The Moral Framework I Disagree

The Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution protects us to not be putted into cruel and unusual punishments, but when it comes to the death penalty, things become more complicated. In my personal opinion, I believe the absolute interpretation of the 8th Amendment and that the death penalty undoubtedly violates the 8th Amendment. Looking at the case of “Furman v. Georgia (1972)”, the Court invalidated death penalty laws in the end because the justices considered the punishment of the death penalty was too cruel and unusual to the Furman’ sin, accidentally killing people, and disproportionately using the death penalty would result in more serious problems to the poor and minorities. This decision fully reflected the reliability of

My moral code and the belief of human nature evil leads me to cultivate the knowledge and the competences of myself. I believe it is my own responsibilities to be sensitive about the interaction between people and learn how to protect myself from being hurt by others, regardless intentionally or unintentionally. Therefore, I will make observations of people and the environments, to always best understand what situation I am and try to set up some prevention measurements to set myself from falling into a bad situation. Also, I will try to grow myself to be more intelligent and stronger. And the most important thing is, I will never try to do harms to people because I can simultaneously be more sensitive to know whether if there is any harm to others by the measurements I am about to take.

In 1972, the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty systems then in place were unconstitutional violations of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on “cruel and unusual” punishments. In response to the decision many states changed their death penalty systems. Four years later in Gregg v. Georgia (1976), the Court reaffirmed the death penalty as constitutional. Troy Gregg had been found guilty of murder and armed robbery and sentenced to death. He asked the Court to go further than it had in the Furman case, and rule the death penalty itself unconstitutional (n.d.,Web).

In David M. Oshinsky’s book, Capital Punishment on Trial: Furman v. Georgia and the Death Penalty in Modern America, he discussed the case of Furman v. Georgia. He explores the controversy that capital punishment holds in the United States of America. The death penalty has been in practice for many centuries. For example, “In Massachusetts, where religion had played a key role in settlement, crimes like blasphemy, witchcraft, sodomy, adultery, and incest became capital offenses, through juries sometimes hesitated to convict” (Oshinsky, 2010). For the punishment of death these offenses do not fit the crime. However, capital punishment at this time was rarely criticized. The death penalty demanded many executions including public ones. Many of these were hangings and were public events. After the American Revolution the death penalty began to be questioned. For example, Benjamin Rush stated, “Capital punishments are the offspring of monarchial governments. Kings believe that they possess their crowns by a divine right. They assume the divine power of taking away human life” (Oshinsky, 2010). By the 1840’s there were organized groups opposing the death penalty such as the Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment. Within the coming years, the support for capital punishment fluctuated. Throughout the book, Oshinsky explores the many cases leading up to the Furman v. Georgia decision.

In 1971 one of the key cases in United Sates History and also the state of Georgia was Furman v. Georgia. Furman was an African American male that broke in to a home to steal another citizens items. During the robbery the victim woke up and scared Furman. While Furman was fleeing the seen the owner gave him chase, and Furman accidentally drop his handgun and it went off killing the victim. When Furman was arrested he was told that if found guilty, he could be facing the death penalty. Furman appealed the execution to the Supreme Court, and argued that under the 14th amendment he would not be allowed pursuit of happiness, and liberty the American way. The Supreme Court heard his case and overturned the

(231) As far as capital punishment is concerned, the Eighth Amendment has been used to declare the death penalty invalid in numerous cases. Mandatory death penalties have repeatedly been found to violate the Eighth Amendment, and were first found to be unconstitutional in the cases of Roberts vs. Louisiana and Woodson vs. North Carolina. Arbitrary death sentences with no established criteria for application also violate the Eighth Amendment, as was ruled in the case of Furman vs. Georgia. In Furman vs. Georgia three cases had been brought to the Supreme Court concerning the death penalty and the racial biases present in the selection process.

Many Americans claim that capital punishment is a cruel and unusual punishment and goes against a persons constitutional rights. On the other hand, many Americans support it and claim it is against ther constitutional right not to carry out the death penalty. How are we to know what is right? In all honesty, facts, papers, journals, etc. can not decide how I am truly going to feel about a subject that is very much a macro-argument. None the less, here Americans sit, letting “their” opinion being primarily based off of claims and subclaims made by one side or the other. I guess that is what we will do here. I believe that if we are to look at papers, we might as well look at

In this paper I shall argue that capital punishment is immoral. In Furman v. Georgia we find a landmark case in which the legality of capital punishment is exposed. Judges Stewart, White, and Douglas found the death penalty to be immoral given the arbitrary forces involved. ("Furman v. Georgia") They believed this was causing a higher number of minorities specifically blacks to be subjected to

1972, Furman v. Georgia. The opinion said, “[t]he Court holds that the imposition and carrying out of the death penalty in these cases constitute cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.”

1972 - In Furman v. Georgia the Court rules that all existing death penalty laws violate the Constitution. The Court cited "arbitrariness" and racial imbalances in the application of death sentences. As a consequence, many states rewrite their death penalty laws.

As stated by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, capital punishment is defined as “the practice of killing someone as punishment for serious crimes.” such as murder or treason. The Furman V. Georgia case was the reason some states reinstated the death penalty. It consists of three black men committing gruesome crimes, two being rape and one being murder in Georgia and Texas. Currently, there is thirty-one states that have legalized the death penalty and nineteen that have abolished it. Five hundred forty death row inmates have been executed in Texas since 1974 post- Furman v. Georgia, leading our nation as the number one state with the most executions performed.

The third framework is utilitarianism ethical framework. This framework considers the greater good for all; the best action is the one that benefits the most people. Utilitarianism is a cost benefit analysis to figure out what is the greater good. It is done to benefit others. The last and fourth framework is egoism ethical framework.

“You are sentenced to death,” a condemnation that brings horror to the plaintiff. Corporal Punishment also known as the Death Penalty is a controversial punishment specifically because of the possibility that it violates the Constitution. The death penalty was removed in 1972 after the trial of Furman vs. Georgia, but was reinstated because of the “death is different” doctrine. It was decided that it didn’t violated the eighth amendment right which prevents cruel and unusual punishment (Stevenson 69). Some people are following the new movement which finds the death penalty inhumane and unconstitutional; however, it is still not widely accepted. While the death penalty does greatly affect lives, it is left in the hands of judges and jurors to decide

The study of morality is performed through descriptive approach or philosophical approach consisting of normative or prescriptive ethics. One approach says that people should always act in the own self- interest (Individual Ethical Egoism), its premise being everyone should act to my own best interest. There also are those who believe that a person should act in their own interest only (Personal Ethical Egoism) and the third belief is (Universal Ethical Egoism) based on the premise that everyone should act in their own self-interest regardless of others. I assume that you can see the glaring flaws in each of these theories.

The constitution guarantees the due process of law and equal protection under the law.  Supporters of the death penalty also believe that it is an intolerable act of denial of civil liberties and that it is not consistent with the values that are upheld by our democratic system. Those that support capitol punishment claim that it has an effect on potentially violent criminals where as the threat of imprisonment for life is not sufficient, while those against capitol punishment have shown research that has stated that it is not more effect at deterring criminal motives then a life-long prison sentence. The people who support capital punishment believe that it is possible to only have the people that are truly deserving of the death are executed by having laws and procedures fashioned in that way. They state that the capital punishment in the United States argue that the death penalty is a very humane way of punishing those who have taken another life and are brutal killers. Those who support it believes that it a constitutional way of punishing the criminals and deterring violent crimes. The United States is the only English-speaking Western democracy in which the death penalty is still in use. Capitol Punishment was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court after a four-year moratorium in 1976. Religion also plays a role in the case of the death penalty. The American