Taking a Look at Capital Punishment

Capital punishment has been a controversial issue that still exists in America today. Capital punishment is a law passed by the government to punish any individual that has been convicted of committed a heinous crime. The death penalty has been a method used throughout history as punishment for criminals. The punishment also known as the death penalty is a scheduled execution, which would be done with lethal injection. The reason why this punishment is chosen is because when crimes are committed that shock the conscience, the immediate emotional reaction is to retaliate with severe punishment (Schnurbush 2016). The death penalty is debated when it is brought up, opinions vary from one group of people to another, one side says the execution is murder, and the other saying that it is justice being done. Each side presents valid arguments to why people should be for it or against it; people’s opinions are formed by personal beliefs.

The debate on whether or not the death penalty should be abolished has been ongoing for quite a long period of time. While there are those who believe that the death penalty does not serve its intended purpose, proponents of the same are convinced that the relevance of the same cannot be overstated and hence it should not be abolished. In this text, I examine the arguments for and against the death penalty.

In 1971 one of the key cases in United Sates History and also the state of Georgia was Furman v. Georgia. Furman was an African American male that broke in to a home to steal another citizens items. During the robbery the victim woke up and scared Furman. While Furman was fleeing the seen the owner gave him chase, and Furman accidentally drop his handgun and it went off killing the victim. When Furman was arrested he was told that if found guilty, he could be facing the death penalty. Furman appealed the execution to the Supreme Court, and argued that under the 14th amendment he would not be allowed pursuit of happiness, and liberty the American way. The Supreme Court heard his case and overturned the

Georgia invalidated all previously enacted death penalty laws in the United States. Gregg was convicted of having murdered Fred Edward Simmons and Bob Durwood Moore, who had given him and another man a ride when they were hitchhiking. The crime occurred on 21 November 1973. In Gregg v. Georgia, the Supreme Court held that the State of Georgia could constitutionally put Gregg to death. Gregg never made it to the electric chair. He escaped from prison in July, 1980, the night before his set date for execution, but died the following night in a bar fight in North Carolina

Furman v. Georgia proved that the way the death penalty was administered was unconstitutional. William Furman was apprehended while he was found robbing a sleeping individual’s home. During the trial Furman claimed he had tripped and his weapon had accidentally discharged and struck the victim. However, the statement he had given the police was

Three juries had convicted and imposed the death penalty on their accused without any guidelines to go by in their decision. This case (Furman vs. Georgia) represents the first time the Supreme Court ruled against the death penalty. The dissenting Justices argued that the courts had no right to challenge legislative judgment on the effectiveness and justice of punishments. The majority however held that the death penalty was cruel and unusual

Many Americans claim that capital punishment is a cruel and unusual punishment and goes against a persons constitutional rights. On the other hand, many Americans support it and claim it is against ther constitutional right not to carry out the death penalty. How are we to know what is right? In all honesty, facts, papers, journals, etc. can not decide how I am truly going to feel about a subject that is very much a macro-argument. None the less, here Americans sit, letting “their” opinion being primarily based off of claims and subclaims made by one side or the other. I guess that is what we will do here. I believe that if we are to look at papers, we might as well look at

The Furman v. Georgia case has set a precedent on how the courts deal with the disputable issue that is capital punishment because it was the first time the Supreme Court addressed the problem. Both racism and the morality of the death penalty have been relatively controversial issues in the United States for several years. The Furman v. Georgia case conjoined both matters. The case declared that if capital punishment were to be used, it was going to be used for all the right reasons, not due to any prejudices or discrimination by reason of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Additionally, the case placed a moratorium on the death penalty because it was argued that the application of Furman’s sentencing would be an example of “cruel and unusual

The 1972 case of Furman v Georgia was seen as a complete victory for abolitionists at the time, but proved to be more complicated than it appeared. It said that the death penalty, as it was administered, violated the Eighth Amendments because it was cruel and unusual punishment and violated the Fourteenth Amendment because it did not guarantee equal protection under the law (Costanzo:18). The

Death Penalty should be allowed under circumstances also known as capital punishment, where congress or any state legislature recommend the death penalty for murder and other capital crimes. Majority of the states are favor in death penalty, roughly around 32 states are favor and 18 states are against death penalty. In most cases, many argue that death penalty has violated the 8th amendment, where it bans cruel and unusual punishment. Therefore, they would go against death penalty. However, without the sentence to death, the chances of prisoner escaping prison are really high. If they are able to escape prison and get away with it, then they can continue committing crimes. Although some may argue that death penalty is harsh because if you kill someone; and then you take another person’s life, then why should yours be freed? I personally do not agree with death penalty because taking away another person’s life is not going to regain the victim’s life back. However, the victim’s family would want the person to be sentence to death, so the victim can rest in peace. I think that death penalty should be only allowed under circumstances, but then how can you really determined if the case should be ruled with death penalty? And how would the justice system know that they have made the correct decision? Did the decision of sentence to death turn out to be wrong, where the person is later found innocent? There are multiple of questions that people will be more concern about. The

Furman was sentenced to the death penalty, in this way Furman V. Georgia was heard in the Supreme Court of the United States because it was violate the eighth amendment makes mention “Not cruel and unusual punishments inflicted” and Furman had the right to do an appeal for be an unconstitutional case.

Now I would like to give you a few examples of famous, and not so famous cases

Capital punishment has been used for many centuries to kill murderers or anyone who has committed a heinous crime. Although this may sound like a good thing, the trial errors are catastrophic. A judge and a jury are the ones to decide if a defendant gets the death penalty or a noncapital punishment. A defendant on trial for this certain punishment, does not get most of their rights of an American citizen. Congress should reconsider capital punishment as unconstitutional because of the amount of money used (1), the racial biases (2), the methods of death (3), and the people who are not being given the freedom of cruel and unusual punishment (4).

The death penalty has been around for decades, and since the beginning it has been a major topic of discussion. It’s been very controversial because there are religious issues and moral issues in some people’s minds. The death penalty is a topic that has always had moral principles and ethical issues. There’s really no in between with what people believe, they are either fully for the death penalty, or completely against it. However, both sides have completely ethical reasons as to why they believe what they do. People supporting the death penalty claim that it is deterrence because it prevents future murders, while other people believe that if someone takes a life then they should give their life. People against the death penalty feel it is immoral, and an unfair and unreasonable punishment. Meanwhile people who agree with the death penalty have proven this to be cost effective and ethically correct with deterring criminals from committing future murders.

In this paper I’m going to talk about Capital Punishment and the numerous ideas, thoughts, views and opinions people have about it and how they feel about this type of punishment. There are people who see capital punishment as morally wrong and committing a murder or on the side of the spectrum people see it as the right thing to do and believe that the individual receiving the punishment deserves it. I will also talk about how capital punishment can be used as a deterrent and make individuals second guess the decision they want to make and this may very well be a consequence of their actions. Another thing I will look at and talk about is how people have been falsely accused and sentenced to death or are currently sitting on death row. Also the technology and resources that are available today are so precise and extremely effective that to falsely convict someone is extremely slim and not common at all. There are numerous types of methods used to commit capital punishment and I will take a look at them and discuss them and look at some of them are inhumane and cruel. The process of getting on death row and eventually getting put to death is a very long and tedious one and it takes years to happen. I will discuss how people can make appeals, try and have their case heard again and to try and get off death row even though at times it isn’t successful at all. I will also discuss the states that still practice capital punishment and what states have outlawed