Death Penalty

As Cass R states… “Capital punishment may be morally required, not for retributive reasons, but rather to prevent the taking of innocent lives”. Death penalty is one of those extreme punishments that would create fear in the mind of any person. If murderers are sentenced to death and executed, potential murderers will think twice before killing for fear of losing their own life.

Murder, a common occurrence in American society, is thought of as a horrible, reprehensible atrocity. Why then, is it thought of differently when the state government arranges and executes a human being, the very definition of premeditated murder? Capital punishment has been reviewed and studied for many years, exposing several inequities and weaknesses, showing the need for the death penalty to be abolished.

Death Sentence is the third book in a science fiction series about a teenage prisoner, named Alex. Right away Alex is punished for escaping. His punishment is a medical procedure turning him into a black suit. The warden gives him nectar to make him stronger and have no weaknesses. Alex fights this as much as he can. The warden threatens to kill him if he doesn't cooperate. Alex still tries to remember his name. After his training and the he is officially a black suit, Alex realizes he knows his name and he remembers his friends. He quickly fights the warden and runs to free the rest of his friends. They wander through the prison until they find the warden's office and they find a map. The group creates an escape plan. They eventually

Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the toughest form of punishment enforced today in the United States. According to the online Webster dictionary, capital punishment is defined as “the judicially ordered execution of a prisoner as a punishment for a serious crime, often called a capital offence or a capital crime” (1). In those jurisdictions that practice capital punishment, its use is usually restricted to a small number of criminal offences, principally, treason and premeditated murder. In the 38 U.S. states and within the federal government currently upholding and enforcing death penalty statutes, this method of punishment varies quite differently amongst them. It is a controversial issue

In his paper, “The Minimal Invasion Argument Against the Death Penalty”, Hugo Adam Bedau argues against the death penalty. Bedau’s purpose is to convince people to favor the lifetime imprisonment over the death penalty with an argument that had been previously used by other authors called “The minimal Invasion Argument”, which he considers to be “the best argument against the death penalty”(Bedau, 4). In this paper I will describe Bedau’s argument and show how he has some weaknesses addressing the concept of the minimal invasion argument by ignoring what in my opinion is the main reason why the death penalty has not been abolished; this reason being our incapacity as humans to “define” our environment. When

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

For the second article, “Imprisonment vs. The Death Penalty,” the type of sampling used in this study is purposive or judgmental sampling. Purposive sampling uses judgment to select cases and have a very specific purpose in mind (Neuman, 2009, p. 90). In this analysis, measurements of imprisonment, execution, and homicide were used from figures that were issued by the Federal Bureaus of Prisons and Investigation (Bailey, 1977). The study examined the how the concurrent deterrent effect of imprisonment and execution on homicide rates were governing the many socioeconomic and demographic factors that were linked to homicides.

Death penalty can influence a lot of people who consider to do something bad. People may do something wrong in some situations. When people are angry, they can not think with their brain. They will think with their emotion. If there does not have a strict punishment after he did the wrong thing, people will do it. But if they will lose their own life after they kill someone or do something else, they will think about it is necessary or not. Is it worth their own life to do that? This is a question the people will ask themselves before they do something wrong if we have the Death penalty. “Readers of the 1978 report of the NRC Panel on

Another issue related to the subject involves whether or not capital punishment actually deters criminals from committing crimes. Most people think that the death penalties primary function is to deter others in the future from committing similar crimes. There is evidence that at times capital punishment does deter. However, there are those or cite evidence or opinion that the capital punishment does not achieve its desired effect. The majority of this paper will focus on whether capital punishment actually deters crime.

Four major issues in capital punishment are debated, most aspects of which were touched upon by Seton Hall’s panel discussion on the death penalty. The first issue stands as deterrence. A major purpose of criminal punishment is to conclude future criminal conduct. The deterrence theory suggests that a rational person will avoid criminal behavior if the severity of the punishment outweighs the benefits of the illegal conduct. It is believed that fear of death “deters” people from committing a crime. Most criminals would think twice before committing murder if they knew their own lives were at stake. When attached to certain crimes, the penalty of death exerts a positive moral influence, placing a stigma on certain crimes like manslaughter, which results in attitudes of horror to such acts.

Last but not least, from a sociologic perspective, capital punishment does not work as intended, to deter crime rate, rather, it might brutalize individuals, at the same time does nothing good to the victim’s family other than brutal vengeance. The origin of death penalty is served as a vehicle to put a warning for those potential future criminals that such kind of behavior will lead to death. However, so far, no clear evidence can be seen that capital punishment, as a mechanism of deterrent, actually cut down the local crime rate. Ironically, a reversal trend was found by Death Penalty Information Center (2010) in the USA that the death penalty leads to an increase in local murder rate. To die might be too easy for the mindless murderers. Also, for the relatives or friends of criminals put into death through capital punishment, they are more likely to be

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.

Capital punishment is used predominantly for, but not exclusively to, the crime of murder. This employs the “eye for an eye” sort of belief system that has been in use for hundreds of years. This type of thinking is backed by a principle that was a key point in Machiavelli’s “The Qualities of a Prince.” Machiavelli contends that “it is much safer to be feared than loved.” This is a mindset that is shared with those who support the death penalty. This is because if one knows that they will die if they perform a certain act, they will generally be unwilling to perform that act. People who use even the slightest bit of logic and reasoning could reach the conclusion that it is better to use the threat of death to keep potential murderers from killing innocent victims than to abolish capital punishment and sacrifice innocent lives.

Death punishment, gives closure to the people involved with the tragedy. It helps to the overpopulation problem in the prison system, instead keeping an intern 25 years or more. Finally, people who received the death punishment usually are not able to be rehabilitated. If these people have the opportunity they will kill, rape, and torture again. There are many factors that make murders incapable to

I began my research by looking into the death penalty or also known as capital punishment. The death penalty is the action of executing a person who has committed an illegal act equivalent to death. Crimes punishable by death vary depending on the state; some include murder, sexual assault, treason, and other serious capital crimes (“Crimes Punishable”, 2011). There are many different outlooks on the death penalty; some in favor of the death penalty believe it is the ultimate balance between good and evil and they often use the phrase, “an eye, for an eye.” By using death as punishment they can assure society