Persuasive Essay On Capital Punishment

    The death penalty is an overkill of our society’s morality. Our humanity will be lost if we allow the death penalty. Humanity consists of our ability to have moral considerations towards life which is looking at more than just happiness that utilitarians tend to do. Innocence, being understanding, valuing people and things in life, and being virtuosic are views that keeps our humanity. There comes a time when people act off of emotions and decide to push away their morals.  Some may consider killing someone for their crime, but that makes us just as bad as them. Now, we are the killer. People have impulses that can become irrational and

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.

The death penalty is unconstitutional and violates numerous amendments. Capital punishment violates the 5th amendment because it violates the due process clause by denying the opportunity for exoneration. Since the process of an execution can immobilize a person from being able to speak if they are in pain it is viewed that the death penalty is a cruel and unusual punishment which violates the 8th amendment. The violation of the 8th amendment also applies to juveniles and mentally retarded criminals because they do not have the capacity to understand that the crime they committed was a societal wrong. Statistically, the amount of people who are convicted are generally from the same societal class. Due to this evidence, it was decided that the death penalty violates the 14th amendment because those who cannot afford adequate lawyers are not represented equally under the law.

Not all states believe in capital punishment. The last execution in Illinois was Andrew Kokoraleis, for the murder of Lorraine Ann Borowski. For each death penalty case there is a large price tag that comes with it. So when you hear people say why dont we just kill him/her. Well that is because a death penalty case cost on average 1 million dollars more then a similar case,when death penalty is not the punishment chosen. “They will get out of jail and just keep on killing, its not something you cant stop it ("Is the death penalty").

Many states don’t allow the death penalty anymore and I believe it’s because they think its inhumane and a morally wrong thing to do. I don’t believe all criminals should be sentenced to death, just criminals who will spend the rest of their lives in prison. There is just no reason to pay for a criminal to live their entire lives in jail, for committing a horrible crime, just because it is a morally wrong thing to sentence a person to death. Criminals who murder have already committed an inhumane crime by murdering innocent people. We are doing the humane thing by removing them from our society, because they will and cannot do anything positive for our society anymore.

Capital punishment, which is also known as the death penalty, is the punishment of a crime by execution. This extreme retribution is reserved for those who have committed heinous, or capital crimes against society, therefore considered an ongoing threat. Capital punishment was abolished from the Canadian Criminal Code in 1976. It was substituted with a compulsory life sentence without possibility of parole for 25 years for all first-degree murders. However capital punishment is still practiced in over 30 of the 50 states in the USA. Some say that Capital Punishment is an unjust solution to crime, and others say that it isn’t a solution at all, as it is subject to flaws just as any system can be flawed. Dating back, before the Eighteenth Century B.C., Capital Punishment has been an integral part of the judicial system in the majority of countries. Considered to be the ultimate punishment, few criminal offenders will receive this ultimate form of retribution. The State of Texas has the highest record of executions at 300 since the 1970’s. Those executed are murderers and those who have committed serious offenses. The idea is "an eye for an eye", but as Gandhi wisely stated, “An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind”. Shockingly, there have been convicted criminals executed only to be proven innocent later, this is far too late after they have long been

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

While criminals must be punished for their criminal actions, “legalized murder”, as author Coretta Scott King put it, is immoral. The death penalty is legalizing the very thing that many on death row are charged for, murder. There is a multitude of lawful alternatives, to the death penalty, of reestablishing a better reputation for the criminals. The Constitution has no true right to allow such a felonious form of rehabilitation.

People on death row are not really dying. “In 2010, a death row inmate waited an average of 178 months (roughly 15 years) between sentencing and execution. Nearly a quarter of deaths on death row in the U.S. are due to natural causes.” (Wikipedia, 2015). We are paying tax dollars to have people sit in prison for up to 15 years, and to have three quarters of them executed. Should we even have capital punishment?

Andrew was only twenty three years old when he robbed the liquor store on South Lincoln Avenue. He was a high school dropout and didn’t know where his life was headed at that time. If he could go back, he would not have let his friends talk him into doing it. Yes, they needed the money for rent but looking back at the event, it just was not worth it. He’s always had good intentions, but never a drive to discover his potential, which resulted in this. He is now serving his eighth month in prison so far and has put a lot of thought into the lifelong impact this will have on him. “How long will it take him to find a job?, Where will he stay?,Will his mom and sister, take him back after what he did?” He never explained why he did what he did

To put in other words, death penalty is a violation of the eighth amendment. The Constitution states, “excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted,” (www.lawcornell.edu/constitution/eight.ammendment). Over 120 years, there has been 276 botched executions, which means that the execution went wrong in several ways, making the inmates suffer, (www.deathpenalty.org). Of the 276, there has been 75 botched lethal injections, the execution rate for botched inmates is 7.12% (deathpenaltyinfo.org).

Any other punishment could be given other than death. If we aren’t supposed to kill animals or people why is it a result of punishment? Everybody deserves a second chance. Besides prison gives people time to prove themselves to the judge.

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

Capital punishment has been a part of history since the establishment of the United States. By definition capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the legal execution of a crime classified as a capital offense. (M-W) This punishment as an idea makes sense but it is not practical and is ineffective once executed. The nation has faced worldwide pressures to abolish the unethical act, where 103 countries have abolished and only 57 remains (“Death penalty 2015: Facts and figures”). Even though supporters of the death penalty argue that it deters crime, there is no substantial evidence illustrating the correlation of capital punishment and the deterrence of crime. Supporters also harp on the idea that capital punishment is more cost efficient for our nation than life in prison without parole, but most evidence points to the opposing view. Capital punishment should be illegal in the United States because it does not deter crime, has a large error of conviction, and is not cost efficient.

The problem with the death penalty is that it is a big waste of money. Yes, in some cases it can make people feel better, like they are getting revenge on the people that did the crime to their loved one or someone they know but that is really cruel. In the article, The Price of Justice it shows how the price were a few years ago and it can only of up from there “in 1988, The Miami Herald reported that the cost of the death penalty in Florida was $3.2 million per execution compared to $600,000 for life imprisonment.103 Similarly, The Dallas Morning News reported in 1992 that the trials and appeals of a capital case alone cost Texas $2.3 million per case on average”. Making the criminal sit in a jail cell that is not that big with other bad people is more of a punishment then just killing them. And it is a lot cheaper to do it that way as well. The cost of the death penalty is not reasonable because the state can’t even perform the death penalty the right way. And we can use the money for better things for our states and for our society so we can improve our comity’s so