have outlawed capitol punishment and the other states have undergone a process by which the method attempts to be more humane. As society has become more civilized, a realization of the inhumanities has prevailed. Problems with current methods have become apparent and secondary methods do not offer a solution. Capital Punishment should be banned from practice and ruled unconstitutional because the process

The constitution has also recognized the severity of this sentence. The constitution states that death is a cruel and unusual punishment that should be prohibited. The eighth amendment clearly states there should be no cruel and unusual punishment, “in the Ferguson vs. Georgia case the court deemed the punishment in violation of the eighth amendment, it also discriminated against minorities” (Cassell).On the opposition side people argue that we are living in a new age were capital punishment has come up with more humane way when carried out however this bring me to my next point that this is costly.

I used to think that world of criminal justice was cut and dry, black and white. If you commit a theft you go to jail, if you rape someone you go to jail longer, and if you kill then you are killed. I am for Capital Punishment. I started class with this view and although I have been tested through some of the topics, I stand by my decision. It seemed easy to think that way. Through the course, I have learned how to better articulate and understand my views. I still have the same gut reaction that those who kill get killed, but I now understand why I feel this way. I agree in most part with the practices of the death penalty, although I do feel that some reform would help in the long run, but at the end of the day you get what you deserve. Thinking so harshly seems necessary as we live in harsh world. Murders seem to be awarded more rights than their victims even when it comes to their death sentence. By committing the act of homicide a killer is exercising a choice that they never gave to their victims; they are choosing to die.

North Carolina is one of the states in the United States that has the death penalty as part of the state’s sentencing options. Basically, the death penalty is a punishment for a crime, typically murder, where the individual is put to death by some approved execution method (e.g. lethal injection). The death penalty is mentioned in North Carolina’s constitution. Specifically, Article XI, section 2 of North Carolina’s constitution states that the General Assembly has the power to implement the death penalty as a punishment for specific crimes (N.C. Const. art. XI, § 2). The implementation of the death penalty has changed over the years.

The Death Penalty is the punishment of execution, administered to someone legally convicted of a capital crime. Death Penalty goes as far back as the Ancient Laws of China as established as punishment for crimes. In the 18th Century BC, the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon codified the death penalty for 25 different crimes, although murder was not one of them. Lex Talionis is the principle or law of retaliation that a punishment inflicted corresponds in degree & kind to the offense of the wrongdoer. It goes along with the commonly known expression, “An eye for an eye,” and etc.

Some studies had shown that the death penalty actually saves between three and 18 lives when each convicted killer is executed.(Tanner, 2007) Naci Mocan, an economics professor, proves the studies by re-examining data from a previous study. Through re-examining the data, Mocat finds that “each execution results in five fewer homicides, and commuting a death sentence means five more homicides.”(Tanner, 2007) This means that by executing the life of a convicted killer, five lives could potentially be saved. Roy Adler and Michael Summers published a study on this subject. The authors examined U.S. homicides and executions from 1979 to 2004, and observed that the homicides decreased while executions increased (Radelet and Lacock, 2009).

The death penalty sets an example for those who are thinking about doing the same thing. Louis P. Pojman, PHD, said, “Public executions of criminals seem an efficient way to communicate the message that if you shed innocent blood, you will pay a high price... I agree... on the matter of accountability but also believe such publicity would serve to deter homicide." He agrees that it sets an example it sends a message to those who are about to commit that crime. Kent Scheidegger stated, “I believe that an effective, enforced death penalty deters some murders." It will bring down the amount of crimes we have in the U.S and it will bring down the amount of life sentences. The article The Death Penalty Deters Crime and Saves Lives states “commuted sentences, and death row removals appear to increase the incidence of murder…” With criminals being removed from death row, others may think that they won’t get capital punishment. This evidence proves that capital punishment deters other criminals from

The death penalty is when someone like a criminal would do something so terribly bad that they are executed by lethal injection. The topic of this has been disputed for a lot of years and nobody has really agreed on if it is or is not effective. Study’s show that the argument is split a lot of people think it is bad and a lot of people think it is a bad thing most people don’t want there tax dollars to go to keeping inmates in prison and feeding them. But some people think that it is just too hard of a punishment to kill somebody instead of keeping them in prison.

The death penalty is not a discouragement to violent crime. In other words killing a person for a crime does not decrease the amount of crime going on. In fact some studies of states show that the more executions the more murders. A man by the name of Thorsten Sellin did a study on the number of executions vs. the number of murders in two states between the years of 1989 and 2002. Texas with a number of 239 executions had a higher murder rate than New York with a number of zero executions. There are many studies that show that the murder rate is higher in states with an execution law. There are little to no studies that show the opposite. According to, nodeathpenalty.org, The south where 80%