The Moral, Legal, and Economical Aspects of Capital Punishment

Capital punishment is a sentence that is given to someone that has committed a capital crime. This is a subject of great debate; some people agree and some do not. There are times when a crime is so heinous that the majority would seek capital punishment. Susan Gissendaner received this sentence for plotting to kill her husband, although her boyfriend actually killed her husband. Since being in prison, Susan has undergone a conversion and transformation. She is now a model prisoner. Due to Susan’s transformation, they are trying to have her sentence changed. Should Susan’s sentence be commuted to life in prison is the question being asked? This paper will answer the question by providing a moral judgment viewed by two non-consequentialist theories. The strengths and weaknesses of these positions will be assessed. Whether I agree or disagree will be answered and explained.

In the United States, the use of the death penalty continues to be a controversial issue. Every election year, politicians, wishing to appeal to the moral sentiments of voters, routinely compete with each other as to who will be toughest in extending the death penalty to those persons who have been convicted of first-degree murder. Both proponents and opponents of capital punishment present compelling arguments to support their claims. Often their arguments are made on different interpretations of what is moral in a just society. In this essay, I intend to present major arguments of those who support the death penalty and those who are opposed to state sanctioned executions application . However, I do intend to fairly and accurately

More than two centuries ago, the death penalty was commonplace in the United States, but today it is becoming increasingly rare. In the article “Should the Death Penalty Be Abolished?”, Diann Rust-Tierney argues that it should be abolished, and Joshua Marquis argues that it should not be abolished. Although the death penalty is prone to error and discrimination, the death penalty should not be abolished because several studies show that the death penalty has a clear deterrent effect, and we need capital punishment for those certain cases in which a killer is beyond redemption.

The use of capital punishment in the U.S. is a growing concern for most American citizens. According to statistics, seventy percent of Americans are in support of the death penalty, while only thirty percent are against it. These statistics show that few people are against capital punishment (“Fact” 1). With the use of the death penalty growing the controversy is becoming more heated. With only twelve states left not enforcing it the resistance is becoming futile (“Fact” 4). Many debates have been made and even clauses have been invoked, such as, the “Cruel and Unusual Clause” that was invoked by the Supreme Court in 1962 (Meltsner 179). The use of death as a punishment has been viewed as “cruel

For the past decades capital punishment has been one of the most hotly contested political issues in America, but this debate is definitely a complicated one. Capital punishment is a legal, practical, philosophical, social, political, but also a moral question. The notion of deterrence has been at the very center of the practical debate over the question of capital punishment. Most of us assume that we execute murderers primarily because we

There are about 121 innocent people sitting on death row tonight. A study by the National Academy of Sciences reports that conservatively, 4.1 percent of defendants sentenced to death are indeed innocent. Capital punishment is abolished in many parts of the developed world, but is still carried out daily. In this day and age, its existence may seem questionable. After World War II, crime rates increased in the United States, peaking from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Violent crime nearly quadrupled between 1960 and its peak in 1991. Sure enough, thirty-two states, the federal civilian and military legal systems permit the death penalty. Its application is limited by the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution to aggravated murders committed

Capital punishment (the death penalty) is a legal procedure which is known as the most severe punishment where the law authorizes execution as a punishment for criminals (Gerald, 2008). Many people claim that allowing such a punishment will help decrease the crime rate, and also give closure to the victim’s family, but if you as American citizens analyze this situation in more detail you can see that taking a life for taking a life is more of a personal matter than justice. When comparing the states that allow capital punishment with the states that have abolished it, the crime rate does not differ. Hence, those who argue that death row has a positive effect on making criminals

Throughout time, the death penalty has been the ultimate price for crime in many cultures. In the United States and for the purposes of this paper, we will discuss it in relation to capital murder. In this paper, we will examine the current death penalty policy in the United States and its sometimes inconsistent and brutal application. We will also examine whether the death penalty is effective in providing deterrence, as well as a policy recommendations.

“Since 1973, at least 121 people have been released from death row after evidence of their innocence emerged. During the same period of time, over 982 people have been executed. Thus, for every eight people executed, we have found one person on death row who never should have been convicted. These statistics represent an intolerable risk of executing the innocent” (“Innocence”).

Subsequently, this leaves the common people, with a very contemplative question in mind, should the U.S. utilize the death penalty for brutal crimes? This is not a matter that can be resolved in days, weeks, or months, this will take years because of the pros and cons on the social aspect of the death penalty. To start of this controversial debate, the most popular motive is the concept of “an eye for an eye” or if a

In recent years, the Supreme Court has made it more difficult for death row prisoners to file appeals. Nearly 3 of 4 Americans’ support the death sentence as a form of punishment. The other third has condemned it and their list of claims against it is long. Opponents challenge proponents on issues of deterrence, economics, fallibility, and

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.

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

For lawmakers, keeping crime low is a two part problem: prevent convicted felons from breaking out or being released from preventing more crimes, and discourage people from committing crimes in the first place. All around the United States, the death penalty is debated, scrutinized, revealed, torn apart, and praised. Death as a capital punishment sparks so much attention because of its extreme logistical and ethical problems: Is it efficient? Does a human have the moral authority to decide if another may live? These are the questions asked by many, and ask they must if we wish to have any hope of reaching a solution to the ever-present question: Is the death penalty an effective means of justice? The death penalty, whatever its moral faults, is an effective method of employing and ensuring justice across the United States judicial system because the prospect of death acts as a deterrent for criminals as well as an assurance that those criminals sentenced will never go on to

Over the past forty-years, 1,421 executions have been conducted by thirty-one states and the federal government under the capital punishment sentence (“Facts About the Death Penalty”). Throughout those years however, controversial opinions have aroused on whether the capital punishment should be permitted, its success on reflecting a deterrent effect, and even its morality. Although it is often argued that Capital punishment is appropriate when the crime reaches an egregious extent, the revocation of constitutional securities, discrimination within race and income status, as well as the insufficiency to achieve a deterrent effect prevail over the validation of society’s ultimate punishment–the death penalty.