The Pros And Cons Of Capital Punishment

The eighth Amendment states that the government is prohibited from cruel and unusual punishment. The death penalty is a complete violation of this amendment. Every one, guilty or innocent has the right to live freely, and the government taking away this simplicity of rights, is unconstitutional.

The death penalty is unconstitutional and violates numerous amendments. Capital punishment violates the 5th amendment because it violates the due process clause by denying the opportunity for exoneration. Since the process of an execution can immobilize a person from being able to speak if they are in pain it is viewed that the death penalty is a cruel and unusual punishment which violates the 8th amendment. The violation of the 8th amendment also applies to juveniles and mentally retarded criminals because they do not have the capacity to understand that the crime they committed was a societal wrong. Statistically, the amount of people who are convicted are generally from the same societal class. Due to this evidence, it was decided that the death penalty violates the 14th amendment because those who cannot afford adequate lawyers are not represented equally under the law.

Capital Punishment has historically divided the United States and its meaning has changed depending on the time period. Capital Punishment, the “punishment by death for a crime,” has existed in societies throughout history. In the United States, the constitutionality of Capital Punishment is a debated topic; but the morality behind the death penalty is an often passionate and intense argument. At the birth of the United States and creation of the Constitution, the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments have been interpreted to permit the death penalty. While the Fifth Amendment states, “no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law;” the Fourteenth Amendment restricts “cruel and unusual punishment.” Bruce Nelson,

The death penalty is a controversial topic that has been brought to the United States Supreme Court many times. According to the Oxford dictionary, the death penalty is the punishment of execution, administered to someone legally convicted of a capital crime . Usually the death penalty is administered for murder, attempted murder, or intent to kill. It started off being administered by hanging, but then evolved to the electric chair and is now administered through lethal injection. From 1940 to 2014, approximately 3,771 people have been legally executed in the United States. Throughout the years, many things have been determined about the death penalty. The first being that it violates human rights. The second is that innocent lives cannot be brought back. And the third is the large possibility of a biased jury. There have been many cases that support these three points which I will address later. So, based on Supreme Court rulings, the death penalty is unconstitutional and should not continue to be legal.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, eighteen states have abolished the death penalty since its implementation (Facts About the Death Penalty). But what are the reasons behind doing so? Historically, public policy concerning capital punishment has shifted dramatically, from required capital punishment to jury nullification to a rise in the abolition of the practice. Public opinion has shifted alongside policy, with more and more Americans disapproving of the death penalty and the morality behind it, citing it as an inhumane and hypocritical approach to justice and punishment. I am with the the more progressive Americans that do not believe in administering the death penalty under any circumstances. Rather, I support life imprisonment or the insanity defense for capital offenses whenever appropriate. Capital punishment is ineffective because it lowers the state down to the level of the defendant, frequently discriminates against racial minorities and those of lower socioeconomic status, and it has been abolished in nearly every other modern democratic country.

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

Capital punishment in the United States is becoming more and more of a topic of conversation and controversy; eighteen states have outlawed the death penalty and the governors of three other states declaring a moratorium, meaning they will not sign executions during their time in office (Lovett). The national trend of banning the death penalty should definitely continue. Many criminals on death row are exonerated, making it an unreliable system of punishment. Also, capital punishment is not used equally in cases. The death penalty can also be considered cruel and unusual punishment, which is against the 8th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. The death penalty should be abolished because it is not the right way to deal with

In the American society many citizens argue daily, is the death penalty justified? The United States is sharply divided, and equally strong among both supporters and protesters of the death penalty. Arguing against capital punishment, many believe "The death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights (White).” Some simply believe it to be premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the state in the name of justice (about.com). It violates the right to life. Some would even argue that this violates the Eight Amendment for no cruel or unusual punishment inflected. Many argue that the death penalty diminishes all of us, increases disrespect for human life, and offers the tragic illusion that we can teach that killing is wrong by killing.

Death penalty is also known as capital punishment or execution. Societies from all over the world have used this sentence at one point in history, in order to avenge criminals. Most common reasons for being sentenced to death were war crimes, war treason, murder and espionage. Back then, the capital punishment was almost always accompanied by torture, and executions were public. The most used execution method was by hanging. If an inmate chooses the electric chair it takes anywhere between 2 min and 15 minutes. The criminal receives a jolt between 500 and 2000 volts for every 30 seconds, attending doctor waits for body to cool after each bolt and check if the heart is still breathing. While in some societies, violent death penalties are still being employed – like shooting, hanging, electric chair and gas chamber – in most countries, these have been replaced with a painless method – the lethal injection. When the person is put to death for the death penalty they use a lethal injection execution, in most cases. Sodium thipal makes the person go deeply unconscious but unable to feel himself being paralyzed from the “pancuronium bromide”. On death row an inmate waited an average of 15 years between sentencing and execution but a quarter of inmates die on death row from natural cases. The time has come to make punishment fit the crime, too oppose lethal injection, but not because these untried new drugs might obituary cause pain, but cause confusion, lethal injection conflates

The death penalty is unconstitutional and violates the eighth and fourth amendments. The Eighth Amendment was put in place to prevent the government from excessively

Capital Punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the gravest punishment in the U.S. criminal justice system (Van den Haag, E., & Olin, J. M., 1986); It is the legal killing of a person guilty of committing heinous and malum in se acts against the public, such as the intentional killing of an individual, intentionally committing an act of violence knowing that it may be deadly to an individual, inflicting injury to a victim resulting in death, etc. (18 U.S. Code § 3591). According to the U.S. Code,

The death penalty is not constitutional as it violates the eight and the fourteenth amendments. The eighth amendment says that there shall not be cruel and unusual punishment. Cruel was defined as excessively painful or brutal (Thisnation n.d.). The supreme court has ruled before that the penalty was not excessively painful. They have however, said that the death penalty was unusual (Thisnation n.d.). The fourteenth amendment is about equal rights of life, liberty, and or property. The death penalty deprives one of their right of life as well as their right of freedom before they are executed.

The death penalty has existed since B.C times and continues to exist until today. The 8th amendment of the United States prohibits the government from imposing excessive bails, fines and cruel or unusual punishments. The death penalty is considered constitutional under the 8th amendment because it is fair, un-cruel and its expenses aren't extraordinarily large. Although people believe the death penalty is a good system, it is actually counterproductive because it kills innocent people, doesn't deter crime and costs more than housing inmates.

Capital punishment is a government practice where guilty defendants are put to death by the state as a way of punishment for their crime. These crimes are typically related to treason, espionage and violent murder, and many find difficulty in finding a punishment to fit these extreme crimes. The debate regarding the morality and overall functionality of the punishment has been long debated. Some believe it is immoral and against the eighth amendment which ruled cruel and unusual punishment illegal. Others believe it is a fitting punishment for heinous crime. However, the death penalty is legal in thirty-one states and has seen many complications. Some inmates on death row have been found innocent based on new evidence, as well as discovered how cost ineffective the treatment is. Harsh prison life is also argued to be worse than facing death for a crime.

The death penalty is a prosecute that is used to kill criminals that have committed crimes that are so bad they should not be left alive. The idea of putting another human to death is hard to completely fathom. The physical mechanics involved in the act of execution are easy to grasp, but the emotions involved in carrying out a death sentence on another person, regardless of how much they deserve it, is beyond my understanding. Knowing that it must be painful, dehumanizing, and sickening. The Eight Amendment says” Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted” (Constitutions). And for the article Changing Views on\\e rate has gone down at a steady from the 1990 to now and that they death penalty is sometimes necessary, and it is our responsibility as a society to see that it is done.