Greg Wilhoit's Capita Capital Punishment

The “Does the death penalty bring closure to a victim’s family?” article shares how this family believes that the death penalty does not necessarily bring closure, but it brought relief. I feel that providing two different perspectives will cause the audience to be open to my findings and have questions that I will later address in the paper. At the end of the introduction, I will share my ethos on the topic. While I do not have a lot of ethos I can share that I, like the readers, want to understand the topic more as I am now a tax payer and if the U.S. should still use this form of

Capital punishment and the practice of the death penalty is an issue that is passionately debated in the United States. Opponents of the death penalty claim that capital punishment is unnecessary since a life sentence accomplishes the same objective. What death penalty opponents neglect to tell you is that convicted murders and child rapists escape from prison every year(List of prison escapes, 2015). As I write this essay, police are searching for two convicted murders who escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility in New York on June 6th, 2015. The ONLY punishment from which one cannot escape is capital punishment.

The death penalty has been a controversial topic among society for ages. An issue often brought up when discussing the legality of capital punishment is wrongful convictions. Advocates of the death penalty say that, while wrongful convictions are an issue, those few cases do not outweigh the need for lawful execution of felons who are, without a doubt, guilty. On the other hand, the opponents argue that the death penalty is wrong from both a legal and moral standpoint, an ineffective form of punishment, and should, ultimately, be outlawed. With both advocates and challengers constantly debating on this topic, the death penalty and wrongful convictions continue to be hot buttons issues for Americans and people throughout the world.

By reinstating the death penalty, it is not guaranteed that justice will be served. Family and friends of victims of serious crimes are left longing for closure for the actions inflicted and often seek retribution (SOURCE). By allowing the death penalty, the victim’s family and friends are offered closure by the means of taking the assailants life. Commonly known as an “eye for an eye,” this form of punishment is classified as retributive justice as it requires the assailant to give up his or her own life to balance out the social order (SOURCE). In some cases, victim’s families have commented on the closure that the execution of the offender has brought them, as it ends the period of longing for justice for the victim (SOURCE). However, case 36 in Murder Victim Family Members describes the victim’s family feeling relief instead of closure, commenting that they will only receive closure after working within themselves. This view is further evident in comments about closure not being achievable through the execution of the offender as it does not bring back their loved one while allowing the offender to get off easily. The family and friends of the victims that found the death penalty to be unsatisfactory, agree that a life sentence in jail without parole would have been a better opinion. This is due to the offender suffering to the same extent of the victim while in solitary confinement (SOURCE). Furthermore, cases with individuals receiving the death penalty tend to span

We all look at the justice system, a system that is established to control crime and appoint penalties to those who violate laws. We hope it serves us right, but how each system works, depends on the jurisdiction that is in charge, because different jurisdictions have different law agencies and how they manage. One thing they all have in common is to seek Justice. The abolishment of the death penalty is in my favor because, sometimes the legal system gets it wrong, as well, death is the cruelest act of society and its irreversible, and it is an added cost to the government and taxpayers’

It is nearly certain that in today’s society, extremely violent crimes occur and it is up to the people to decide which kinds of crimes deserve a stiffer punishment than others. The question of the death penalty being a morally permissible sentence in the case of homicides, such as murder or manslaughter, is a current controversial topic, and is also a contemporary moral issue. This idea has been practiced throughout history for thousands of years and is currently used today as a means of justice. It is handed to those who have been found guilty of a capital crime. It is considered to be taking ‘an eye for an eye’. Due to this increase in crime rate, the proposal of capital punishment has emerged in today’s society. Thirty one states have

Since 1608, legal systems have used capital punishment as justice. “As of November 2014, 32 states have the death penalty. There have been a total of 1348 executions from January 1977 to the end of 2014” (capitalpunishmentuk). The capital punishment only affects those who sentenced in the crime of rape or murder. The most popular death method is lethal injection. There are other options such as “electrocution, hanging, shooting, and the gas chamber” (capitalpunishmentuk) but theses alternative options are used very rarely. Honorable disagreement, unproductive deterrence, and debatable constitution laws are among many undisputable arguments framed against the death penalty. Thus leaving humanity to want the capital punishment eliminated.

Imagine receiving an unexpected call from the police, saying a loved one has been murdered. Every sixty seconds, someone’s life is taken from them by horrendous crime. Families and relatives are devastated. They are forced to sit through hours of police investigation and multiple court cases. Some families are allowed closure by convicting the alleged victim. Other families are not so lucky. Some are forced to forever wonder who the victim’s killer is and why they took that person from them. These and many other questions go unanswered, but they do not have too. The punishment for a convicted murderer is most likely life in prison without the possibility of parole, but in other states, the death penalty is enforced.

Capital punishment is one of the most controversial issues in contemporary American criminal justice administration because it consists of the purposeful taking of the life of another. On one hand, killing for any reason besides the absolute necessity of self-defense violates the moral principles upon which modern society is built. On the other hand, there are criminals whose conduct (including the wanton murder of others) justifies suspension of their rights and their removal from society for the protection of the innocent members of the general public. The United States Constitution allows capital punishment in certain circumstances and the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the rights of states to put to death certain types of offenders provided the specific manner used does not violate other provisions of the Constitution pertaining to cruel and unusual methods used for that purpose (Schmalleger, 2009).

Capital punishment, or execution, or death penalty, or sentence to death has always been the best answer for criminals with unforgivable crimes such as murder or child-rape , almost 61% of Americans unanimously agree so, as reported by the Gallup Poll in August 1997. Gradually, however, the American’s opinions have been shifted. In September 2014, the Gallup Poll asked “Which do you think is the better penalty for murder - the death penalty or life imprisonment?” Nearly 45 percent of respondents answer life imprisonment. The societal shift occurs due to the exposure of the excess expense of capital cases, the acknowledgement of the inevitable judicial mistakes, and some other reasons. The writing below is determined to provide detailed reasons why capital punishment is no longer necessary, and why it is time for Americans to consider new and viable options such as life without parole.

Executing those who have committed wrongdoings has been a practice that has existed since the beginning of humankind. A universal process exercised by nearly all societies in history at least at one point of time or another. Capital punishment could have been considered a tradition of sorts, considering how often it was and still is made to be an intriguing, perhaps morbidly entertaining, spectacle. When the reality behind the contentious punishment is revealed, so is the true ugliness of this custom. Throughout the world in modern times, including the United States in particular, the controversial debate on whether to retain or abolish the death penalty is extremely heated on both sides of the argument. The death penalty is an outdated

A famous expression, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” has become the basis for this political debate over the past several decades --- capital punishment. In society today, many people are murdered every day by the hands of another human being. Those who are for capital punishment promote that it is a deterrent for crime, provides closure, and is a moral punishment for those who choose to take a human life. Those not in favor of it argue that it is an ineffective crime deterrent, sends the wrong message, and is more expensive than sentencing a murderer to life in prison. When those who commit these heinous crimes are found guilty in the court of law, the loved ones of the victims often wants the murderer to be sentenced to

Capital punishment implies that the criminal is sentenced to death as a punishment for their crimes. Prima facie, it appears to be the most just punishment and solution to crimes that demand such severity of punishment in proportion to the offense. However, the reason why it is a moot point and a debatable issue is because ethicists see both sides of the story and there are numerous ethical issues involved with institutionalizing capital punishment.

Cameron Todd Willingham (1968-2004) was an American man who was convicted and executed by lethal injection for the murder of his three young children by arson in Corsicana, Texas, on December 23, 1991. Although Willingham fought for his innocence for 12 years on death row, he was executed in Texas in 2004. Many questions came up with the investigation of the arson of Willingham’s case and many recent and new evidence have proven Willingham’s innocence, but yet, it was too late to save Willingham’s life. Willingham’s case and other stories of failed justice is important not just because they expose specific errors, but also those cases teach us the powerful moral intuition that we should believe in justice but should not ignore the stories of injustice. Capital Punishment is a harsh criminal justice system, and without a complete fool-proof justice system, the risk of putting innocent people to death through capital punishment should not be done.

William Furman murdered William Micke on August 11, 1967 in Savannah, Georgia. Furman was unemployed, and only had a sixth grade education. William Furman became depressed, and started to commit theft for food and money. Furman was caught stealing several times, but was only given a light sentence. At 2 a.m. on August 11, William Furman broke into the house of William Micke, while Micke and his five children were sleeping. William Micke heard a noise and went downstairs to see where the noise was coming from. He spotted Furman, and Furman ran for the back door. William Furman tripped over an exposed wire and the gun in Furman’s hand went off. The bullet hit William Ficke, killing him instantly.