The Pros And Cons Of Capital Punishment

The death penalty, also frequently called capital punishment, is the executing for a crime. The most common crime referred to as “capital crime” is murder and specifically, murder in the first degree. Between 1892 and 1961, the death penalty was used in Canada and the result was death by hanging. The Parliament divided murder into capital and non-capital categories in 1962. It was not until 1976 that Parliament abolished the death penalty. The death penalty or capital punishment continues to be a controversial topic among many Canadians today. Canada, among many other countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and almost all European countries have abolished capital punishment. Others, however, such as the United States, China, Iran, and others preserve death penalty as an option. The death penalty should remain illegal as it is expensive, does not deter crime, and is immoral.

Mahatma Gandhi echoed the phrase, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” Capital punishment has been a process of punishment since time before Christ. Capital punishment or the death penalty, is the process of punishing, an individual, by execution for committing a crime. One moral theory to justify this process of punishment is cited in Mark Timmons’s book Disputed Moral Issues: A Reader. The consequentialist theory states, “A specific punishment for a certain crime is morally justified if and only if it would likely produce at least as much overall intrinsic value as would any other alternative punishment.” (Timmons, 535) However, this theory has multiple issues in justifying the death penalty, which would be consider a negative consequence. These issues are execution of innocent people, financial cost of executions, and the belief that executions are a deterrence.

     Capital punishment should be viewed as the stripping away of humanity from a person. The death penalty itself should be "executed" because of racial inequities, the concept of murder, the possibility of error, lack of deterrence, the cost, and an overwhelmed legal system. "The goal of capital punishment is revenge" (Introduction 1). Capital punishment is simply an outlet for the bloodlust of the American people (Introduction 1).

Death penalty, also known as a capital punishment, is a punishment that requires the government to kill or execute the convicted criminals. Death penalty was inherent feature in American history since the colonial era. Today, not all of the states practice the Death Penalty. As of July 1, 2015, there are 31 states with the Death Penalty and 19 states without the Death Penalty . Some states want to keep the Death Penalty to decrease the crime rate, but some states argue that there is no evidence that Death Penalty deters crime. People are still debating whether the US should or should not abolish the Death Penalty. Therefore, U.S. should not continue the Death Penalty due to the high percentage of wrongfully convicted people and moral issues.

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

Desmond Tutu once said, "To take a life when a life has been lost is revenge, not justice." This statement has many people questioning the type of “justice” that the federal government demonstrates. Capital punishment is easily defined as killing someone for committing a crime. Murder is the killing of one person by another. The only difference between an executioner and a murderer is that an executioner has “permission” from the law to take the life of another person. The United States of America has been executing people for crimes since the founding of the original colonies; however, how justifiable is each execution? Capital punishment is not an effective way of ensuring justice is done.

There are several controversies surrounding capital punishment. Some people are in favor of the death penalty and some people are against it. Capital punishment is the death penalty for a crime. It is not right to seek revenge on another person’s life, and we have the right to live. There should be justice for the crime but not take the life of the person that committed the crime. Many people are not aware of how wrong, painful, and costly an execution is, and above all, it is possible to kill innocent people.

There have been controversies on the topic of capital punishment and its role within the society. Capital punishment is interpreted as a person committing a crime and being punished by death through lethal injection or electrical stimulus for it. Capital punishment is also referred by the term death penalty. The government implement capital punishment to control the future would-be criminals. The supporters believe that capital punishment is the only way to make criminals suffer. On the other hand, the opponents think it is inhuman and against our morals. The debate between the two sides just goes on whether to retain it or not. As a matter of fact, capital punishment is suitable for some of the crimes, but it is inhuman, and government spent a lot on it. Therefore, it should be abolished.

Jesse Jackson once said, “Capital punishment turns the state into a murderer.” Capital punishment has been around for several hundred years, the first documented execution in America taking place in 1608, but more recently this form of punishment has been raising questions on its morality. While the form of execution has changed over the years, from firing squad to lethal injection, all forms succeed in their purpose: to kill. Support for capital punishment is still very strong in America, the reasons ranging from the fact that the death sentence deters crime, all the way to plain revenge, but recent polls show that a majority of Americans find the death penalty an unjust sentence. It is imperative that Americans open their eyes to the fact that capital punishment does nothing to deter crime, is a result of erroneous sentencing, and is the most basic definition of murder.

The argument on whether or not capital punishment should be used has long been an argument in the United States. I fully support the Capital punishment for many reasons. Capital punishment offers retribution for victims families, it acts as a deterrent to crimes, and gives criminals who commit horrible crimes a life sentence, which is a large burden on the state and taxpayers. The opposition claims do not hold up. The idea that Capital punishment is unconstitutional and is racially bias, is simply incorrect and not backed up by any facts.

People and courts often justify capital punishment as society’s moral duty to safeguard the safety and well-being of its citizens. According to Miriam-Webster, capital punishment is the practice of killing people as punishment for serious crimes. Murder is the unlawful killing of another human being. There is much controversy in the punishment of offenders who have committed murder. It is the maximum sentence a person can receive if the crime of murder is committed. Some would say it is inhumane and not a real punishment because the person cannot serve an experience punishment through death. Other perceive death as being just because of the belief in “Eye for an eye.” The pros and cons differ as to whether it is effective in

Capital punishment is a failed and outdated government practice. The death penalty denies citizens of civil liberties and is in direct conflict with the values of the democratic system. American citizens have fallen victim to the penalty of execution and it is time we demand action. For centuries capital punishment has been the subject for criticism; according to Deathpenalty.procon.org, back in the late seventeen hundreds an Italian Jurist name Beccaria, "The first prominent European to call for an end to the death penalty, Beccaria is considered the founder of the modern abolition movement. He published a prolific article about Crimes and Punishments; it was the first key study of the criminal justice system as it functioned in eighteenth-century Europe; it was also the first to call for the abolishment of capital punishment. It still stands as the greatest significant attack on the death penalty ever published. With that being said, today we are still going through this continuous battle to abolish capital punishment.

The United States has had the death penalty as a capital punishment since it first became a country. A lot has changed in this country in order to create a more justified and moral society. The death penalty is one more thing we need to change in our county to become a more just and civilized nation. The death penalty is morally and ethically wrong, and harms more than just those sentenced to death. It is ineffective, unreliable, and should not be continued.

The first recorded execution in colonial America was that of Capitan George Kendall in 1608. Since then, there have been over 16,000 executions in the United States. Over the years, execution have evolved from hanging, to electric chair, to firing squads, to the now preferred method of lethal injection. Still, there is a lot of controversy surrounding the subject. The idea of killing someone because of a crime that they committed is cruel to many, but others are heavily in favor for the punishment. In fact, many people do not understand that the death penalty is constitutional and effective form of punishment for criminals by eliminating their chance to ever commit the crime again, bringing peace to the victims and their families and exterminating the toxic people from the world.

America is one of the few western nations still using the death penalty to this day as a method of punishment for capital crime. Over 2,000 prisoners are on death row with their fates already determined (Andre, Velazquez) What makes the death penalty so complex, and that is noticed but sometimes disregarded, is the way prisoners are executed, the fact that some of these prisoners may be innocent and the racial disparities that can determine the reason for sentencing people to death. As prisoners wait to be executed, civil rights activists aim to get rid of the penalty by arguing against it for being unjust and immoral. The arguments for and against the penalty are compelling: capital punishment is regarded as unconstitutional as it goes against the 8th amendment of our nation’s constitution, it saves people by getting rid of a murderer or person who is just as bad as a killer, and it is in the best interest of the people for these convicts to not walk the streets we live in. Both groups, left and right, have a say in what they think about the issue, but so far no change has been done to fix it.