Why The Death Penalty Should Be Abolished

In this paper I will be discussing everything you need to know about the death penalty such as its pros and cons. While the innocent can be killed, the death penalty has its pros because it prevents them from killing again if they are released or have escaped from prison, it helps overpopulated prisons, and it can help victims’ families get justice and closure. Not only can the innocent be killed, but in the past the death penalty was very inhumane. To some its feels right but to others they feel like 2 wrongs don’t make a right. Most people think that the defendant deserves the death penalty, but what does the defendants’ family think?

Death is something that a lot of people think about, but do people think about the Death Penalty? Having been given the death penalty means that someone is going to be put to death by a lethal injection or an electric chair; There are more ways, but the injection and the electric chair are the most used. There are many different opinions surrounding the idea of death penalties; which some people think the death penalty should be used more and some believe the complete opposite.

In Kellow Chesney's book The Victorian Underworld illustrates that the Victorians tried to use the death penalty as a means of controlling criminal elements in forms of hangings, lethal injection,Electrocution, and firing squads in order to prevent crime( the victorian underworld). in Victorian times, the death penalty was used as a means of controlling. There should be abolishment of this because of the countless innocent men and women being put to death for the stated purpose of preventing crime out of fear. So There should not be a death penalty because it violates human rights, it does not deter crime, and is a cruel and unusual punishment.

The world is constantly evolving for the better and the worse, with this being said, not only will good come out of it but new evils will arise. We can’t stop the world from changing, but we can decide how we handle it. The death penalty should be legalized all around the world. The death penalty not only diminishes threats to society but it also brings closure to those who are grieving. In the United States alone, the death penalty is not legal in all 50 states, therefore overrunning the prisons with unnecessary bodies. Due to this, there has been an overall increase in the gang activity within state and federal prison. The death penalty shows that violent, brutal, and heinous crimes will not be tolerated and the offenders will be punished to the highest extent. Execution should be used as the highest form of punishment by the means of a rightful conviction.

"Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought. Every murder perpetrated by ... any … kind of willful, deliberate, malicious, and premeditated killing ... from a premeditated design unlawfully and maliciously to effect the death of any human being other than him who is killed, is murder in the first degree." (Cornell) First-degree murder is very clear in its definition in US law. On the fateful night of November 14, 1959, Perry Edward Smith and Richard Eugene Hickock seemed to have completely disregarded that very law when they made the decision to murder the innocent Clutter family after a planned robbery attempt and murder for cover up. Herbert and Bonnie Clutter and two of their children, Nancy and Kenyon Clutter, were brutally slain that night only for a total gain of fifty dollars for the killers. For the brutal murders of the Clutter family, Perry Smith and Richard Hickock should undoubtedly be punished by receiving the death penalty.

Should killers live to take another life? If we let the felons live, what will stop them from getting that rush or thrill of murder again? It is important that we take murderers off this planet for the safety of future generations to come. This is where the death penalty comes into place. What type of feelings would you encounter knowing your children were in danger on a daily basis? We are capable of putting certain people away for our safety. The death penalty may be expensive, but it should stand nationwide on the grounds that it lowers crime rates and it is justified.

The eighth amendment of the united states constitution states: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted” this amendment correlates directly with the death penalty given what this statute entails. The rising question is whether the death penalty should or should not be inflicted given the amendment's purpose. In the beginning of the unit I felt strongly for no death penalty for a couple of factors. One factor in my preconceived opinion of the death penalty was the risk that the person could be innocent, and put to death for no reason. Another factor that i took into account was the extent to which the death penalty is cruel or in other words unusual. After hearing and depicting

Have you ever thought of someone murdering a family member? If so would you want them to be on death row? Putting someone on death row creates another murderer which is why the death penalty should NOT be allowed.

In a perfect world, there might not be any “victims” of the death penalty, but a simple, accidental house fire was all it took for one man’s life to take a tragic turn onto death row. There he was, bound to a metal chair, sitting lifelessly with both arms hanging down his sides, a victim of the death penalty. He pleaded his innocence throughout the entire case. For many months, he had pleaded to everyone including prosecutors, jury, and lawyers, to see that it must have been an accident, but no one believed him. He was found guilty for spreading flammable liquids through the house and setting the house on fire, murdering all three of his children, and was sentenced to death. Years later, when the same researchers studied the fire more thoroughly,

The death penalty is quite a controversial subject, and for good reason, with news headlines such as “5 of 6 candidates for California governor oppose death penalty”, this one being from the San Francisco Chronicle, coming up everywhere. There is more to it than just political candidates making a stance on the subject to help appeal to voters. Out of the fifty states, thirty-one support the death penalty, while four have a governor-imposed moratorium, which suspends the death penalty until events warrant the need for it to be imposed again. With capital punishment being such a hot topic, many people are either for it or against it. Those who are against it may consider it unconstitutional and error prone. Well, that is not necessarily the case because the death penalty has many pros. In fact, the death penalty helps deter future criminals, has a lower cost compared to life without parole (LWOP) for criminals, and executions are humane.

I feel that the death penalty was and is a very effective form of punishment. The death penalty is the punishment of execution, administered to someone legally convicted of a capital crime. I also feel that the death penalty should be practiced in all fifty states and be the punishment for more crimes.Since 1976 there has been over fourteen hundred deaths caused by the death penalty. I also feel that if we see the ability to get the punishment at lower standards such as for rappings or for harder drug cases, then we will see that the crime rate will drop. I feel that this would be worth it even though each death penalty case cost about three million dollars a piece.

“A clear majority of voters (61%) would choose a punishment other than the death penalty for murder, including life with no possibility of parole…” (DPIC, 2017). More than half of the population in the United States is classified as being religious. Religion is a delicate topic because of how people feel towards it, presenting a very loyal and intense belief, no matter what religion. Whether the death penalty be abolished or supported, if religion taken into consideration; there is a strong belief that though it may be the capital crime, death penalty should not be an option. There are five forms of death penalty in the in United States, in most countries lethal injection is the primary method, as for the second options include electrocution, lethal gas, firing squad, and only in Washington; hanging. Death penalty is a commonly asked question of whether it is good or bad, considering three significant points being that millions are spent; discrimination and a gamble; misconduct, perjury and false accusations are all matters to believe that the death penalty is ludicrous.

Occasionally, we are faced with moral dilemmas that force us to decide whether our absolute laws should really be unquestioned. The death penalty is the law put into question for this situation. People who are deemed mentally deficient are still susceptible to the death penalty, but there is a question as to whether the death penalty should really be applied against such people. In the journal by Philip Fougerousse, mental retardation, or deficiency, is defined in three parts, “first is subaverage intellectual functioning; second is significant limitations in adaptive skills (e.g., communication, self-care, and self-direction); and third, [is that] the symptoms must have manifested before the age of 18 years” (2003). With this definition in mind, the habits and demeanor of those diagnosed as mentally retarded differ from everyday individuals. As such the question comes to mind as to whether the death penalty should be applied to the mentally retarded. If they commit a crime, in which the death penalty is the consequence, should they be completely held accountable, if their mental retardation causes them to not understand that they are doing wrong? You could compare this to a child not understanding what they did wrong, and being punished severely without ever learning. Consequently, someone judged to be mentally retarded, should not be punished with the death penalty due to their lack of understanding, but should face different consequences.

Envision a close family member or friend, they just died, you are grieving and feel like the world is going to collapse, then months pass so you find yourself becoming content with them being dead but you find out that they died for no reason. That emotion is what hundreds of family members or friends have to come into contact with when they are involved with a person who was accused of committing a crime, so they faced the death penalty. The death penalty also known as capital punishment is used as a punishment in the United Stated for crimes involving murder. If the defendant is found guilty then by law a judge can order for that person to be executed. While some argue that capital punishment sometimes makes mistakes, is morally wrong, and is expensive due to lengthy trials, others believe that by implying it will decrease crime rate.

Is the death penalty really the answer? Even though the criminal deserves the punishment of death, it is not always what a person deserves because death is the easy way out of the crime and the methods of killing are cruel. Some people feel that the Death Penalty should be broadened to cases such as rape, child molesters, etc.