Death Penalty

The death penalty has been debated for centuries. Within just America, it dates back all the way to 1608. In an article entitled “History of the Death Penalty” from the website Death Penalty Information Center, it states, “The first recorded execution in the new colonies was that of Captain George Kendall in the Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1608. Kendall was executed for being a spy for Spain.” So, it is safe to say that the death penalty has been around for a long time, and has been debated by many for just as long. Most people will claim that they are against the death penalty with no reason other than they believe it is immoral and wrong. Those people simply do not know the facts of how the death penalty actually helps the American Justice System. The death penalty prevents overcrowding in prisons, reoffenders, and is cheaper to the taxpayers.

Do harsh legal penalties such as death really work in deterring crime? Most studies show no conclusive evidence that capital punishment does (or does not) have this effect. (“Facts and Figures”). In fact, over 80% of criminologists agree that capital punishment is not a proven deterrent. (Radelet)

James Felner, author of “Mentally Retarded Don’t Belong on Death Row,” states that, “A person is considered mentally retarded if he or she has a significantly sub-average general intellectual functioning, which generally means recording an IQ score of lower than 70, and exhibiting deficits in adaptive behavior before the age of 18.” According to the American Association on Mental Retardation, it has three components:

The Death Penalty has been a long standing part of the American justice system. For many years, the death penalty went without opposition, but as of recently it has gained it’s long overdue mass opposition. The Death Penalty is barbaric, and is costing our nation obscene amounts of money. While one would think that modern-day American citizens would have done away with this method, a good portion of Americans reason that it lowers the crime rate and it provides closure (or rather vengeance) to families of victims.

To begin, the death penalty can ruin the life of an innocent suspect. Someone who is innocent could sit there in agonizing pain, for something they did not do. There has been countless number of times an innocent person was sentenced to death and was executed. Only to find out later, with evidence, that person was actually innocent and not guilty.

The death penalty dates back centuries. The death penalty is a lawful infliction of death as a punishment for the commission of a particular crime in the United States. Capital punishment is used in the United States as a deterrent to serious crimes. A sentence to death may be carried out depending on each state by lethal injection, electrocution, gas chamber, hanging, or firing squad but all states have lethal injection as their primary method. There has been a big debate over capital punishment for years on whether it is justifiable, “an eye for an eye” or cruel and unusual punishment “two wrongs do not make a right.”

The concept of the death penalty has been around since the 1700’s B.C. where it was first defined in the Code of Hammurabi (Historical Timeline). Since then, the death penalty has morphed and changed. In 1608 A.D., Captain George Kendall in the Jamestown colony of Virginia was hanged for treason (Historical Timeline). This became the first execution recorded in America (Historical Timeline). After this moment in history, people have debated the concept of the death and if it is truly constitutional in regards to the other amendment.

The death penalty has been a controversial issue here in the states. It has lived since the 18 B.C. and is still existing in the 21st century. Began with crucifixion, to the failure of lethal injection, and surprisingly a firing squad. None of these sound like a good way to die. We have killed people who were innocent. Not only that, but also its cost is pretty high. Whether it’s actually lowering our crime rates is becoming a problem. The problem lies with the states whether they 'll allow it or not. The Supreme Court has their except for certain circumstances. All of these factors have an impact on how the process works today.

The death penalty is an extremely controversial topic that is developing within our society today. According to Andre and Velasquez in “Capital Punishment: Our Duty or Our Doom,” 2000 people in the United States are currently awaiting capital punishment due to atrocious crimes (Andre and Velasquez 2013). This issue is becoming more controversial as more states are beginning to consider ratifying this concept states Andre and Velasquez (Andre and Velasquez 2013). The reason this issue is becoming more controversial is due to the fact that this punishment is at the peak of severity. Capital punishment is the legal process for a court to deem death upon an individual due to the severity of the crimes committed. These crimes can range

Unlike popular belief, the death penalty does not act as a deterrent to criminals. As stated by Alfred Blumstein, "Expert after expert and study after study has shown the lack of correlation between the treat of the death penalty and the occurrence of violent crimes." (Blumstein 68) Isaac Ehrlich's study on the limiting effects of capital punishment in America reveals this to the public. The study spans twenty-five years, from 1957 till 1982, and shows that in the first year the study was conducted, there were 8060 murders and 6 executions. However, in the last year of the study there were 22,520 murders committed and only 1 execution performed. (Blumstein 54) This clearly shows that

The death penalty should remain an active form of punishment due to the fact that it is a deterrent for possible criminals and lawbreakers. Tom Head states in his article “5 Arguments for the Death Penalty” that the death penalty would act as a deterrent for homicide and crime because nobody “wants to die”. By applying the death sentence to a specific person's it prohibits them from preventing future crimes and shows possible criminals that committing heinous and abhorrent crimes will result in a severe and permanent punishment. Studies show that states that do not represent the death penalty have increased homicide rates when compared to those who use the death penalty as a form of capital punishment. David Muhlhausen, PhD, Research Fellow in Empirical Policy Analysis at the Heritage Foundation, said the following in his Oct. 4, 2014 article "Capital Punishment Works:

The death penalty in my country does not exist. I think the death penalty in my country should exist as there are very dangerous criminals who are willing to do anything for money such as killing people, there are also many drug dealers who fill the streets with drugs and make it more and more easy to buy drugs because they simply never die prisoners and make it from inside the prison handle everything; I think for drug traffickers, rapists and murderers there should be death penalty in my country, so there are fewer of them on the streets because they are afraid of the death penalty. The death penalty is the worst thing that can happen to a criminal but I think that when someone does something bad to society or country he deserves the death penalty, that person in my opinion will never change always going to have that mentality of do evil or earn easy money. On the other hand I think the death penalty should exist in every country in the world because there are very bad criminals in all parts of the world. I also think that every person should have a second chance to be good and normal in society and the world person, but some people do not deserve this second chance and they should have death penalty in my country.

Criminals are sadly a part of our society and have been since the beginning of time, and it is our job as members of society to make sure the criminals are punished for breaking the law. One way of punishing victims is sentencing them to death. This cruel punishment is known as the death penalty and it is defined as when the government takes the life of a person as punishment for the crime the individual has committed. For thousands of years, the death penalty was an acceptable form of punishment, but over the course of a hundred years, it has become less acceptable and for a good reason. The death penalty has been abolished in many countries including, Canada and England while it is still legal in the United States and China. Within the United States, each state has the right to decide whether or not they proceed with the death penalty and a majority of the states still have the death penalty in place. The death penalty has become a less acceptable form of punishment because it has many downfalls and it should be abolished in America.

In 1936 59% of Americans favored the death penalty and 38% did not. In a more recent study 47% favored the death penalty and 48% said they would rather have them sentenced to life in prison (Jones, “Support for the Death Penalty”). The death penalty is a very controversial topic that is primarily based on morals. There are many reasons why people favor it. For example and many believe if you are insane enough to murder someone you deserve it. But, there are also many reasons why people oppose it. For example, there have been innocent people sentenced to death. People are also frustrated because the money that the government uses to either kill or house a prisoner for life, comes out of their taxes. Everyone has their own story and belief on why they death penalty should or should to be legal.

The cause of the death penalty more often then not is politically inspired. Fear has long been a favored method for controlling the population. In the case of the execution of those found guilty of murder in developed countries such as The USA , where the motivation is simply political. More votes are gained by appealing to the sense of justice exhibited in the lower educated classes than are to be gained by appealing to those that are more educated and trained in the exercise of reasoning. It is one of the failings of democracy. The effect of the death penalty is that if a person is a murderer he or she has nothing to lose by killing to cover their crime. No murderer commits a crime and intends to do