The Ethics of Capital Punishment Essay

Now, in order to truly look at the topic at hand, I feel that it is necessary to examine a few different viewpoints when it comes to this ethical issue. These viewpoints are called deontological, and utilitarianism. Each approach provides a unique look in the idea of capital punishment and will help to look at the consequences at the present time, as well as in the future. The question of whether it is ethically acceptable to take the life of someone is at the heart

Senator for Utah Orrin Hatch once said, “Capital punishment is our society’s recognition of the sanctity of human life,” (Brainy Quote). While the arguments for both sides of the debate over the morality of the death penalty are vast, the bottom line is that the death penalty does not disregard human life, but rather it reveres it, as Hatch said. Morality is defined as, “The quality of being in accord with standards of right or good conduct,” (The Free Dictionary). One who seeks to protect a person who has committed a heinous crime such as murder is arguably not in accords with what is right and wrong. Therefore, although killing is generally accepted as being wrong, the death penalty is sometimes the only solution to bring justice to a

Death penalty or capital punishment is an issue which is quiet debatable. It is an issue that has divided the world socially and morally. There are both supporters as well as people who are against it. Due to human rights communities and lawmaker’s struggle much debate has been done on this issue. Capital punishment laws have been removed from most of the countries including Europe. However death penalty is legal in countries including some states of USA, China and also Arab countries. However, many people debate that there are several conditions in which a person must be saved from a capital punishment, in this regard, mental illness is also a topic related to capital investment. This paper aims in analyzing the forensic

Keeping a prisoner in jail for life will be very expensive considering that it costs $80,000 a year; and the bad news is that the money comes from the taxpayer's pocket. Thousands of people will attack the death penalty. They will give emotional speeches about the one innocent man who might be executed. However, all of these people are forgetting one crucial element. They are forgetting the thousands of victims who die every year. This may sound awkward, but the death penalty saves lives. It saves lives because it stops those who murder from ever murdering again (Bryant). These opinions represent some of the strongest and most influential views that proponents hold. However, if our prison system could rehabilitate more effectively, perhaps those who murdered once, could change.

Since the earliest times, man has struggled with the concept of justice. The controversy of capital punishment has weighed on the minds of humans since the beginning. When we are wronged it is our natural instinct to demand compensation. This thirst for revenge can be seen in the earliest civilizations and societies. Ancient Hammurabi code states “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” (History of the World). For many people this little axiom seems fair. Others however, think otherwise and warn of a blind and toothless community. What is it about capital punishment that divides so many Americans? Is it the possibility of an innocent man being executed too much of a risk? Should our current

The death penalty is supposed to deter murder and bring the justice that the murder families of the victims should be rewarded (Hyden). Although many scientific researches can conclude that it does not deter murder and the members of the murder victims’ family have rejected/rejecting the program because it retraumatizes them with long process of trials, appeals, and of course the media (Hyden). In contrast, a sentence of life in prison is certain and instant, allowing the families to move on knowing that the justice of the crime is being served. Comparing whether or not the death penalty should be legalized, the reasons as to why it shouldn’t be, are strong enough to change one person’s mind. The death penalty still should be illegal in the United States.

When people are committing serious crimes such as murder, they aren't exactly thinking about whether they are going to face the death penalty. They are going to commit the murder regardless if that's what they had planned out. The claim that the death penalty can reduce further and similar crimes from occurring has not confidently been proven yet. A great number of those committing these crimes that can face death penalty are mentally ill, or having other issues in their lives, why end their lives instead of helping them? That doesn't completely process through my head completely. We can simply give them life in prison instead of gathering and wasting everyone's tax money to execute them. By the government "legally" ending someone's life, it begins to show other's that it is ok to murder others. That is not the message we should be sending to our people of

Life is precious and should not be taken for granted. In the United States capitol punishment has been abolished or overturned in 20 states. According to Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, the nation's opinion is split right down the middle. The death penalty has been the topic of discussion in recent years, it has been very controversial primarily based on how it is permanent. Once action is taken and the punishment of death has been dealt wrongful execution of an innocent person would be an injustice that can never be rectified.

During the past three decades capital punishment has been a very controversial issue in the United States. 1972 the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Furman v. Georgia that the death penalty was unconstitutional because it was a form of "cruel and unusual punishment." However, this decision did not last long; in July 1975 the Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment did not violate any parts of the Constitution. Executions as they had before 1972 resumed again. Since then 180 prisoners have been executed. The United States Supreme Court should abolish the death penalty because it is a form of "cruel and unusual punishment."

The death penalty has been a controversy in the United States justice system since its commencement (Bakken & Morris, 2010). Although extremely controversial, it has stood the test of time as the definitive penalty. Numerous countries are at present bring an end their death penalty law. Contrary to that, the United States has thirty eight out of its fifty states with death penalty still operational. It seems the United States needs the death penalty more than ever before due to rising rate of sever violent crimes across the nation. Statistics shows that since the early nineties roughly around 355 people have been put to death through death penalty and approximately 3300 are still waiting on death row. Similarly since 1976 around 552 felons have been put to rest through death penalty across the United States (Bakken & Morris, 2010). If you break these deaths down according to the methods utilized about three hundred ninety-four by lethal injection, one hundred forty-one by electrocution, eleven by gas chamber, three by hanging, and two by firing squad. Almost half of the 1976 executions have taken place within the last five years, which includes 52 that took place this year. Even though the death penalty has brought countless gooey criminals to end, the course of death penalty that it is founded on is inconsistent one.

Along with the Moral and Ethical problems the death penalty has monetary problems too. The cost of housing inmates on death row and the extra cost of appeals results in a total extra cost of 65 million dollars a year. All of that money is being wasted on a criminal who isn’t even worth the time to kill him. If

Hands stained with blood, our justice system still remains battered and broken. States disintegrating the laws that once stood, the laws stealing the lives of innocent, further perpetrating injustice. No matter the decline, abhorrent and controversial execution methods still remain commonplace. Challenge must be made against such methods as lethal injection. Capital punishment, with declining support must be eliminated from our country’s justice system, for the inability to hinder crime, slaying the innocent and underprivileged, while the realization that death is not the perfect punishment sets in.

While criminals must be punished for their criminal actions, “legalized murder”, as author Coretta Scott King put it, is immoral. The death penalty is legalizing the very thing that many on death row are charged for, murder. There is a multitude of lawful alternatives, to the death penalty, of reestablishing a better reputation for the criminals. The Constitution has no true right to allow such a felonious form of rehabilitation.

The death penalty is often regarded as an issue of ethics and morality, but people often fail to realize that there are many other factors that make it unjustifiable. The system currently in place, and any system the will be developed in the future, is fundamentally flawed on many levels. As a system made by humans filled with vengeance, it fails to take into consideration things such as cost to the state, racial discrimination, potential murder of innocence, failure as a deterrent, inhumane medical processes, and cases of mental illness. These are just some of the reasons as to why the death penalty is an unethical, immoral, and barbaric form of justice. The death penalty, for these reasons, should be abolished in the United States and any

To begin with, the death penalty should be terminated because the actual applications for the death penalty is random, and capricious. In other words, the death penalty system here in the United States is applied in an unfair manner. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the death penalty system is an unjust method against people because it is largely dependent on how much income and money the individual has, the intellectual skills of their attorneys, the victim’s race and or ethnicity and exactly where the crime took place. It is proven that people of color is executed more compared to white people, more so if the victim is white. Innocent people are often executed by the state. Over one hundred and fifty-six