Summary: Should Scotland Bring Back The Death Penalty

The death penalty sometimes also known as capital punishment or execution, is the sentence of death brought on by courts as punishment for a serious crime people who receive the death penalty typically are convicted of murder and similar capital crimes like aggravated murder or felony murder (What is the death penalty). In Canada, there is no death penalty, where in America there is one. The most common form of the death penalty is by lethal injection which is done in 33 states (Methods of execution).

A. Death penalty is the sentence of death for a person convicted of a capital offence, is currently used in 58 countries around the world, and is also legal sentence in 33 states. (Harrison, Tamony P2)

No one has been executed in Australia since the 2nd of February in 1967. The last incident of execution was when a man named Ronald Ryan was found guilty of shooting a prison guard in an attempt to escape the jail. He was hung in Melbourne. Queensland put an end to the death penalty in 1922. Tasmania did the same in 1968, The federal government ended the death penalty in 1973. Some countries still have the death penalty, the top three countries with the highest execution rate are: China, United states and Pakistan. In South Australia, forty-four hangings took place in the Adelaide Gaol. The society agreed that the death penalty wasn’t the right way to go so in 1976 the Criminal Law Consolidation Act was modified, changing the death penalty

Over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries use of the death penalty was increasingly restricted to the most serious offences. It was removed from pickpocketing in 1808, and from many more offences in the 1820s and 1830s. By the 1840s only those found guilty of the most serious offences (murder, wounding, violent theft, arson, sodomy) were sentenced to death (though only murderers were actually executed), and the 1861 Offences Against the Persons Act abolished the death penalty for all offences except for murder and High Treason.

Capital punishment or death penalty is usually imposed on persons who committed heinous crimes and are those that endanger the safety of the society. Some countries and societies implement capital punishment while others do not. There are various reasons for this policy of countries, including the social view on the

In view of these safeguards, proponents of capital punishment believe that state executions are justified sentences for those convicted of willful first-degree murder. They do not think sentencing murderers to prison is a harsh enough sentence, especially if there is the possibility of parole for the perpetrator. A final argument posed by proponents of the death penalty is that execution is an effective deterrence. They are convinced that potential murderers will likely think twice before they commit murder. Despite the rhetoric of politicians for the increased use of the death penalty, a number of prominent individuals and organizations have emerged to express their opposition to capital punishment. Along with families of death row prisoners, the International Court of The Hague, the United Nations, Amnesty International, the Texas Conference of Churches, Pope John Paul II, Nobel Peace recipient, Bishop Tutu, numerous judges and former prosecutors, former Attorney General, Ramsey Clark, actors, and writers are waging a determined struggle against the death penalty. They invariably argue that capital punishment is wrong and inhumane. Religious folk generally evoke the nature of an “ideal spiritual community” (Cauthen, 1). Within this perspective, a moral and ethical community does not insist on a life for a life. While a community must act to protect law- abiding citizens, an ethical response would be to

Capital Punishment, also known as the Death Penalty, is described as a government practice where a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for crimes such as murder, treason, espionage, and genocide.

The death penalty is the sentence of execution for murder and other capital crimes. Which are punishable by death? The death penalty is used only in 38 states (www.deathpenalty.org). The state of California is home to the nation's

Religion plays a big role in some people 's lives and can influence their opinion on capital punishment. In the U.S. the two largest religions are Christianity and Judaism, within both of those religions some people are for capital punishment and some are against capital punishment. Several christian groups in the late 1970s formalized their religious and moral reasons against the imposition of the death penalty. “Among them was, capital punishment: violated the command by Jesus to employ the ethic of love, perpetuated the evil of retaliation, ignored the guilt that the society may have had in the causation of the crime, and prevented the possibility of any kind of rehabilitation of the criminal” (Flamehorse).

As Cass R states… “Capital punishment may be morally required, not for retributive reasons, but rather to prevent the taking of innocent lives”. Death penalty is one of those extreme punishments that would create fear in the mind of any person. If murderers are sentenced to death and executed, potential murderers will think twice before killing for fear of losing their own life.

A study by Professor Michael Radelet and Traci Lacock of the University of Colorado recently made, found that 88% of the nation’s leading criminologists do not believe the death penalty is an effective way to stop crime. The study by Lacock

Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is a government sanctioned practice where a person is put to death as a punishment for a crime. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. Among countries around the world, almost all European and many Pacific Area states, and Canada have abolished capital punishment.

In the 1970s, the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), representing more then 10 million conservative Christians and 47 denominations, and the Moral Majority, were among the Christian groups supporting the death penalty. NAE's successor, the Christian Coalition, also supports the death penalty. Today, Fundamentalist and Pentecostal churches as well as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) support the death penalty, typically on biblical grounds, specifically citing the Old Testament. (Bedau, 1997).

On the contrary, there is no doubt that killing is a sin, and it is inhumane to take away another person’s life. Opponents of death penalty state that capital punishment is immoral and unfair. The Jewish Social Policy Action Network (2008) which is against capital punishment believes that death penalty may induce in children wrong notions about usage of violence in resolving conflicts, thus claims that it is immoral to practice death penalty. According to ACLU (2007) death penalty is against morality, justice and no one should

Arguments For and Against the Reintroduction of the Death Penalty for Murder The death penalty was abolished in the United Kingdom in 1965. (Blackwell 1968.) The abolishment of the death penalty was not a simple case.