The Importance Of The Death Penalty

The Death Penalty, or capital punishment is nothing new in the world. SInce the dawn of civilization people were sentenced to death for sometimes even the most minor of crimes, such a theft. As the world has changed in the last few thousand years, so have attitudes toward the Death Penalty,yet it is still a punishment that is carried out throughout the world today. In the United States, as of July of 2015, 31 states in the Union actively carry out the death penalty. Only 19 states have abolished the death penalty and replaced it with life in prison without the possibility of parole as the maximum sentence. However, with the declining popularity of the death penalty in the United States and throughout the world, the question that needs to be

“The use of the death penalty in the United States has been rapidly declining since the end of the 1990s” (Dieter, 2015). This is contrast to the believes of the Founding Fathers where “the death penalty was widely accepted at the time the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights were ratified” (Gardner & Anderson, 2014). While the crimes have not changed, aspects of capital punishment which were once viewed as constitutional, today are deemed cruel and unusual. The prevailing liberal view sees the death penalty as morally unjustified and a vengeful form retribution. “It is the most brutal form of state power, requires massive state administrations and it costs significantly more than life imprisonment which is both more humane and equally effective” (Davidson, 2015). They point to the lack of deterrence it provides and highlight the racial and gender biases of the criminal justice system and the potential for the execution of the innocent by the State. In contrast, those in favor of capital punishment see it as a valid, moral and constitutional punishment as punishments should be imposed in proportion to the crime. The death penalty is reserved for the most violent of crimes in society and without it, justice is not achieved for victims and their families. The death penalty must be viewed again as a valid, moral and legal

In 1976, the United States Supreme Court was given the opportunity to abolish death sentences, but they voted in favor of allowing executions. The years prior to the 1976 vote were marred by inconsistencies on the behalf of these judges, as they changed their minds on the legality of the death penalty three times. Furthermore, the discrepancies in the way minorities are executed versus that of white people is alarming, showing the rampant racism that exists in the judicial system. The racial biases in how death sentences are given, as well the inconsistencies of the Supreme Court during the years leading up to the legalization of executions, should cause the United States to rescind the death penalty.

Against the Death Penalty: An Annotated Bibliography While the Death Penalty has been historically used as a deterrent of crime, it is barbarity, is economically costly, and racially bias in the United States of America. With this research paper, I will explain how the death penalty should be abolish from our judicial system. Death Penalty Information Center. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org./ This is a website that gives lots of information about the death penalty from the history, current inmates and trials that could lead to death row.

The United States is a country whose ideals is founded on protecting the rights of its citizens, making sure each action they take will benefit its people without compromising the liberties America had fought to earn. However, once those liberties are compromised, this may lead to protests and violence which in turn may cause large rates of incarceration and possibly death. The issue of capital punishment has existed since the 18th century BC, and it is an issue that will continue until justice and individual liberties find a common ground that they share. With a growing debate over universally banning capital punishment in the states, as shown by 61% of voters in a 2010 poll, or forcing all states to conform to using the death penalty, the

“We have killers walking among us. We have killers living in our neighborhoods,” explained Howard Morton, executive director of families of homicide victims and missing persons. With the disappearance of the death penalty, violent crimes are more likely to occur. Frightened for their lives, murders would wonder what repercussions they will face. Legalizing executions would make America safer, criminals would think before committing crimes, and they do not learn from their mistakes in prison, making the re-commit crime rate higher.

The death penalty has been in the justice system of America tracing all the way back to the days of its founding fathers. Though it is a highly controversial legal and moral matter, it still stands today as the most ultimate punishment in the United States. Many countries have been or are currently abolishing their death penalty under the notion that it is unjust and morally wrong. The United States, on the other hand, has 38 out of its 50 states with laws that state the death penalty as its ultimate punishment. Since 1990, more than 350 people have been put to death with another 3,300 waiting in death row. Another statistic that is an eye opener is since 1976, 552 executions have occurred in the United States, with 394 by lethal injection, 141 by electrocution, 11 by gas chamber, three by hanging, and two by firing squads. Half of the executions that have taken place after 1976 have happened within the last five years, 52 happening so far this year (Death Penalty). The Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment violates the 8th Amendment, which protects the right from “cruel and unusual punishment, on June 29th, 1972. The respective states halted executions in 1967, awaiting the ruling of the case. However in July, of 1976, the Supreme Court, as a just punishment for certain crimes, upheld the death penalty (Fagan, n.d.). For the nine years that the death penalty was suspended, the United States did not have a substantial amount of crime increase, which is somewhat

Even with the declining support, capital punishment still holds a majority vote in the United States. Despite American voters, other influential forces have begun to erode the fabric that holds the death penalties legality together. “In April 2009 the American Law Institute (ALI) made the decision to withdraw its support for the section of the Model Penal Code that had been instrumental in shaping contemporary death penalty legislation.” (Law) This has put a huge question mark for the continued use of the death penalty. The Model Penal Code is used as a legal guideline for judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys when considering the death penalty. “The ALI concluded that “in light of the current intractable institutional and structural obstacles to ensuring a minimally adequate system for administering capital punishment”, the Institute “withdraws Section 210.6 of the Model Penal Code.”” (Law) With the withdraw of the ALI support of the death penalty and the ever changing availability of monetary resources for the prosecution and defense of death penalty cases, the typical support from conservative legislators has taken a slight turn to the left. A change in the death penalty debate has given pause for conservatives that the death penalty has become a problem of oversized government and expenses.

In this paper, the authors examine how the death penalty argument has changed in the last 25 years in the United States. They examine six specific issues: deterrence, incapacitation, caprice and bias, cost innocence and retribution; and how public opinion has change regarding these issues. They argue that social science research is changing the way Americans view the death penalty and suggest that Americans are moving toward an eventual abolition of the death penalty.

The majority of people believe that the death penalty is applied fairly today in the US. According to Washington D.C; six out of 10 people favor the death penalty. People might think (at first,) that the death penalty is cruel, until they actually know what and why it is used for. The death penalty is mostly used on convicted murders, while some have been used for on extreme cases relating to aggravated rape. “When asked about the frequency with which the death penalty is imposed, 40% of Americans say it is not imposed enough, with the remainder equally divided between saying it is imposed "too often" (27%) or "about the right amount" (27%).”(Dugan) With this only 27% of people think that the death penalty is applied “too often”, while 40%

There have been a variety of innocent people who have been put on the death row and killed and when the executioners realize that they have made a mistake it is too late to do anything about it when the person is already dead. For those who didn’t know California is known as a state of justice and also not of evil so then, “ why should this country have the death penalty having the risk of executing those who are innocent?” (Manning). California will always run the risk of having innocent people executed and most of those who get executed never have the chance to prove those who accuse them wrong. According to Brittany Thiessen’s article, “Abolish the Death Penalty in the Unites States,” “Innocent people wrongly found guilty and sentenced to life in prison can later be freed-the executed cannot.” These are the reasons why people who are being executed should be background checked before they are blamed for a crime they have not done and their voice should be heard because people trying to find evidence cannot always depend on witnesses. Not only are innocent people getting executed for committing crimes they have not done, but also it comes down to discrimination , “Those who murdered whites were found more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered colored people” (Thiessen). In this quote Thiessen clarifies the fact that

This article is about the international perspective on death penalty. In most countries, death penalty is strictly reserved for the espionages and murderers. The ongoing debate about death penalty in international law has significantly evolved over the years. According to Dieter (1999), “The increasing use of the death penalty in the United States and in a number of other states is a matter of serious concern and runs counter to the international community’s expressed desire for the abolition of the death penalty” (para. 1). Although there is rather an inexorable trend towards the elimination of death penalty, per se, a vast number of countries still practice the execution of criminals and political opponents. In the American society, it is

believe the death penalty should not be used in the united states. It does nothing beneficial to any party involved. The death penalty does not drop crime rates the cost of putting someone on death row is much greater than someone being in jail for the rest of their life.

In a study conducted by the National Academy of Sciences, at least 4.1% of people on death row are wrongly convicted. While these may seem like just statistics to you and me, these numbers are someone's parents, someone’s child, this convict is a human being. This is exactly why we need death penalty reform. The death penalty has been established for many years. The most infamous example being the “Code of Hammurabi” which was established in the early eighteenth century.  Over the years, a multitude of American citizens have fervently expressed opposition for the death penalty. This led to the abolition of the death penalty in nineteen states, the most recent being just last year in 2016. As many other states move to abolish the death penalty, we must realize why the death penalty needs to be reformed. The death penalty overall is way too expensive, ineffective in deterring crime, and is

Since humans are imperfect, the risk of executing the innocent can never be truly eliminated, Michael McLaughlin states that 4% of death row inmates are presumed innocent. Even in today’s society, with all the vast technology available, innocent people are wrongly convicted of death penalty crimes. “To be exact, according to the facts provided by the Death Penalty Information Center one hundred and fifty seven people have been exonerated of death penalty crimes to date, an average of 5 people per year. “(Facts about the Death Penalty, 2017) As a contributing member of society, I am all for capital punishment, if you cannot serve the time, then do not do the crime. However, one innocent person being murdered is unacceptable. A semi know case that comes to mind when thinking of those wrongly convicted, Carlos DeLuna. In 1989, Texas executed DeLuna, a poor Hispanic man with childlike intelligence, for the murder a convenience store clerk. His execution passed unnoticed for years until a team of Columbia Law School faculty and students chose to investigate his case. It was years after DeLuna death, that he was certainly proven innocent—and that another man named Carlos, who was well known to the police and