The Death Penalty Is Justified

As far back as one can look into human civilization, justice for a murder victim has always been by taking the life of the killer. In today’s society capital punishment is needed to defend it from further harm, bring justice and/or vengeance to the victims of the loved ones, and encourage psychological deterrence. As of today, there are thirty-two states which offer the only just punishment for a crime without parallel and eighteen states having abolished the death penalty.

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.

The death penalty will always be a topic some people refuse to talk about. When in fact, it is a very serious topic and people should know how and why the death penalty is not justified. I believe the death penalty is not justified in the least bit because there are people sitting up in prison just living life because the state does not want to pay for an execution, or they find it to be morally corrupt. Personally if you committed a crime that resulted in someone dying then you deserves to die as well. The idea of killing another human does not sit well with people and that is mainly the

Sister Helen Prejean, the writer of the biographical account “Dead Men Walking”, advocates strongly for the abolition of the death penalty. The non-fiction work is based on her experience being the spiritual advisor of Sonnier and other inmates on death row. Prejean believes that if people know the truth about executions, they will oppose them. In her essay “Memoirs of a Dead Man Walking”, she openly opposes the death penalty. There are four reasons for her to oppose death penalty is immoral as. Firstly, it is a torture. Secondly,, it does not work out as a deterrent. Thirdly, and it costs more than life imprisonment. Finally, only the poor sentenced to death. She believes that the death penalty is immoral as it is a torture, it does not work out as a deterrent and it costs more than life imprisonment. However, I disagree with her argument, because death penalty is not seeing as a torture in history, Super Court and those criminals deserve the retribution; death penalty help deters crimes and poor cannot be the reason to escape the law.

Charles Manson has been denied parole once again. The notorious murderer and cult leader has been in jail for 45 years. Although Manson was never actually convicted of murder, there is no doubt that he was the orchestrator of the brutal and bloody murders in Beverly Hills in 1969. Even his name is synonymous with the butchery with which his followers attacked. And yet, Manson is indeed alive and well, with a roof over his head and three meals a day. For many veterans of recent conflict, that is not the case. How justice is administered in this country has been and will continue to be a source of conflict for ethicists. To compound the issue, not every murderer is Charles Manson.

Losing a loved one to violent crime can be very difficult to understand. In many cases victims of murder are innocent law abiding citizens. When a loved one is taken abruptly, families are often unable to get closure. “In the world of grief and mourning, there is a type of loss that defies closure even with healthy families. It is called ambiguous loss, a term coined in the 1970s to illustrate a unique kind of loss when a loved one disappears in body or mind” (Boss & Carnes, 2012, pg. 456). Convictions may grant a feeling of justice, however court proceedings and trials bring up terrible details of the crime, causing additional pain and suffering for the victim’s families. Many may find it hard to get closure when a loved one is murdered and the person responsible is convicted and may only serve 15 years. With capital punishment enforced, victim’s families can rest assured knowing that the conviction will prevent the convict from early release. Knowing that a person guilty of such a heinous crime will never be released could help bring closure for the grieving families

The late George Carlin joked: “In prisons, before they give you a lethal injection, they swab your arm with alcohol! […] Well, they don’t want you to get an infection” (Carlin). Ironically, prisoners are treated more humanely when they are on Death Row than if they were standard prisoners. The current process allows for the prisoner to be killed, but is an attempt to prevent degradation of human life. Although the current regulations on the death penalty adhere to the Eighth Amendment (a ban on cruel and unusual punishment), many are upset with the manner in which the execution is carried out(Salgo). Robert Blecker argues that the death penalty should remain lawful and has faith in the government to find a constitutional way to do so,

However satisfying vengeance may seem, a civilized society cannot accept an eye-for-an- eye, tooth-for-a-tooth delivery of justice. Although some families and loved ones of murder victims approve the death penalty, many others are against it. Further, some family members of homicide victims comment that the death penalty process prolongs their pain, and only serves to make their healing more elusive. Financial and emotional support is what they need most, not more violence. In the words of the father of one murder victim, "Violence is not an acceptable method of solving the problems that arise in our daily lives.... The use of the death penalty only lowers the standards of government to the

Death Penalty is a sticky situation. Death Penalty was alive for a long time and used in many cultures and religions. People in the medieval times, used to use it a lot as well as Europeans, and Britain’s. They really didn’t know that much about what was fair and wasn’t fair as well as how to execute a person. Multiple times in the media they wouldn’t state how someone would be executed because even they believed that the way they executed the person wasn’t fair. Death Penalty was usually used back then for serious crimes. If you would have an affair with your son you would get burned or even worse at most times. As you went forward in time it would be rare for you to get death penalty especially in this time. Death Penalty started to die out

The human mind is amazing, the things it can do and accomplish the emotions we feel, the way we think, and impulses that can drive us to do deadly things. The human mind in simple terms is phenomenal. After reading, re-reading, and evaluating your article we have come to the conclusion that the death penalty in morally wrong and psychologically these people, who are murdering and raping, are not right in the head. “In the 1990s a research team — led by Adrian Raine of the University of Southern California and Monte Buchsbaum…did brain scans on 25 convicted murderers” (Potter). In this study, they found that many of the killers had some sort of abnormalities in the front section of the brain called the frontal lobe. As they scanned the brains

“Everything in the world, according to Aristotle, has a distinctive and essential function or activity.” (Weston p. 176) The function in this question is life itself. As morally rational beings the function of each life is defined. Each life in this question must be determined as a good or bad life. An innocent individual functions properly to be considered a virtuously good human being. A fetus has no good or bad to reside in its function because it has not lived in actual society. As a virtue ethicist the following must be considered: What is fair, what practices the most humility, and what is wise in the decision being made. The two lives at risk are the fetus and the person to be executed. It is not justifiable in any way to take a life. Life

Throughout history, the death penalty was a normal punishment for criminals. If the death penalty was not unethical in the past, then why should it be considered unethical in today’s society? “The use of bodies of the executed for human dissection is as old as the exploration for human anatomy itself” (Hildebrandt 6). “Bodies of the executed became a widely used source for dissection” (Hildebrandt 6). If people did not dissect the bodies of the executed, people would be unable to learn about the human body. If the death penalty did not exist in the past, our knowledge of human anatomy would have been limited.

Since the foundation of our nation the Death Penalty has been a way to punish prisoners that have committed heinous crimes, however since the turn of the 20th century the practice of Capital Punishment has been questioned on its usage in America and the world as a whole. The Death Penalty is used in America to punish criminals who have committed murders, or taken the life of an innocent person, and while the death penalty seems like it is doing justice to those who have killed others it is actually being used improperly in most situations, while also hindering our economy and is a means of ending more lives than necessary. The Death Penalty can be a valid source of punishment for criminals in the US however due to the misuse of this power by the government it is a huge detriment to our nation and the people that inhabit it. Because of the fact that Capital Punishment is used unfairly, and ineffectively in our nation it is an obsolete form of punishment and should have no place in the United States justice department.

The death penalty has been has been questioned about whether it is a reasonable sentence based on our 8th Amendment Right which protects us from cruel and unusual punishment. In the 1976, Gregg v. Georgia case the U. S. Supreme Court chose to uphold the death penalty. The only way an offender can be sentenced to the death penalty is if they have intentionally taken the life of the victim. A large number of Americans are afraid of putting an innocent individual to death for a crime they did not commit. Offender’s that are found to be guilty and sentenced to the death penalty sit on death row with more the adequate time to file appeals to their sentences. The average offender spends at least a decade on death row. A direct appeal begins with the state’s highest court when someone is sentenced to the death penalty where offenders are given the opportunity to have the death sentenced overturned. In some states, it is required, however in other states it is the offender’s decision. After the completion of this appeal, it is the offender’s decision to attempt another appeal in a higher court, in an attempt to get the sentence of death overturned. If the offender does not get the sentence overturned, the offender will remain sentenced to death most likely by lethal injection; lethal injection is a less painful, more humane way to execute the offender. Some states allow the offenders to choose from various approved means of execution to include death by firing squad, hanging,

The death penalty can be traced all the way to biblical times when people were executed for many reasons such as: for not believing in their god(s), choosing to interact in sexual conduct while unmarried, stealing, murder, etc. The methods of execution back in those times were to either: stone, hang, slay, crucify, and burn not only the offender who committed the crime, but if he or she had a family, the entire family was executed with them as a warning to the people of their tribe or city to not commit the same crime. In today’s time, since most people have found the term “death penalty” offensive, we have moved to calling it “capital punishment”. This punishment today is primarily used for offenders who have committed a first degree murder. Other reasons for this sentence vary from state to state. In Florida, the death penalty may be used for an offender(s) who has committed aggravated sexual battery against a child under the age of twelve with an injury. Times have definitely changed for reasons to execute the death penalty against criminal(s) and many people believe that it is morally wrong and that we should just abandon it altogether. However there are some that still believe that we need to keep capital punishment as a means to execute justice upon the guilty and as a warning to other offenders to not commit the same crimes. Should we continue to allow capital punishment in America? How do we know that the offender is guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt”? What methods