The Death Penalty Is It Ever Justified?

Would it be true that capital punishment saves lives? Edward Koch, in his article “Death and Justice” believes it does. Koch, using common techniques to influence his audience, suggests that killers should be handled within this tried and avenged form of punishment. Koch opens his article by quoting convicted murderers Robert Lee Willie and Joseph Carl Shaw, both in the last moments of their lives pleading for the justice system to put a stop to the endless cycle of killing. Using simple logic, Koch argues that the sudden changing of the killers’ moral character is not a result of remorse for the victims, but rather an attempt to save their own lives from the killing hands of the justice system. Koch effectively uses these quotes to suggest to the reader that a killer might have thought twice about his/her own actions if the death sentence were a belief.

Capital punishment is never morally justified, and feminist, progressive and socialist ethics would always consider the social and family environment that produced the criminal in the first place, including poverty, racism, segregation or other types of oppression. It would also examine ways that society could be reformed on restricted in ways that would reduce oppression, such as ending the ghettoization of minorities or the extreme inequality between rich and poor in the United States. Indeed, inequality is more extreme in the U.S, than any other Western nation, the prison population is larger and the social safety net much weaker. These conditions have worsened during the present recession, particularly for blacks and Hispanics. Among Western nations, only the U.S. still practices capital punishment even though there was a moratorium in 1967-77 because of Supreme Court rulings. Feminist ethics would also emphasize caring, community, empathy and interpersonal relationships instead of morality based on following rules and regulations (Volbrect 17). Their response to the death penalty as well as war and other forms of public or state-sanctioned violence would therefore be pacifist, and demand social, economic and cultural change rather than punishment of perpetrators.

and their deeds in order to grip his audience and back his views, employing vivid words

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.

The article titled ``Death and Justice: How Capital Punishment Affirms Life? `` was written by Edward L. Koch, is the type of reading that is thought provoking as well as a stimulant for further study and discussion. It addresses the death penalty and questions if it is justifiable. Overall, Koch's essay is in favor of the death penalty.

In Edward Koch’s essay entitled Death and Justice: How Capital Punishment Affirms Life, he refutes the argument that the death penalty is barbaric as a form of punishment. Instead, he likens capital punishment to

In the essay The Death Penalty: Is It Ever Justified? Written by Edward I. Koch, this exact issue is discussed. Koch believes capital punishment in the form of the death penalty

Why should the death penalty be legal in every U.S. state? There are crimes that are so utterly odious that no amount of jail time will be ever punishment enough. Although personally not a fan of the death penalty, these most common arguments in its support might change one’s mind.

Across America there are 27 different states that have the death penalty. there are reasons that the death penalty should be used for example when someone kills other people or a group of people they should be put in the court with the death penalty to be an option.

Would you rather want the murderer of your loved one to have a capital punishment or do you want them to spend their entire life in a prison cell? That question raises a lot of controversy to the public because of the capital punishment. To prevent criminals from killing they are given a capital punishment who has committed horrendous crimes to satisfy oneself, but many people think that criminals shouldn't be given death penalty because it decreases the value of life. In the article “Death and Justice” Published in New Public in 1985 by Edward I. Koch, who has been a member of congress and later elected as mayor in New York City, he explains how the capital punishment is right and how it can bring justice to the people. He wrote this article to the readers and opposition voters of the new public, who was against capital punishment. He used the opposition argument and convinced his audience by using Ethos, Logos and Pathos to support his argument.

This example provided also provoked one’s rational thinking and critical reasoning hence increasing the probability that readers are inclined to agree with Koch and his position; in his fourth refutation where he refuted that capital punishment cheapens the value of human life. In his immaculate use of if, then...statements, Koch says “if we lower the penalty for rape, we lower our view or regard for the victims’ suffering, humiliation and personal integrity. In the same instance, by exacting the highest penalty for murder, we then affirm the highest value of human life”, which influences logical reasoning and critical thinking, both forms and arts of rhetoric used to persuade intellectually (logos). To conclude my first point, it is my view that the essay did in fact follow a logical system of ideas by way of seven clear points. Each point was further justified by use of rhetorical strategies to make the argument much more understandable as well as believable. It is safe to say that Koch’s essay was particularly powerful where logos is concerned.

Next, the article touches on cases where a murder has been put on death row. For example, a convicted killer was scheduled to be executed in Arkansas, Bill Clinton was the governor at the time and he wanted to show his no tolerance policy for killers like this. Mr. Clinton said that “democrats should no longer feel

Edgar Hoover’s statement also stands controversial in its conclusion. In addition to these experience-based evidences, the author also presents the 1975 L.A.P.D. study that showed “that 4 out of 5 convicts did not carry a gun when engaged in a criminal activity for fear of the death penalty.” Despite the studies’ statistical support, specific details and variables are not addressed for the study nor is the time frame completely relevant to the current society.

One might say capital punishment is morally wrong and inhumane; I strongly disagree with this statement. The crimes committed by prisoners such as multiple aggravated murders, serial rapists, and brutal child molestations is malicious and cold-hearted. These actions deserve like punishments in return. People who do those things have no purpose of being part of mainstream society. Bringing justice and closure to the victim’s family, deterrence of crime, and prison population reduction are reasons why capital punishment is necessary.

Capital punishment, better known as the death penalty, is the act of killing or executing a person who was found guilty of a serious crime, by the government. Capital punishment became widespread during the Middle Ages and was applied throughout Western Europe for more than two thousand years. Although, the call to abolish it started in the 18th century, some of the first countries being Venezuela in 1863, San Marino in 1865, and Costa Rica in 1877. Great Britain abolished the death penalty in 1965 and was permanently outlawed in 1969. By 2004, eighty-one countries had abolished capital punishment, but some countries in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia still use it for ordinary crimes. At present day, China and the United States apply the