The Pros And Cons Of Capital Punishment

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 vast majority of Americans have a rational and firm position concerning capital punishment, regardless of which position they hold. The supporters of capital punishment adamantly state it serves as a crime deterrent, while serving justice for our society and is morally right. Whereas the opponents believe that capital punishment is racially bias towards African Americans and other that other forms of punishment can be used without the government taking human life, and is immorally wrong. I personally think capital punishment is it is a vital part of our United States criminal justice system, just as it was in the Old Testament. The Old Testament states that it was a major element of the justice system in Israel. “Justice in God’s eyes requires that the response to an offense, whether against God or against humanity, be balanced. The lex talionis (“law of the talion”) served as a restraint, a limitation, to ensure the punishment would be no greater than the crime” (Colson, 2017).

Each year there are around 250 people added to death row and 35 executed. The death penalty is the most severe method of penalty enforced in the United Sates today. Once a jury has condemned a criminal of a crime they go to the following part of the trial, the punishment phase. If the jury recommends the death penalty and the judge coincides, then the criminal will face some form of execution. Lethal injection is the most common process of execution used today. There was a period from 1971 to 1975 that capital punishment was governed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The reason for this conclusion was that the death penalty was considered cruel and unusual punishment under the eighth amendment. The decision was overturned when new methods of execution were introduced. Capital punishment is a difficult topic and there are many different views such as its deterrent value, the religious aspect, the cost of death vs. the cost of life in prison, the morality, the social issues, and the legal considerations.

In response to the protests against capital punishment, supporters of the law have been outspoken about the positive economic and social effects it has on the nation. Victims’ rights activists, traditionalists, and 80% of the Republican Party is in favor of capital punishment. Victim’s rights activists believe that families of victims that were murdered should be able to decide whether or not the killer deserves to live or die because they took that right away from their family member. Traditionalists have the mindset that execution has been around as long as we can remember, so why change something that has worked? And the states in the southern region are more conservative, and majority of the states in that region are the ones that still have capital punishment in place.

The history of the death penalty, or capital punishment dates all the way back to colonial times, when the Europeans came to the new world. One of the first executions on record was Captain George Kendall in 1612. Kendall was executed for being a spy for Spain.

For hundreds of years, capital punishment has been the solution to crimes committed by the people of the United States and many other countries which leads to an endless debate on whether the death penalty should exist or should be abolished. Many people may support the death penalty because the convicted will get what they deserve. On the contrary, those who oppose the death penalty bring up the reasoning of the wrongly convicted. The clash of these debates has created a large amount of controversy.

There are vast differences in the way people view capital punishment. Some view it as a deterrent, and some view it as sanctioned murder. Capital punishment has been a part of society for hundreds and hundreds of years. Recently, as society has become more civilized, capital punishment has been questioned and asked if it is the right way to handle crime. This subject is highly controversial. Both sides’ thoughts on whether capital punishment is right or wrong are highly based on morality and opinions. This essay’s main goal is to show the factual and statistical sides of these arguments.

The world is stimulated by conflict, debate, arguments, we gain our knowledge because people don’t always agree on everything. A topic that the American people have been tackling for years is the topic of capital punishment or the death penalty. Abolish the Death Penalty, a debate on a notion that could affect the way the America would punish its criminals. This notion was debated by four qualified individuals Diann Rust-Tierney, Barry Scheck, Robert Blecker, and Kent Scheidegger.

Most opponents of the death penalty abhor it for ethical and moral reasons. However, it is not unreasonable to think that some would oppose it in order to facilitate punishments in a different manner. One example of this would be David Zink who in 2001 abducted, sexual assaulted, and the murdered a 19 year old girl in a gruesome act of violence. Only in 2015 was he given the death sentence where he would be lethally injected in accordance with Missouri laws. Before his execution though his final words were:

Capital punishment is one of the most highly debated topics int he United States. In summary, Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the United States, currently being used by the federal government and thirty-one states. This form of punishment was brought into existence all the way back to the American colonies. Consequently, not very many countries still use this method making the United States the only Western country currently applying the death penalty. Only fifty-seven countries worldwide still practice it. The United States was the first to develop lethal injection, the most popular form of execution, which has since been adopted by five other countries. The public opinion continuously sways back and forth on if the death penalty is constitutional or not.

The United States Constitution was based on the principles of what was right. It presented a radical new system of government, to right the wrongs of the past, to create a more perfect society. However, the Constitution has led to many disagreements on its interpretation. In the case of capital punishment, while the Constitution does not explicitly outline its practice, it offers insight to how such systems should be excluded from American Society. For this reason, the death penalty clearly acts in violation of multiple amendments that protect American citizens. As the death penalty violates the 5th, 6th, 8th, and 14th Amendments, it is an unconstitutional practice that should be outlawed.

The majority of states in America resorts to the death penalty; nonetheless there is a trend toward abolishing capital punishment. As of two thousand seventeen there are nineteen states that have abolished the death penalty as a form of punishment for various reasons. Over the years the death penalty has cost the US millions. This punishment violates our Human Rights and evidently does not deter crime as some people may believe. The death penalty is permanent and does not allow a possibility of rehabilitation; taking someone’s life away cannot be justified. The system is flawed for many reasons, some of which are incompetent lawyers, disparities amongst minorities, and wrongful convictions. The death penalty is awfully ineffective on the grounds of being ethical, cost effective, or a deterrent to crime.

Capital punishment has been a sentence for many years, but it dates back to Eighteenth Century B.C. During this time there was 25 crimes that could be committed that would result in the death penalty. The most common forms of the Capital Punishment were hanging, beheading, stoning, and other vicious forms of death(https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/part-i-history-death-penalty). Eventually Capital Punishment was reinstated, which only sentenced criminals to death in the case of “ aircraft hijacking… a drug-related drive-by shooting, murder during a kidnapping, murder for hire, and genocide”(https://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=004927). There is of course plenty of other capital offenses that will result in the death penalty, but these are the most common. With this sentence comes quite a few drawbacks when it comes to the political side of it. To understand what the most significant issues political leaders face when it comes to Capital punishment, first it’s crucial to know what Capital punishment is. Capital punishment, also known as the Death Penalty, is a terminal punishment given by the state, and is sentenced to someone who has been convicted of an intensely cruel criminal offense. Capital Punishment is an intricate issue, but the main questions imposed are what is the problem, how does it directly affect the political process, and why its more significant than other worldly issues?

What in the world would be the punishment for the most brutal killers beside the death penalty? Historically, people have been murdering people mostly because of either how popular they are or how wealthy they are. Such as In In Cold Blood, the author stated that the two killers killed the entire family in one night intentionally just because of hatred or thievery. The judges of the court must give Dick and Perry Smith the death penalty because the most brutal killers should be eliminated in order to assure that one day these killers cannot come out of prison and commit another crime.

Capital punishment is the killing of a person, legally, as a punishment for a crime committed. Most of the time, people have a hard time deciding whether to be for or against capital punishment. Some people, like myself, think that the punishment depends on how bad the crime committed was. Should capital punishment be illegal or legal?