The Death Penalty Is Justified

America is within the top four countries for the number of executions due to the death penalty since 1999. Citing the, “Amnesty International in For What Tomorrow (2004), more than 1,800 people were executed in 31 countries, the vast majority of these in China (1076), Iran (165), Saudi Arabia (103), and then the United States (98)” (NAAS, 43). The death penalty is currently an intense debate involving the idea of whether or not we as people should be able to sentence another person to death. According to the ethical and moral reasoning of the philosophers Jeremy Bentham, Peter Singer, and Hugo Bedau, the death penalty should not be a legal punishment.

Imagine that you are arrested and going to be tried for a crime that you did, or did not, commit. What if you cannot afford the cost of a lawyer? Will you be able to handle the physical and mental toll that all of the appeals have on a person? The death penalty, or capital punishment, is one of the most debated topics in America. It has been used for centuries, but many claim it to be barbaric, and want the practice to end all together. The death penalty should only be used in cases where there is absolute evidence that the criminal is guilty, because life in prison can be an alternative, there are many flaws in the justice system, and it can be a cruel and unusual punishment.

When people think of Oklahoma, they usually think about flatlands and waving wheat. The thought of terrorism would never come into mind. This is exactly what the people of Oklahoma City would’ve been thinking if asked about terrorism. Sadly, on the day of April 19, 1995, Oklahoma and the nation was shocked as the unthinkable happened. The rest of the world stood still, and watched as people were rushed from the building. Families received information about their loved ones, and soon learned that they were no longer living. Parents were also sickened by the fact that their children would never be able to go to daycare again. As for the man in charge of this operation, his slow but authorized death was watched by families and friends of the victims. The rest of the nation should’ve been able to view this great punishment along with the families who were affected.

At the scene of the bombing, “A local hospital administrator explained modestly, ‘With the enormous outpouring of medical volunteers we received, it would have been nearly impossible not to have done a great job’” (Ray 2). After the terrorist attack of the twin towers, it was the survivors of the Oklahoma City Bombing who gave the 9/11 victims the most effective support. Janet Walker made the statement, “We’re the only ones who can truly say, ‘I know how you feel’ (Tanner 1). Kathleen Treanor, a woman who lost her daughter and both of her in-laws, said “It’s an immediate connection” (Tanner 1).

Boom. That is the sound of hearts falling and shattering with the walls of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building on April 19, 1995. No one anticipated the chaos that would break loose that morning. At the time, those who witnessed the tragic event were not aware of the cause. The only thing they knew was that blood had been spilled, and stained the innocence of mankind. Twenty-one years later, the memory of this disastrous event still burns and aches in the hearts of Oklahomans as well as the family and friends of the victims. Though cognitive and physical effects of the Oklahoma City bombing are permanent, humanity’s desire to do good and progress greatly overshadows it.

In the year 1995 America witnessed Michael Jordan’s return to the NBA, gas prices were quite low at the price of $1.09 per gallon, and space shuttle Atlantis docked with the Russian Mir Space station. All of these were highlights of the year of 1995, but with great things along came a great tragedy. April 19, 1995, right outside Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, a truck-bomb explosion stole the lives of 168 innocent people and had left hundreds of more injured. With a great tragedy such as this, then came along grief, a grief that would forever be in the hearts of many Oklahoma families; the victims’ families. In the speech, “Oklahoma Bombing Memorial Address” Bill Clinton speaks to the victims of the accident and helps them find the closer,

Imagine Sierrah coming to court and hearing the judge say she is sentence to die. Imagine waking up every day in a cell waiting to die. There are no contact visits and she is in a cell 23 hours of the day by herself. She wait on death row for two decades until finally her day of execution comes. The guard comes up to cell twenty eight and says it’s time to go and takes her to the death house. She gets the last meal and says final goodbyes before being strapped to a gurney and asked to say her very last words. Family slowly watches her die and soon they take the body to prison cemetery. So, is the death penalty right for America? There have been people that were convicted of a crime they did not do. Innocent

The bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995 not only changed the lives of Oklahomans, but also changed the lives of individuals all over the world. The Oklahoma City Bombing killed “168 people, including 19 young children who were in the building’s day care center at the time of the blast. More than 650 other people were injured in the bombing, which damaged or destroyed more than 300 buildings in the immediate area” (History Staff, 2009). This terrorist attack on U.S. soil left many mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, etc. with an empty spot in their heart.

The United States has set up numerous laws that are said to be for the people 's ' security, however in what manner can those same people make certain that these laws are doing what they are meant for? The death penalty is contended to be a just punishment equivalent to the wrongdoing committed, but is it truly, if it means lowering others to turn into that what they are against. “Always I have concluded the death penalty is wrong because it lowers us all; it is a surrender to the worst that is in us; it uses a power—the official power to kill by execution—that has never elevated a society, never brought back a life, never inspired anything but hate”(Cuomo). Therefore, capital punishment ought to be reformed across all of the United States, not only because it is immoral and prejudiced, but also, because mistrials are a common happenstance, it allows for a violent cycle to continue, and it is truly not an eye for an eye but the easy way out.

Many call the death penalty inhumane, and a large number of countries no longer execute criminals. However, the U.S. has kept capital punishment because it deters criminals from committing murders that place them in the position of the death penalty. However, the death penalty is wrong. No one deserves to have their life taken away by another human, even if they are guilty of murder.

The 14th amendment clearly says no state can deprive any person of life, liberty, or property. Why is it that the United States is still using this type of punishment that was used over Eighteenth Centuries ago? it should have been abolished. The death penalty is not effective at all and it does not show who Americans truly are. If the United States does not put a stop to the death penalty then we are just like any other country. The time is now to do something about this cruel and inhuman act Americans need to stand together and put a stop to the death penalty

Do you think that death penalty will give justice for the innocent lives? The death penalty continues to be an issue of controversy in the whole world because people have different beliefs for giving justice to the innocents. For some people, they want it legal because death penalty will give justice for the innocent victims and a form of vengeance to the criminals. On the flipside, other people don’t agree with it because a lot of innocents are putting into death. These people believe that it is better to put the criminal into jail without a parole unless there is a proof that he or she is innocent instead of removing the human rights of the criminal to live and have a chance to change his or her life. Although some people think that death penalty should be legal, I believe it should not be legal.

According to the Webster’s Dictionary, death means the end of life (Dictionary, 80) and penalty means punishment for any crime or offense (Dictionary, 223). Therefore, by definition the death penalty means the end of a life due to punishment for a crime or offense. The death penalty is started with the Code of King Hammurabi’s in the eighteenth century B.C. This code consisted of 282 laws that stressed justice as clearly stated in the opening of the code, "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” A few methods used at this time were beheading, boiling in oil, burying alive, burning, and crucifixion. Today the death penalty is used in 31 states as of 2015. Previous methods used consist of hanging, firing squad, gas chambers, and electrocution. Instead of using the previous listed painful methods the modern world has come up with a way to kill a person “peacefully” by lethal injection. Although the death penalty has advanced tremendously since the eighteenth century, it is still seen as an inhumane, cruel, and unusual punishment by many and it should be permanently abolished.

In America, when someone is accused of murder, they go to trial. In most trials, they

The Death penalty has been a controversial topic for many years and recently the debate about it has been getting bigger and bigger to where at some point soon a decision will have to be made. Many people will disagree with the death penalty because it goes against their moral beliefs, this is thought process is seen more in the northern states. However, here in the south the death penalty is strongly believed in by most, but who is put to death and why? Did they deserve this sentence or were they just in the wrong place at the right time?