The Debate Of Banning The Death Penalty

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

The system works that the criminal does the crime, the criminal gets caught, tried and convicted, and it is understood that the punishment will be severe. The person the criminal has killed no longer has a part to play in this. Unfortunately the murderer has deprived their family and friends of a loved one. Their grief begins with the murder. “It may not end with the murderer’s execution, but the execution does engender a feeling of relief at no longer having to think about the ordeal- a feeling which often fails to arise while the murder still lives on” (The Facts). the system in place currently is there for the purpose of granting justice, cannot do so for the surviving victims, unless the murderer himself is put to death (The Facts).

Even after these devastating facts, the death penalty still isn’t being put down in the United States. Thirty two of the fifty states in America allow for capital punishment. Lethal injections are the number one way to execute a criminal in America, and there are many other methods offered in select states. Texas, a state that strongly supports capital punishment, was the first state to carry out lethal injections on December 7, 1982 for the execution of Charles Brooks. Texas is also the first in the number of executions in the United States. If Texas made the death penalty illegal, the number of executions in the United States would decrease dramatically. Electrocution, lethal gas, a firing squad and even hangings still occur in the United States and are secondary options for many criminals in the country.

On September 9, 1993 a seventeen year old boy, Christopher Simmons, and a few of his friends met up to discuss and devise a plan to commit a robbery and possibly even a murder, just for the sake of fun. Simmons’ plan was not complicated: find someone to burglarize, tie up the victim and either leave the victim tied to a tree or push them off a bridge. Simmons and his accomplice climbed through a window and proceeded into the bedroom of the victim, Mrs. Cook. The two teenagers tied the woman up and loaded her into the back of her own minivan. They drove to the state park at the edge of town, where they had planned to dispose of the body and that is exactly what they did. The boys were caught later on that month and put on trial for cold

The death penalty today is a hot button question that many experts cannot agree on. The topic deals with justice, logistics, and human morality which leads to either a person remaining alive or losing their life. It is not an easy choice to make because the death penalty has so much to do with human desires for justice as it does the justice system carrying out just punishments for crimes committed. In almost all of human history, capital punishment has been a punishment that was used to punish individuals who broke laws the society upheld. The United States of America is no different as it still continues to use the death penalty as a punishment in many states across the nation. The United States has contemplated the legality of the death penalty, with multiple court decisions dictating if and what is legal, as discussed in the video produced by CNN (http://www.cnn.com/videos/crime/2014/05/06/orig-jag-death-penalty.cnn/video/playlists/death-penalty/).

The controversy with capital punishment has been debated for hundreds of years. The Supreme Court is likely to sway its opinion often about whether it should be abolished or instituted throughout the United States. There have been many court cases and lawsuits regarding this issue that has suggested that legislation would be the most effective way to ending the discussion once and for all. In order to abolish the death penalty, the majority has to agree in support of abolition for any legislature to repeal it. This support would have to defend itself through the occasional questions of reinstatement of capital punishment. In order to abolish capital punishment, abolitionist have to provide alternatives to the death penalty that would make sure the criminals that committed the crimes receive harsh enough punishment that would please those wanting to keep the death penalty. Whether or not they are able to accomplish such a task is hard to say. The death penalty needs to be removed on the grounds that is unconstitutional.

Violent crimes such a murder, rape, sexual assault, and robbery are perpetrated by criminals once every few minutes in this country. Lawmakers spend countless hours enacting laws to prevent these crimes. The introduction of the death penalty is an effort to deter criminals from committing heinous crimes. What exactly does the death penalty accomplish? The best description of the term death penalty is the legal execution of criminals as punishment for committing a violent crime. Opponents of the death penalty want to outlaw its use and consider the action a form of judicial murder. Advocates continue to support the use of capital punishment as a way to deter

There's a long history of capital punishment in the USA as it has been used since colonial times. The American constitution gives each state the right to govern over their own criminal laws. 31 states still have capital punishment and they use it on a number of crimes, including treason and crimes causing death, and use a number of different methods to kill those convicted of capital crimes. The death penalty has its supporters and opponents. Both groups have heated and emotional reasons for their point of view, plus, they each have their statistics to strengthen their argument. Additionally, each side uses the US Constitution to bolster their argument. Proponents use the Fifth Amendment which outlines the conditions for capital crimes. Opponents

In 1940, Lawrence Bittaker, an infamous serial killer from the 1970’s, was born to two unloving parents in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was adopted but eventually left abandoned by his adoptive parents who could not put up with him anymore (Chojnaki, M. & Danz, E. p. 1). By the age of 17, Bittaker dropped out of high school, never to obtain his GED. From the ages of 21 to 26, Bittaker was diagnosed “borderline psychotic” and “basically paranoid” multiple times by different doctors (Chojnaki, M. & Danz, E. p. 1). Bittaker was in and out of jail before murdering five teenage girls in 1979 with a partner, Roy Norris (Chojnaki, M. & Danz, E. p. 2). In 1981, Bittaker was sentenced to death. As of today, he is 70 years old and is still on death row at San Quentin Prison in California (Chojnaki, M. & Danz, E. p. 3).

HE STOOD AT THE THRESHOLD OF THE EXECUTION chamber in Huntsville, Texas,18 minutes from death by lethal injection, when official word finally came that the needle wouldn't be needed that day The rumors of a 30day reprieve were true. Ricky McGinn, a 43-year-old mechanic found guilty of raping and killing his 12-yearold stepdaughter, will get his chance to prove his innocence with advanced DNA testing that hadn't been available at the time of his 1994 conviction. The double cheeseburger, french fries and Dr Pepper he requested for dinner last Thursday night won't be his last meal after all.

After looking through the ALCU webpage I came across an article written by Kristin Froehlich. Her article, which focused on Delaware’s Supreme Court’s Decision to Ban the Death penalty, caught my attention, because I’m focused on a career in the criminal justice field.

Punishment is a penalty in return for the crime provided by the law, which aims at correcting the culprit and rehabilitating him or her as a good person in society. The death penalty is one of the oldest punishments in history. It is one of the oldest punishments that human beings have ever known. The death penalty is also one of the most serious in terms of the importance of the right to life. The death penalty was not controversial in old legislation. In the modern era, there has been controversy over the feasibility of the death penalty as a sanction between criminal sanctions. The Opponents demand that it be abolished from the law because of the claim of humanization and urbanization of the penal system. However, the death penalty is a deterrent sanction which must be applied in the law for several reasons.

There has been more than 1452 executions in America alone. The total number of Death Row inmates as of July 1, 2016 is 2,905. (Dunham) So many criminals are sentenced to death for murder, kidnapping with bodily injury or ransom, aircraft hijacking and a few other reasons. When someone gets sentenced to death, they are placed in a maximum security prison and placed into the “Death Row” division. There is so much that people don’t know about the death penalty. Most Americans argued that the death penalty was unconstitutional and a type of cruel and unusual punishment. The death penalty has caused many problems for the government from different protests, rallies and other crimes being committed to stop it.

The way we carry out these executions is by lethal injection, which is much more humane than any ways we have carried it out in historical times (McCuen 27). A prison official had claimed, “The guy will just go to sleep forever. It will be easy-real easy” (49). He says said this when referring to a man who was on death row. By using lethal injection, the United States is ridding itself of criminals, and is carrying it out in the most humane way possible (Kurtz). Professor John McAdams of Marquette University said, “If we execute murderers and there is in fact no deterrent effect, we have killed a bunch of murderers. If we fail to execute murderers, and doing so would in fact have deterred other murderers, we have allowed the killing of a bunch of innocent victims. I would much rather risk the former. This, to me, is not a tough call” (Marzilli 21).

Supporter’s claim that it eliminates repeat offenders, deters potential murderers and is the ultimate retribution. Opponents denounce it as murder, say that it does not cause deterrence but rather promotes violence and claim that it introduces the chance of an innocent person being executed. Due to the arguments presented by both sides and because of my own personal beliefs, the argument against legal execution is most compelling. The idea of putting another human to death is hard to completely fathom. The physical mechanics involved in carrying out a death sentence on another person, regardless of how much