Persuasive Essay On Capital Punishment

Capital punishment is one of the most controversial topics in today’s world. Many people believe that it is morally wrong to have capital punishment as a sentence to a crime. People also do believe that it is morally permissible for a severe crime. Capital punishment is also known as the death penalty. It can be given as a sentence when somebody is convicted of an extremely violent crime. The biggest issue that can be seen with this is that somebody could be innocent and sentenced with the death penalty because of the nature of the crime that they have been accused of even if they didn’t commit it. I believe that there is a moral line between using the death penalty and using other forms of punishment.

Many counties complain about the high costs and the financial difficulty it causes. The document, What Politicians Don’t Say About the High Costs of the Death Penalty, written by Richard C. Dieter, executive director of The Death Penalty Information Center states, “Georgia is laying off 900 correctional personnel and New Jersey has had to dismiss 500 police officers. Yet these same states, and many others like them, are pouring millions of dollars into the death penalty with no resultant reduction in crime.” These cost of these trial are not only immense amounts of money to the local governments, but also people’s jobs and lives. It is an unnecessary process that millions of dollars are being poured into each

In an effort to make sure that innocent men and women are not wrongly convicted in capital punishments cases, they are given a wide range of appeals procedures. Immediately following sentencing an automatic appeals process called Direct Review begins. It is during this process that appellate courts review the lower trial court’s decision, checking for errors and making sure the case was tried on sound judgment. If any errors are found

“To take a life when a life has been lost is revenge, not justice,” stated Desmond Tutu. In 2011, studies found out that in the state of California, they’ve spent over four billion dollars on capital punishments since 1978. Trials that can result in the death penalty are 20 times more expensive on tax payers than those that can’t. The death penalty should be abolished world-wide. There are plenty of reasons that the death penalty should be outlawed. Cost, wrongful convictions and executions of innocent people, and the suffering of the accused are the main reasons (EJUSA, n.d.).

Capital punishment in the 21st century endures many inequalities and injustices. The common arguments for the death penalty are filled with inadequacies. Having the death penalty is both expensive and time consuming to sentence criminals to death. The most frequently raised argument for capital punishment is retributive. According to a recent analysis sending to a person to prison for life costs $1.1 million and sending a person to death row costs $3 million because of appeals and enhanced spending to house the individuals on death row (Schaefer).

Perhaps we should give the judge a knife and tell her that if she has

We believe that capital punishment is a wrongful thing for people . More innocent people are taken from society by death with this penalty and guilty walks away. How do people know that these experts and detectives mislead things or mistaken evidence that really isn't evidence they just assume of what they see and base it of a conclusion they believe

Capital Punishment has been used throughout the years in law enforcement to deal with criminals who are deemed to be put to death. Do murderers, rapists, or terrorist really deserve to be put on death row though or do they deserve to live their lives out in prison with the guilt of what those criminals did to their victims? The criminal justice system has debated this issue with killing people. The criminal justice system debated this because if they are killing these criminals that use to be citizens are the people carrying out these acts not as bad as the lives they are taking. In this paper, I will be talking about why criminals should not have an easy way out like death for murders or for simple crimes like stealing. I will show this by talking about how the history of capital justice, the testimonies of people, and how the criminal justice system sees death penalty today and why this punishment should not exist.

Capital punishment has been a basic piece of human culture and its lawful framework for a considerable length of time. It is often viewed as a vital sanction to the most heinous of crimes as well as an approach to stop future lawbreakers by fear of death. In many cases, this sort of punishment came to be viewed as an immoral act against humanity, and its legitimacy in a plethora of legal systems has been addressed. As of recently, the civil argument persists. This brought about a wide disparity of laws on this issue. A few countries including China, the US, Iran, Belarus, and others protect capital punishment as a choice, while others like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and every European country have canceled the death penalty. Despite the obvious negatives, others chose to keep the practice in their laws. The death penalty is an overzealous “eye for an eye” tactic, that is and has been damaging the fabric of our society. The expense, the immorality and the control over another life to such degree, should be cause enough for any country to not just rethink this heinous and inhumane punishment but to abolish it. The United States inheritance of slavery and racial corruption proceeded with offense, in our utilization of capital punishment, where nearly three times the general population on death row is of black decent.

In the eleventh century A.D, to hang a person was illegal unless he/she was found guilty of murder. In 1608, Captain George Kendall became the first recorded execution in the new colonies history. It was not until the eighteenth century that death penalty laws were enacted. However, the death penalty has become a heated debate involving the violation of the constitution and our moral code. People against capital punishment may argue that it’s is a direct violation of the Human's Right Act, the Eighth Amendment and is very expensive to maintain. Others may argue it gives closure to the victims families and creates another form of crime deterrent. Furthermore, the State of Nebraska recently held a vote on whether capital punishment should be eliminated, the result was surprising. 61.2 percent of Nebraskans voted to repeal the 2015 decision to abolish the death penalty.

Capital punishment in the United States continues to be used even with all its controversy over the effectiveness as a deterrent to violent crimes. Capital punishment is punishment handed down by the court which involves the legal execution of a person who has committed a serious crime such as murder and has been sentenced to death under the court of law as mentioned in the book, “Criminal Justice in Action the Core.” Death sentences and executions for women offenders are also rare in comparison to male offenders. According to Death Penalty Information Center says that on September 30, 2015, Kelly Gissendaner, in Georgia was the last female executed for arranging to have her boyfriend kill her husband. The boyfriend received a life sentence in exchange for testifying against her (“women”). Kelly children pleaded for compassion, saying they had forgiven her and did not want to lose their mother. Several of her former prison inmates said that Kelly had given them the courage to turn their lives around. Pleas for clemency also came from people like Pope Francis, a former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice, and the former Deputy Director of the state Corrections Department (“Women”). Before the modern era of the United States death penalty beginning in 1976, “the last female offender executed was Elizabeth Ann Duncan by California on August 8, 1962” (“Women”). Nonetheless, capital punishment continues to be carried out under the law that society has deemed the death penalty as

The United States will not conform to the amendments as provided in the United States Constitution or provide the process for all of its citizens when they are in trial. The harsh penalizations through the use of Capital Punishment should not be utilized in our judicial system. For the past 50-years, there have been questions asked about one issue that we just cannot get on board with. The idea of killing citizens had started to weigh heavily on the conscience of humans. The debate on whether capital punishment should be a penalty or not for those convicted of capital offenses remains one of the most controversial issues in our country. This debate has stemmed from whether capital punishment is a violation of the eighth amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Eighth amendment states “excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted (amend. XIII, sec.3).” This amendment entails that no inhumane, excessive, or unusual punishments should be inflicted upon a person as a penalty of the violation of law (amend. XIII, sec. 3). This amendment questions the issues of The Death Penalty; it is used less over the years, so why do we keep it around as a safety net, and so-called “Deterrent,” or to satisfy our own the idea of justice for the people (Alfano). Another factor that has stimulated around the debate about capital punishment is the number of wrongful convictions of those subjected to capital punishment. According to

To this day it is still unknown as to when the first method of capital punishment was employed in America, however it is said that some of the first recorded deaths began in the early sixteen hundreds. As with any government decision there is always backlash from society and capital punishment is no exception. As vile as a felony may be, capital punishment should no longer be allowed. Too many innocent lives have been lost due to lack of representation of the suspect, police manipulating suspects into false confessions, prosecutors rigging lineups by setting suspect's up for immediate failure, and refusal for further investigation. (FN). Failure to meet standard expectations and positioning a suspect up for death is all too common. These situations violate both the eighth amendment which bans infliction of cruel and unusual punishment, and the 14th amendment which bans deprivation and deniment of equal protection. Too many instances of capital punishment fall under violation of cruel and unusual punishment. By way of illustration there have been a number of cases where unusual drug combinations, improper IV placement, and carelessness have lead to strenuous and excruciatingly painful deaths, which violates the 8th amendment of cruel and unusual punishment. In light of the 14th amendment it has been argued in countless cases that this amendment has been violated in terms of execution of juveniles, and execution of the mentally ill and mentally retarded.

Monsters are real. Not the monsters Inc., blue purple and fluffy kind, but the human kind. There are people in our country and in our world that have mental illness. A lot of the people with mental illnesses overcome them and do amazing things with their life, but some turn into monsters. The people who can’t control themselves and do horrible, unthinkable things are the monsters that our parents can’t always protect us from. Just as parents get rid of the monsters under our beds and in our closets, the government should be able to get rid of the monsters in our country. This is why I believe in capital punishment.

The use of the death penalty is an extremely hot topic. It is an issue that I would say divides our nation, and everyone has their opinion on it. Those who are for it say it is a necessary punishment, as some people are just too disgusting, their crimes too heinous to stay alive. Those who oppose it say that it violates the 8th Amendment, that too many people, after their executions, are found innocent. No matter which side you stand on, it is interesting to note that people do not bring up race too much on either side, and I feel like that is something that really should be discussed more, especially considering the way our criminal justice system does seem to discriminate against certain races. Through the use of not only our class materials, but my own research as well, I will be answering the questions: Is the death penalty racially biased and to what extent? Does the race of not only the offender, but of the victim as well, greatly influence who receives the death penalty?