Death to the Death Penalty

The death penalty also known as capital punishment is an execution in which the person who committed the offence is put to death by the state. It was first practiced in Jamestown colony, 1608. The person was hanged for spying for the Spanish government and was the 1st person sentenced to death in America. Since then, it has been a form to punish the criminals for committing such heinous crimes and putting end to violence and crime rates. Despite how people agree that the death penalty is justifiable, however; it still violates the international human rights laws. These laws were created to protect the lives of all human beings including the criminals, who some might agree they do not deserve to live. Even though some might say that the

Capital punishment, otherwise known as the death penalty, is a controversial subject which has been argued for decades due to the ethical decisions involved. People believe the death penalty is the right thing to do and that it is the perfect example of ‘justice’ while others believe that it is immoral and overly expensive. The death penalty is not a logical sentence for criminals, it doesn’t give them the right type of justice and it is immoral.

This is truly why life sentence in more effective in the end. After a criminal is sentenced it can eventually leak out that that inmate is actually innocent. If we execute that inmate, we can't get his life back once we find out he actually was found not guilty. If we sentence them to life, we can release him when we find out the facts that he was not guilty the whole time. The courts can technically face many consequences for this because they did not uncover all the evidence before they executed the inmate. Once you take away a life there isn't any going back to fix it. There has been countless errors in the court system that have resulted in innocent deaths. This can cause families to lose their loved ones, or children to lose their parents when it could have been

The death penalty is a punishment given to people who commit heinous crimes. Since 1976, there have been over 1,390 executions. But does that make the death penalty, necessarily, a correct and justifiable form of punishment? “The death penalty is our harshest punishment,” states Ernest van den Haag, author of “The Ultimate Punishment: a Defense.” Van den Haag, in his article, argues how the death penalty is effective and should be used. However, Jack Greenberg, James P. Gray, and Jeffery Reiman, all concur that the death penalty should not be used as a punishment for criminals. Jack Greenberg, author of “Against the American System of Capital Punishment,” argues how the death penalty is an

It is often argued that the death penalty should be continued because of the establishment of the eighth amendment. However, the eighth amendment contradicts with the basic human right or “right to life”. The Universal Declaration of Human rights states in Article 3 “Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.” (United Nations 1). Also, in Article 5 it states “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” (United Nations 1). Therefore, the death

Death penalty is a just punishment for crimes committed against the rights of life, freedom and safety of victims. Some people are of the opinion that death should be only being justified with death; this gives the idea that the perpetrator of a crime should be

The majority of national constitutions and international treaties promote and guarantee the right to life, which demands that not even a single individual or body has the power to take another person’s life. The only exception that the previously mentioned provides is where there is an act of self-defence or war. Sine capital punishment does not fall under any of the exceptions what so ever; it falls under the classification of murder committed by the State. According to the majority of capital punishment critics, life falls into the category of unalienable rights. As a result, one cannot forfeit another’s right to life just because they have committed an

Capital punishment has been around since the 5th century B.C., even existing in Ancient Rome’s laws. In the early days, the death penalty was used all around the world, in places such as Rome, Athens, Babylon, and Britain. Methods of execution included hanging, drowning, burning, beating, and beheading. Crueler methods included crucifixion, boiling, impalement, and

“More than 1,000 people executed since 1976 have been innocent.” (Death Penalty Information Center 1). Once a convicted criminal is executed, there is nothing that can be done to make reparations if an error has been made. In 1973, at least eighty-eight people were released from death row, meaning those people were innocent and could have been executed due to the capital punishment process. Currently, there are more than 2,900 inmates that are on death row in the United States and more than 1,400 inmates have been executed since 1976 when the death penalty was reinstated (Executions by Year). The risks that state take in order to feel safe brings a large amount of innocent lives lost.

The history of the death penalty is a long and brutal one. From the stoning and crucifixion killings of the B.C. era to today’s methods of the electric chair and lethal injection, governments of one kind or another have sentenced people to death for thousands of years. Capital punishment does not work, there is an interest of mounting evidence that proves this .The death penalty, both in the U.S. and around the world, is discriminatory and is used disproportionately against the poverty-stricken, minorities and members of racial, ethnic and religious communities. Since humans are fallible, the risk of executing the innocent can never be eliminated. Death row inmates in the U.S. typically spend over a decade awaiting execution. Some prisoners have been on death row for well around 20 years. During this time, they are consistently isolated from other prisoners, excluded from prison educational and work

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.

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

The Death Penalty has a powerful meaning to it; it’s not just a punishment for those criminals who commit a horrific crime. The Death Penalty offers the execution, gas chamber, lethal injection, hanging, and firing squad. The capital punishment is a topic that can cause arguments because some say it helps and some say it cannot help in anyway. The death penalty has saved lives after an execution, but it has caused many issues for families.

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

The earliest historical record of the death penalty otherwise known as capital punishment goes back as far as the eighteenth century B.C., when the code of King Hammurabi of Babylon listed 25 crimes which were punishable by death. Since then, the uses of the death penalty have prevailed throughout the ages in laws and justice systems of different civilizations. For instance, the Draconian Code of Athens punishes all crimes with the death penalty. During those times, the death penalty involved suffering a gruesome death such as being burnt alive, impaling, crucifixion and stoning (Death Penalty Information Center, 2011).