Essay The Death Penalty

The death penalty is a controversial topic in the United States today and has been for a number of years. The death penalty was overturned and then reinstated in the United States during the 1970's due to questions concerning its fairness. The death penalty began to be reinstated slowly, but the rate of executions has increased during the 1990's. There are a number of arguments for and against the death penalty. Many death penalty supporters feel that the death penalty reduces crime because it deters people from committing murder if they know that they will receive the death penalty if they are caught. Others in favor of the death penalty feel that even if it doesn't deter others from committing crimes, it will eliminate

     There are many reasons to both support and oppose the death penalty. Many people can feel very strongly about whether or not they approve of this method of punishment. I feel that the death penalty is wrong, and I believe that there is much support to back this up. I believe that the death penalty is wrong because it is not an effective deterrent, racially and economically bias, unreliable, expensive, and morally wrong of society.

Why is the death penalty used as a means of punishment for crime? Is this just a way to solve the nations growing problem of overcrowded prisons, or is justice really being served? Why do some view the taking of a life morally correct? These questions are discussed and debated upon in every state and national legislature throughout the country. Advantages and disadvantages for the death penalty exist, and many members of the United States, and individual State governments, have differing opinions. Yet it seems that the stronger arguments, and evidence such as cost effectiveness, should lead the common citizen to the opposition of Capital Punishment.

The Death Penalty in America has been a talked about issue for some time now. Americans have their own opinions on the death penalty. Some people feel it is too harsh of a punishment, some believe if you take a life you should lose your life. I myself do not believe in the death penalty. To me it goes totally against what Americas was built on God. Even though over the last fifteen years or so we have slowly drifted away from “In God We Trust”. Looking at the death penalty in a whole it was never something that the United States came up with. It was adopted from Britain. (Bohm, 1999)The first ever recorded death penalty in United States history was that of Captain George Kendall in 1608. He was executed for being a spy. The death of Captain Kendall started a chain of other colonies jumping on board for the death penalty. In some colonies they were sentencing people to death for petty crimes, such as steeling, or trading with Indians. Over the years after the death penalty would be reformed and revamped numerous of times. Until it was only used when murder or treason occurred. Matter of fact Pennsylvania was the first state

Many people who are supporters of the death penalty say that it’s a successful deterrent. But this isn’t true because the death penalty is administered very inconsistently and arbitrarily. “Only a small proportion of first-degree murders is sentenced to death, and even fewer are executed” (Bedau). There are also several states that have a lower criminal rate without using capital punishment. For example Wisconsin, Iowa, and Michigan all get along just fine without the use of the death penalty. Also “…all other Western industrial countries get along quite well without killing their citizens” (Ryan). There are many judges that are against the use of capital punishment as well.

In the United States, the use of the death penalty continues to be a controversial issue. Every election year, politicians, wishing to appeal to the moral sentiments of voters, routinely compete with each other as to who will be toughest in extending the death penalty to those persons who have been convicted of first-degree murder. Both proponents and opponents of capital punishment present compelling arguments to support their claims. Often their arguments are made on different interpretations of what is moral in a just society. In this essay, I intend to present major arguments of those who support the death penalty and those who are opposed to state sanctioned executions application . However, I do intend to fairly and accurately

Thousands of people will attack the death penalty. They will give emotional speeches about the one innocent man or woman who might accidentally get an execution sentence. However, all of these people are forgetting one crucial element. They are forgetting the thousands of victims who die every year by the hands of heartless murderers. There are more murderers out there than people who are wrongly convicted, and that is what we must remember.

The death penalty does not keep crime from happening. Over the years, the death penalty has been a very major moral issue within today’s society. This particular form of punishment is usually given to people who have been found guilty of capital crime. However, penalizing an individual in this manner is not a solution to the problem. The United States is already in a tremendous amount of debt and dealing with budget shortages, so spending thousands even hundreds of thousands on ending an individual’s life because they were found guilty of a crime is absolutely absurd. The death penalty costs taxpayers way more per year than a prisoner within the general population. It is a cruel punishment against mankind and therefore should be ceased. In conclusion, the death penalty should be discontinued in the United States because it uses up tax

The Death Penalty Discussion In today’s world terrible crimes are being committed daily. Many people believe that these criminals deserve one fate; death. Death penalty is the maximum sentence used in punishing people who kill another human being and is a very controversial method of punishment. Capital punishment is a legal infliction of death penalty and since ancient times it has bee used to punish a large variety of offences.

There are many problems facing our criminal justice system today. Some of the more important ones are overcrowded jails, the increasing murder rate, and keeping tax payers content. In light of these problems, I think the death penalty is our best and most reasonable solution because it is a highly effective deterrent to murder. And, tax payers would be pleased to know that their hard-earned tax dollars are not being wasted on supporting incorrigible criminals who are menaces to society. In addition, they would not be forced to fund the development of new penitentiaries in order to make room for the growing number of inmates in our already overcrowded jails. Moreover, the death penalty would

“Murder is wrong” (“Capital Punishment”). We’ve been taught this indisputable truth since childhood. The death penalty is defined as one human taking the life of another. Coincidentally, that is a classification of murder. There are as many as thirty-six states with the death penalty, and it’s essential that they change it. The United States needs the death penalty abolished because it is filled with flaws, cruel and immoral, and is an ineffective means of deterrent for crime.

I found a chart on the website http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/murder-rates-nationally-and-state. The chart on the site shows that murder rates were actually higher in states with the death penalty than in states that did not have the death penalty (Death Penalty Information Center, 2010). If the death penalty is a deterrent, wouldn’t these rates be reversed? In an article published in the New York Times entitled ABSENCE OF EXECUTIONS: A special report.; States With No Death Penalty Share Lower Homicide Rates, states that states who do have the death penalty actually have higher murder rates than the national average and in the past twenty years the rates have been found to be 48 to 101 percent higher than the states who do not have the death penalty (Bonner, Raymond and Fessenden, Ford, 2000). The article also states that as of 1998 Hawaii had the fifth lowest homicide rate in the nation and Hawaii is one of the states in which no death penalty is enforced (Bonner, Raymond and Fessenden, Ford, 2000). This illustrates to me that the death penalty in fact does not act as a deterrent for one to not commit violent crime. If it were a deterrent it would show that states with the death penalty had lower homicide rates than those states without the death penalty. There is also a statement in the article from John O’Hair, a Detroit District Attorney, that basically stated that

Capital punishment is “the legally authorized killing of someone as punishment for a crime” (Oxford Dictionaries). The death penalty is still legal in thirty-four states. An inmate sentenced to the death pentalty can be executed in one of the five ways which includes “electrocution, hanging, lethal injection, gas chamber, or a firing quad” (Free Dictionary). Capital punishment is often sentenced to criminal who have commited first degree murder with more than one aggrivated circumstances, and people who have commited treason. The controversy began capital punishment began 1976. Many people began to question the

The issue of the death penalty is widely disputed. So disputed that maybe I shouldn’t have picked this topic. But nevertheless, the death penalty is an issue that needs to be addressed. Should the death penalty be abolished from our criminal justice system? Well, that depends on whom you ask. If you ask me… no. I personally don’t see anything wrong with the death penalty because there are a lot of criminals that are just too dangerous to society and death is the only punishment they deserve.

The death Penalty is a very controversial topic to many. Some believe that the death penalty should not only be in place but there should be more executions every year. While others believe that the death penalty is going out of style and it is not serving its purpose of deterring crime as it did before. Although there are many claims supporting both sides still over half of Americans are for capital punishment in some way, but what causes someone to be sentenced to death? According to the article “Against the American System of Capital Punishment” by Jack Greenberg the worst crime is, “a putative killer of one’s parent or child” (Greenberg). What makes this the worst crime? And out of the few executions are these the only people getting