Should We Use Capital Punishment? Essay

Capital punishment is a difficult subject for a lot of people because many question whether or not it is ethical to kill a convicted criminal. In order to critically analyze whether or not it is ethical, I will look at the issue using a utilitarianism approach because in order to get a good grasp of this topic we need to look at how the decision will impact us in the future. The utilitarianism approach will help us to examine this issue and see what some of the consequences are with this topic of capital punishment. For years, capital punishment has been used against criminals and continues to be used today, but lately this type of punishment has come into question because of the ethical question.

“Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect,” stated John F. Kennedy at Berlin on June 26th, 1963. Kennedy is most certainly correct in this subject because no government is ever “perfect.” There is always room for improvement in government and sometimes there are instances in which a law needs to be changed or repealed. Almost everyday, it seems, that there are outrageous crimes being committed and the criminals are being jailed rightfully so. Sometimes, a judge would decide that that criminal should receive the death penalty or capital punishment. Capital punishment has evolved over centuries from the ancient method of “an eye for an eye”, to beheadings, lynchings, electric chairs, etc. While most of

years of their lives in prison. Some even have lost their lives serving sentences for

When it comes to ethical dilemmas, few are more polarizing and contentious for citizens of the USA as whether capital punishment should be used as a punishment for crime. Also known as the death penalty, the practice involves legally executing a criminal if they commit a crime of a certain level; most often, this punishment is prescribed to those who have murdered other people. Opponents and proponents of the death penalty have clashed for decades, often claiming differing results prove their respective sides to be superior in many areas. For example, those that support the death penalty claim that it is a cheaper punishment in financial terms than lifelong imprisonment without parole, while those that oppose capital punishment believe the exact opposite, stating that capital punishment is the more expensive of the two options. Additionally, there is a major rift between the two sides involving the effectiveness of the death penalty as a crime deterrent; opponents believe there is little to no beneficial effect, while supporters often declare that the death penalty has been proven to decrease murders and therefore saves lives. Moral positions also play a role in the debate; proponents view the punishment as a just way to punish someone who has committed a capital offense and a path towards closure for families of victims, while some on the other side hold that it is wrong to take a life regardless of what a person has done or that death is a cruel, extreme, unnecessary

Both of these punishments automatically give up ones freedom with one returning it and the other not. Who is to say that capital punishment and euthanasia both do not take away freedom, with one being voluntary and the other not.

The use of the capital punishment or the “death” penalty should not stop being used in the U.S. or declared as cruel or unusual punishment.

There is a lot of controversy about whether the death penalty should be legal or not. It is widely used, with only 18 out of the 50 states having abolished it, but should it be permitted, regardless of the popularity of it? The answer is no. It should be abolished because it demeans life, is cruel, prison is a better punishment, and it is not effective.

In a cold room of an unmarked building, a man awaits his death. The man lies on a metal table, strapped down like a wild animal. The straps cut into his wrists and legs, but no one cares. He is not scared—not anymore. He has no time for fear now. He vows to think only of the things that matter most—his daughters, his wife, his mother, the sunsets he will never see again, the ice cream he will never again enjoy. He knows he does not deserve to die. Yet nobody in the room cares; not the doctor who prepares the IV, the state official who stays busy scribbling away on meaningless paperwork, or the guards who avoid eye contact in the corner. A man will die soon for something he did not do, and nobody cares. This is the precise reason that he

Dieter, Richard C. "Millions Misspent: What Politicians Don't Say About the High Costs of the

If it were up to me, every murderer in this country would be put behind bars on death row and have their life taken from them just as they took the life of another. The guidelines of " an eye for an eye" go back thousands of years. Many countries still hold true to these guidelines. Although America doesn't follow the same as these countries, I believe when it comes to murder, they should.

The most severe form of punishment of all legal sentences is that of death. This is referred to as the death penalty, or “capital punishment”; this is the most severe form of corporal punishment, requiring law enforcement officers to actually kill the offender. It has been banned in numerous countries, in the United States, however an earlier move to eliminate capital punishment has now been reversed and more and more states are resorting to capital punishment for such serious offenses namely murder. “Lex talionis”, mentioned by the Bible encourages “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” mentality, and people have been using it regularly for centuries. We use it in reference to burglary, adultery, and various other situations, although,

One of the most controversial topics to date is the argument surrounding whether or not the death penalty should be utilized. When majority of the people, think about problems surrounding capital punishment, they automatically jump right to it being legal or illegal. When in reality the problems are so much larger. They're issues involved with Capital Punishment, including racism, sexism and financial status to name a few, when it comes to who is being put to death. Recently, one of the most well known issues has become sexism. Gender inequality has been an issue in the United States and around the world for centuries. Although many people may not ask this question, it has always been wondered why more men are on death row and

The death penalty is a tough debate and an overwhelming argument in this country. We as Americans put Timothy McVeigh to death by lethal injection just three months ago. Arguments can be made for and against the death penalty, but this is not the problem. Capital Punishment is supposed to be a deterrent to crime, but is the death penalty really a deterrent? Capital Punishment is not a deterrent for crime, and the effects of Capital Punishment are actually hurting the American citizens. Capital Punishment affects the American citizens by having those citizens pay millions of dollars for death row inmates, and these criminals affect those same citizens because the

Welcome to America, the land of the free, of the prosperous, of the opulent. America the Beautiful, one of the only places in the world where all citizens regardless of race, background, or social class are constitutionally guaranteed life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—that is unless you're on death row. In modern day America we are still faced with the antiquated ritual of capital punishment, a practice that interferes directly with the law of the land. The same forms of punishment used during the middle ages are still in effect today, the same ideas that should have been abolished had the U.S. government revised it's penology. Capital punishment is cruel as well as unusual and inadequate for our advanced society. The United

It is the the duty of the government to provide security for all individuals. Therefore, it is only a necessity, but also an obligation to get rid of those who impose threat or harm to any individual. Capital punishment is not always the most appropriate solution, but given the circumstances, it may be the most effective way to deal with criminals who threaten society.