Death Penalty

The death penalty is a controversial topic in the United States today and has been for a number of years. The death penalty was overturned and then reinstated in the United States during the 1970's due to questions concerning its fairness. The death penalty began to be reinstated slowly, but the rate of executions has increased during the 1990's. There are a number of arguments for and against the death penalty. Many death penalty supporters feel that the death penalty reduces crime because it deters people from committing murder if they know that they will receive the death penalty if they are caught. Others in favor of the death penalty feel that even if it doesn't deter others from committing crimes, it will eliminate

The Death Penalty in America has been a talked about issue for some time now. Americans have their own opinions on the death penalty. Some people feel it is too harsh of a punishment, some believe if you take a life you should lose your life. I myself do not believe in the death penalty. To me it goes totally against what Americas was built on God. Even though over the last fifteen years or so we have slowly drifted away from “In God We Trust”. Looking at the death penalty in a whole it was never something that the United States came up with. It was adopted from Britain. (Bohm, 1999)The first ever recorded death penalty in United States history was that of Captain George Kendall in 1608. He was executed for being a spy. The death of Captain Kendall started a chain of other colonies jumping on board for the death penalty. In some colonies they were sentencing people to death for petty crimes, such as steeling, or trading with Indians. Over the years after the death penalty would be reformed and revamped numerous of times. Until it was only used when murder or treason occurred. Matter of fact Pennsylvania was the first state

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)

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.

     One argument from death penalty supporters is that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to prevent other people from committing murders. It is the belief that people will think out the consequences of their actions before murdering, and consider the

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 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.”

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 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 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

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.

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.