Pros And Cons Of The Death Penalty

Legal executions in Californian were authorized under the criminal practice act of 1851 and later lead capital punishment to be incorporated into the penal code on Feb. 14, 1872. Essentially, hanging was allowed to be implemented and caused executions to be publicized. In 1937, legislature allowed lethal gas which effectively replaced hanging and lead to the building of the only lethal gas chamber in the state of California at San Quentin. The first execution by lethal gas was conducted in 1938 and the continued use of lethal gas lasted through 1967. A total of 194 people were executed by lethal gas, all at San Quentin and included the execution of four women. Twenty-five years after 1967, the number of executions in California halted due to various state and United States Supreme Court decisions, effectively allowed the death penalty to be reviewed.

California has executed just 10 inmates since it restored capital punishment in 1978. In that same period, 38 death row inmates have died of other causes: three were killed by other prisoners, a dozen committed suicide and the rest died of natural causes (www.deathpenalty.org) According to California law, all death penalty appeals are heard by the Supreme Court. It is more likely that an inmate, who is sentenced to death, will sit on death row for more than five years before he is appointed an attorney for his first and mandatory appeal to the California Supreme Court.

The death penalty has been battered backwards and forwards by the questions of abolishment and replacement, with mixed results. There seems to a jagged line in the sand on where people stand, and due to the continuous use today (albeit at a slower clip than in the past), it is still very much a prevalent topic of punishment. Those who argue for it believe that taking it away will take away a great deterrent, that families find peace, and that those who commit egregious crimes deserve only death. Anything less “would fail to do justice because the penalty – presumably a long period in prison – would be grossly disproportionate to the heinousness of the crime” (“Top 10 Pro & Con Arguments,” 2016). Those who don’t believe in this punishment as a modern-day, useful tool of deterrence and punishment for crime, continuously counter these arguments, as well as any others, daily at every turn. Though many states have made it illegal, others placing moratoriums or refusals to use it, the death penalty can still be found active today. But why can’t it be replaced with life without parole, and it if can why should it?

The legal executions first started in California when it was under the Practices Act in 1851. Then in February 14th 1872 it was put in the Penal Code. Capital punish in counties continued until an amendment by the legislature in 1891 said that it could only happen in the State Prisons picked by the court. The first state execution in California happens on March 3rd 1893 at San Quentin and the first one in Folsom was on December 13th 1895. In the 1937’s the legislature decided that instead of hanging people they were going to use lethal gas. This did not affect the people that were already sentenced to be hanged and the last hanging was in December 3rd 1937 at Folsom and the last hanging in Quentin was hold on May 1st 1942.

The death penalty is “death as a punishment given by court of law for very serious crimes. It is also referred to as capital punishment” (Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, 2017). In other words, if a person commits a crime that their government, State and/or Federal, considers a capital offence then that person is susceptible to receive a death sentence as punishment for

Death penalty is the last torment for criminals who committed a capital crime, like murder or assault. Although majority of the states – precisely 34 states in total – are among the list of the death penalty states, some states still consider executions as unethical and extremely brutal. Throughout the decades, a few cases constitute cruel and unusual punishment. In the article, “Death penalty now cruel and unusual,” James Fox stated that the execution of Joseph Rudolph Wood, a double-murder convict, constitute cruel and unusual for the reason that Wood’s execution by lethal injection took two hours when the lethal injection procedure should have only taken ten minutes. In addition to the unusually long execution, Wood revealed signs of extreme pain during the execution (Fox). Moreover, United States District Court declared California’s lethal injection protocol unconstitutional after a painful execution in 2006 (PLoS Medicine Editors). Painful deaths constitute cruel and unusual

The death penalty is used when the criminal has crimes such as terrorism, federal murder, and large scale drug trafficking. The those that have committed these crimes need more than just a quick easy exit. Spending a lifetime in prison will allow the offender to become a victim of mental health issues such as major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and dysthymia. Suffering from these types of disorders is a punishment beyond the cruelty of death. Not dying during an execution is absurd but it has happened, there is a 3.15% of the death sentence failing. There have been 276 botched executions, leaving the criminal in a fatal and gruesome state.

The death penalty also known as capital punishment ,happens when the court makes the decision to put a prisoner on death row. Soon it will be the prisoner's time to be executed. On Deathpenaltyinfo.org they show the top five execution methods. #1 is lethal injection (injecting poisons into the bodies, #2 is electrocution A.K.A the electric chair, #3 is the gas chamber, #4 is where prisoners are strapped to a chair while executioners use them to practice shooting, finally #5 is hanging but the prisoners are normally injected first.

In California, capital punishment is a debatable issue. 1960s, the “NAACP and LDF considered that many African Americans were profound for capital punishments. It was improper since California is known as diverse and a democratic state. Many believed that it was unlawful and inefficient. As of 1960s, many innocent were involved in capital punishment; and all of them were given housing, counseling, and even their basic needs. In other words, penalizing people of lifetime prison is more cost-effective.

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,

Kill the killer! The death penalty should be allowed in all 50 states because the death penalty deters crime, helps with overcrowding, the bible says it is okay, and helps the victims’ families.

There was a ban put on the death penalty in mid 1972,(Furman v. Georgia (1972)), I remember people talking about the ban and how the justice system was failing everyone. This was short lived as the ban was lifted in 1977, (Gary Gilmore v Utah, 1977). When the ban lifted the execution of Gilmore by a firing squad, his choice of execution, in the State of Utah. The ban was again in effect from 2007 to 2008, then lifted again. There are several hundreds of people on death row and since the ban was lifted only 13 people have been executed in the State of California. That does not seem to be a huge number that have been executed based on the total amount of people on death row.

The question and the debate around the world continues, should the death penalty be legal? Should the government be able to execute the ultimate punishment if an individual commit acts and crimes as violent as they come, or should he/she be given a second chance at life? The death penalty is an issue that has the United States quite divided. While there are many supporters of it, there is also a large amount of opposition. Currently, there are thirty-one states in which the death penalty is legal and nineteen states that have abolished it. If carefully observed and looked at the lives at stake, the death penalty should be legal throughout the nation as it represents deterrence, retribution, and morality while opposing arguments do not hold up. All in all, death penalty should be issued because death is feared, it gives justice, and it gets rid of criminals in society to make it a better place for everyone.

Often on popular crime show the phrase “awaiting death row”. After looking at some of the statistics the numbers were quite surprising. The grand total of people on death row as of April 2017 is two thousand eight hundred and forty-three (“Death Row Prisoners by State” 2017). That is a lot for only fifty states. Most countries around the world have eliminated the death penalty. The number that is even more shocking is the size of death row each year and how much it fluctuates. The number awaiting death row is quite alarming because

Since the eighteenth century kings and queens have used execution as a form of punishment. During that time people would be executed in many different ways, some more creative than others but all for one purpose. The most popular types of execution were beheadings, being hanged, or stoned (in which rocks were thrown at the individual, not the other fun one) to death. These punishments were given to only the most serious crimes such as adultery, witchcraft, treason, or even stealing food. Nowadays, this form of punishment is still existent but known as the death penalty. People are no longer stoned to death (unless it is the fun kind but that’s on their own time) but are dealt with in a less cruel manner, although it did take some time to develop a less cruel way to take a person's life because the gas chamber and the electrical chair aren’t the best ways to go. The less cruel way to do it now is with the lethal injection where three drugs are used one is to induce unconsciousness, the other to cause muscle paralysis and respiratory arrest, and the last to stop the heart. Although it was developed so it would no longer be cruel and an unusual punishment, the death penalty is still a widely controversial topic.