The Need for Capital Punishment in America Essay

For centuries capital punishment has been used to “punish” criminals for a severe enough crime that they committed. It dates back to hundreds of years ago and has been enacted in many different countries, some that still have it today. Death penalty/capital punishment is the punishment of death an offender receives after having a court hearing and being convicted of a crime (ProCon.org, 2008). Once someone receives a death penalty sentence, they go on death row awaiting their execution. For a very long time, the controversy regarding whether or not the death penalty is ethical or just has been a topic of debate. I believe that the

More than a hundred of Americans are wrongfully sent to death row. Hundreds of people die innocent. Killing people for killing others is wrong in any situation. Though some people say when murder is punished with death less people will commit crime, murdering is uncivil, especially when the person is wrongfully accused.

As Cass R states… “Capital punishment may be morally required, not for retributive reasons, but rather to prevent the taking of innocent lives”. Death penalty is one of those extreme punishments that would create fear in the mind of any person. If murderers are sentenced to death and executed, potential murderers will think twice before killing for fear of losing their own life.

Capital punishment should only be pushed on criminals such as child rapists, mass murders, and serial killers. If we did not have capital punishment these offenders could escape from prison and repeat crimes, possibly worse than the first time. If there was no Capital punishment and the death penalty was not an option people would have no inhibition to crime, and no one would never think twice before committing an offense. Most people agree with capital punishment being just when federal, state, and local officials implement the correct constitutional protections, such as due process and equal protection of the law

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

The Death Penalty in America has been a talked about issue for some time now. Americans have their own opinions on the death penalty. Some people feel it is too harsh of a punishment, some believe if you take a life you should lose your life. I myself do not believe in the death penalty. To me it goes totally against what Americas was built on God. Even though over the last fifteen years or so we have slowly drifted away from “In God We Trust”. Looking at the death penalty in a whole it was never something that the United States came up with. It was adopted from Britain. (Bohm, 1999)The first ever recorded death penalty in United States history was that of Captain George Kendall in 1608. He was executed for being a spy. The death of Captain Kendall started a chain of other colonies jumping on board for the death penalty. In some colonies they were sentencing people to death for petty crimes, such as steeling, or trading with Indians. Over the years after the death penalty would be reformed and revamped numerous of times. Until it was only used when murder or treason occurred. Matter of fact Pennsylvania was the first state

If someone committed a crime serious enough to warrant the death penalty then he/she should face the reality of it and just accept it. As it stands there are some people who should be on death row an example would be George Zimmerman. But I guess some people think that taking that person’s life is a little extreme. But at the end of the day if you did something serious enough to warrant it then you should face the reality of

I, as well as many others, have total confidence in the death penalty. It is a very beneficial component of our justice system. The death penalty saves lives. It saves lives because it stops those who murder from ever murdering again. It also deters potential murderers from ever committing the crime.

    Even though I have strong opinions against the death penalty, there are many Americans who support it. Some people

This is a very easy question to answer. I am one-hundred percent in favor of death penalty. I believe that murderers should be murdered back. I can only think about what I would wish for someone who murders a member of my family, specially my parents, and children if I had any. I don’t think murderers should be rewarded by staying alive and getting used to living in prison. There are different situations, of course, in which death penalty would not be applicable, even if murders are involved. For example, those who have killed to protect themselves or their loved ones are an exclusion to the death penalty rule. If a robber walks into my house to steal and I accidentally kill him because I got nervous or whatever the case may be, I am excused from the rule because it wasn’t me breaking into someone else’s house to steal or commit who knows what other crimes, it was the robber. I am a true believer that with every action comes a reaction. Some people say that they don’t want their taxes to keep murderers alive, and I completely agree. Also, this might sound crude but, why keep overcrowding prisons with those who intentionally take innocent lives? Aren’t prisons overcrowded enough already?

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.

Despite all the pros and cons of capital punishment, society must think about what is truly correct and most practical for our world. Capital punishment is not functional in today’s legal system. There are countless amounts of evidence that proves these legal killings to be ineffective. We, as Americans, must correct this irrational practice before it does anymore permanent damage.

Capital punishment is the execution of a perpetrator for committing a heinous crime (homicide), and it is a hotly debated topic in our society. The basic issue is whether capital punishment should be allowed as it is today, or abolished in part or in whole. My argument is that:

If it were up to me, every murderer in this country would be put behind bars on death row and have their life taken from them just as they took the life of another. The guidelines of " an eye for an eye" go back thousands of years. Many countries still hold true to these guidelines. Although America doesn't follow the same as these countries, I believe when it comes to murder, they should.

Capital punishment is used predominantly for, but not exclusively to, the crime of murder. This employs the “eye for an eye” sort of belief system that has been in use for hundreds of years. This type of thinking is backed by a principle that was a key point in Machiavelli’s “The Qualities of a Prince.” Machiavelli contends that “it is much safer to be feared than loved.” This is a mindset that is shared with those who support the death penalty. This is because if one knows that they will die if they perform a certain act, they will generally be unwilling to perform that act. People who use even the slightest bit of logic and reasoning could reach the conclusion that it is better to use the threat of death to keep potential murderers from killing innocent victims than to abolish capital punishment and sacrifice innocent lives.