Should The Death Penalty Be Banned?

The restoration of the death penalty for serious crimes is an issue of debate in the UK because of the recent rise in violent crime. It is said that at least 17,833 people are under the sentence of the death penalty worldwide as of 31 December 2010. The death penalty or otherwise known as the capital punishment is a legal process where a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime. Currently it is only allowed in 32 states and has come to discussion if the death penalty should be reinstated back in the UK.

The US capital punishment system is unreliable. Many innocent people have been wrongfully convicted and have been executed. In this particular case, Ray Krones was proven innocent at last minute. Krones gave a testimony about how the criminal justice department wrongfully convicted him then at the end they showed proof that he was truly innocent. At first a police officer questioned him if he had killed the maid of a bar where he plays darts at and Krones responded that he didn’t. Later on in the investigation, the medical department found evidence that the mark on the maids’ body

The death penalty, or capital punishment, has been around as early as the Seventh Century B.C. and is still used in many countries today, including the United States. There are many arguments stating capital punishment should be abolished for many reasons, including that capital punishment violates the Bill of Rights, and life in prison is a more effective deterrent than capital punishment; there are also counter-arguments, saying that capital punishment should not be abolished for reasons such as capital punishment achieves justice for those who have been wronged and that it brings a sense of closure to families.

“The death penalty is not about whether people deserve to die for the crimes they commit. The real question of capital punishment in this country is, Do we deserve to kill?” In 1607 the British left the United Kingdom to the new world now known as the United States. When the British went to the United States they brought over the death penalty with them. When the British came to the United States there had been some spies that followed them from the European countries. They ended up finding a guy named Kendall who was a spy from spain. The first execution occurred in Virginia where they executed Kendall. After the first execution, it became a regular thing in the new world. People were executed for stealing grapes, trading with the Indians and killing chickens.

Good afternoon Madam chairperson and my fellow students. The topic for our debate is “That Australia Should Reintroduce or Legalise the Death Penalty.” We the negative team, do not believe we should reintroduce the death penalty.

With all the jails in the United States being overcrowded with convicts with serious crimes, and doing life without parole. I start to wonder what the impact would be if the United States allowed the death penalty to be used in all fifty states?

Over the course of human history the earliest known concept of capital punishment has been around since the 18th Century BCE, where the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon codified the death penalty for twenty five different crimes (Reggio, 2015). From the 18th Century until now there have been many other societies that have used capital punishment for various crimes, such as the Hittite Code, Draconian Code of Athens, and also Roman law. Those different cultures used different methods for execution and followed different rules for people of different race, religion, creed, social status, etc. As history progressed, capital punishment itself has gone through many changes; the ways of execution have evolved from brutal and torturous methods such as burning at the stake, burying alive, bludgeoning to death, impalement,

In 1984, former NFL player Kermit Alexander lost his mother, sister and two nephews due to a gang related shooting on the wrong family. The Alexander's family was not supposed to be targeted, it was a miss communication between the gang members. Alexander was so full of rage that he prowled the streets at night in search of the members that did this to his family, his goal was to give revenge for what they had done. The only reason he did not become a killer himself was because the mayor Tom Bradley made him promise to let it go and let the law handle the situation from there and in 1986 the killer, Cox was found and sentenced to death. Capital Punishment should be allowed because it stops the killer's from being able to kill again, it provides some closure for the families who have lost a loved one, and it is a deterrent showing what will be done to you if you do these heinous crimes.

The death penalty today is a hot button question that many experts cannot agree on. The topic deals with justice, logistics, and human morality which leads to either a person remaining alive or losing their life. It is not an easy choice to make because the death penalty has so much to do with human desires for justice as it does the justice system carrying out just punishments for crimes committed. In almost all of human history, capital punishment has been a punishment that was used to punish individuals who broke laws the society upheld. The United States of America is no different as it still continues to use the death penalty as a punishment in many states across the nation. The United States has contemplated the legality of the death penalty, with multiple court decisions dictating if and what is legal, as discussed in the video produced by CNN (http://www.cnn.com/videos/crime/2014/05/06/orig-jag-death-penalty.cnn/video/playlists/death-penalty/).

While some states chose to reinstate capital punishment, they reformed to limit how harsh the death penalty was and the terms in which it is given. “Pennsylvania adopted a law in 1794 to distinguish between first- and second-degree murder and limited the death penalty to murders committed with premeditation or in the course of carrying out another felony (first-degree murder). In 1846, Louisiana abolished the mandatory death penalty and authorized the option of sentencing a capital offender to life imprisonment rather than to death, a reform universally adopted in the U.S. during the following century.” (Capital Punishment.) The most common general offenses that result in capital punishment are things such as espionage, treason, and various forms of murder.

Still, many people are wrongfully executed and put into a death sentence row because an error of judgements and stereotypes based on a race especially for African Americans. “New research found that almost four percent of U.S. capital punishment sentences are wrongful convictions, almost double the number of people set free, meaning around 120 of the roughly 3,000 inmates on death row in America are not guilty” . It is ironic though, killing innocent people can be attributed to murder and the government is doing the same thing as other convicted criminals who were put into a death row. Example for a wrongful conviction, “Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in Texas in 2004 for murdering his three young daughters by setting his house on fire”. But, after his execution multiple fire science experts reviewed the case and “released a report admitting that Willingham’s conviction was based on flawed science” . Willingham was b wrongfully convicted by the government because of their mistake. Wrongful execution was common before technology was developed. It was hard to find the evidence and people made mistakes during the investigation. If there was no Death Penalty, Willingham might have been still alive claiming for his

The death penalty should be illegal in the United States because often times, the state executes the wrong person. Someone could be executed but later the real person comes forward and confesses. This has happened many times before. This means that someone is executed for something that they didn’t do. And while the state could just release someone after they are found innocent, there is very little someone can do after they execute the wrong person.

One reason why the death penalty shouldn’t be allowed in the United States is that innocent people could be executed. Sometimes people blame other people, and that also can influence who gets put in prison, and sometimes the wrong people get put in prison, it’s just how it works. So

Capital crime is something that is meant for people that are found guilty of committing a serious crime, such as murder, rape, or theft. These are offences that should not be taken lightly but by killing the offender, the government is carrying about the action that they are trying to prevent. Also, the wrong person may be sentenced to death. After this person is executed, there is obviously nothing that can be done for the terrible mistake to be reversed. The death penalty should be abolished because it is more expensive than life imprisonment, numerous innocent people are condemned to death row, and it is cruel and inhumane.

Is the death penalty immoral? In the United States, if a human being commits a capital crime, they can receive the punishment of execution administered by that state in which they performed that crime. When someone commits a capital crime, the jury can issue a guilty verdict that is punishable by death through lethal injection or electrocution. The death penalty is viewed as an extremely controversial topic that is debated daily among individuals. Determining fair punishment for committing a crime causes one to question their ethical and moral beliefs on the treatment of a human who takes another humans’ life. When comparing whether or not the death penalty is immoral or not we must consider both sides of the argument.