The Pros And Cons Of The Death Penalty

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 the debate over capital punishment, the opponents argue that capital punishment should not be practiced because it has a civilizing effect and practicing capital punishment has do deterrent effect. On the other side of the debate, the supporters argue that capital punishment should not be abolished because it is just retribution and has a deterrent effect. In this paper, I will argue that capital punishment should not be practiced.

The Death Penalty is the punishment of execution to someone who legally by court of law convicted a capital crime. In the United States of America this is mainly used for aggravated murder. Additionally this means that the murder has circumstances that are severe. For instance it was planned murder, intentionally killed below the age of 13, killed someone while serving term in prison, killed a law officer, and killed someone or illegally terminated a person’s pregnancy while in the process of committing, trying to commit or escaping after the act of rape, kidnapping, aggravated arson, arson, robbery, aggravated robbery, burglary, aggravated burglary, terrorism, or trespass. The death penalty is balanced between pros and cons, where it

The death penalty has become a heavily debated topic in society, due to the uncertainty of its moral context. Supporters of the death penalty reason that those who have committed blameworthy crimes should have their lives go worse as a result of their actions. They believe in retribution. Protestors of the death penalty believe that it is counterproductive. They say that by legalizing the behavior that the law is trying to prevent, which is killing, they are being hypocritical. William Baude’s article raises the question of whether or not the death penalty is constitutional. The death penalty has plenty of ethical, legal, and moral matters associated with it. The moral dilemma of the death penalty can be viewed from deontological and utilitarian perspectives. Both theories allow the death penalty to be a morally acceptable punishment, but the difference is the reason behind each theory.

"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.

The death penalty has always been a very popular debate and, whether or not, it should be abolished. People have shared their reasons why they are against the death penalty. First, it is very hypocritical. Second, it is always cruel. Third, “prison is hell on earth”. Finally, it teaches

Olin Professor of jurisprudence and public policy at Fordham University in New York City published his article “Capital Punishment Saves Innocent Lives” expressing his opinion as a death penalty supporter. Ernest van den Haag was a conservative commentator of social issues, especially in the study of crime. He is also one of America’s foremost proponents of the death penalty (Eric, 2002). Errnest van den Haag was born in 1914, after receiving his M.A. in economics in 1942, he received his Ph.D. in economics from New York University in 1952. He authored several books and contributed hundreds of articles regarding different social issues. Ernest van den Haag died in 2002 (Taglianetti,

What effects Death Punishment causes to society? My first instinct about the topic as a part of the society was “People, who private another person of his life, should not have any right to conserve his own life either”. Putting ourselves in the positions of the victims, the families’ victims and the fear caused to` society in general.

Nancy Reagan, once said, “I think people would be alive today if there were a death penalty.” The death penalty needs to be looked at, reviewed, revised, and kept. There are flaws in the system, but every system has flaws. Keeping the death penalty will show criminals that their are consequences to the crimes they commit. By executing a murderer it could save countless lives. There are many reasons someone might be executed and these reasons are looked at carefully.There are different types of execution: hanging, lethal injection, firing squad, electrocution, and lethal gas. The death penalty should stay but be revised, it could save lives, it could prevent crimes, it could prevent overcrowding in prisons, and closure for the family and friends who lost their loved ones from heinous crimes.

Everyday an inmate is taken to death row, or the punishment is threatened. Consequently, over half of the United States carry out one of the five main methods of execution - the most common being lethal injection. The approximate number of states using the death penalty is thirty-one (“What’s New”) As of October 25, 2017, there were eight executions still in progress before the end of the year - twenty-one executions have already been carried out in the year 2017 (“What’s New”). Every year less death penalties take place; however, lethal injection is an unethical method, and is a practice of humiliation. The death penalty is an unconstitutional and immoral punishment that should be banned in all states as a use of penalization.

Criminals are sadly a part of our society and have been since the beginning of time, and it is our job as members of society to make sure the criminals are punished for breaking the law. One way of punishing victims is sentencing them to death. This cruel punishment is known as the death penalty and it is defined as when the government takes the life of a person as punishment for the crime the individual has committed. For thousands of years, the death penalty was an acceptable form of punishment, but over the course of a hundred years, it has become less acceptable and for a good reason. The death penalty has been abolished in many countries including, Canada and England while it is still legal in the United States and China. Within the United States, each state has the right to decide whether or not they proceed with the death penalty and a majority of the states still have the death penalty in place. The death penalty has become a less acceptable form of punishment because it has many downfalls and it should be abolished in America.

¨I will admit, like Socrates and Aristotle and Plato and some other philosophers, that there are instances where the death penalty seems appropriate¨ (Kevorkian). In the eighteenth century the death penalty was established by King Hammurabi. Back then the death penalty was the only punishment for a crime. Drowning, beating and burning where some of the methods that were used. This paper contains the history, positives and negatives of capital punishment. Today, society is torn between whether capital punishment is cruel and should not be used or that it is effective in todays world.

“I don’t think you should support the death penalty to seek revenge. I don’t think thats right. I think the reason to support the death penalty is because it saves other people’s lives.” George W. Bush. The death penalty is a very debatable topic, both sides seeing two different views of putting people to death because of crimes they committed. People who are for the death penalty have an opinion that someone killed someone and they should be killed because it could save more lives, or that they put someone through that so they should be put through it. The other side sees it and they know that it costs less to keep them alive then to kill them, and that they don’t want their families to suffer because their loved one was executed. Both of these opinions are very valid and you cannot say one is correct and the other is wrong or vice versa, but many more variables come into effect with this topic.

The death penalty is a form of punishment that is not used as often as one may think. Even though most of the American population is not personally affected by the death penalty, the friends and families of victims see it as a form of justice for their lost loved ones. From 1976 to the present there have been over 1,400 inmates executed after being put on death row (Baker, 1). The death penalty is an expensive style of punishment, costing around 470,000 dollars more in cases that consider capital punishment as an option compared to the cases that do not (Erb, 1). With most of that extra cost being paid by state taxes, there are other government funded programs that would experience a loss of support if the death penalty is used frequently. The U.S. National Government should ban the death penalty for economical reasons.