The Pros and Cons of Capital Punishment Essay

Opposed on capital punishment. Capital punishment is also known as the death penalty, this is the most extreme of all the sentencing one can receive. In the US, capital punishment has been present since the establishment of the original colonies. It is especially for capital offenses; as in federal murder, treason, terrorism, espionage, and large scale drug trafficking. Everybody has an indisputable human right to life. This means even the people who commit murder. Sentencing someone to death and executing them violates this right we all have. Everyone believes that human life is valuable. Some of those against capital punishment believe that human life is so valued that even the worst killers should not be deprived of the value of their lives. These people believe that the value of the offender's life cannot and should not be destroyed by the criminal’s bad

According to capital punishment supporters, many of these reasons of the anti-death penalty movement are false and are now wrongly accepted as fact. The argument that the death penalty does not deter crime is debatable. By executing murderers you prevent them from murdering again. If these people no longer exist then they obviously cannot commit more crimes. In addition, criminals have admitted, in thousands of fully documented cases, that the death penalty was the specific threat which deterred them from committing murder (Pro-Death Penalty, 2014). The opponents of capital punishment claim that the death penalty has caused and can cause the execution of innocent people. However, according to the supporters, no evidence indicates that innocent people have been executed. Upon reviewing 23 years of capital sentences, a Wall Street Journal study indicated that they were unable to find a single case in which an innocent person was executed (Eddlem, 2002). Furthermore, advocates note that the

Everyone thinks human life is valuable. Some of those against capital punishment believe that human life is so valuable that even the worst murderers should not be deprived of the value of their lives.

Judge Arthur Alarcon and Prof. Paula Mitchell of California have recently done a study on capital punishment and the cost that it has had on the state of California. Their findings may shock some, California has spent $4 billion in the past thirty years to up keep the death penalty, and the average capital trial cost $1 million more than non-capital trials (Alarcon & Mitchell, 2011). Capital punishment is a legal process where the punishment for a crime is death. This is a concept that has been around for a long time. One of the earliest written documents that support capital punishment is Hammurabi’s Code with the theory of “an eye for an eye” (Mark, 2011). The topic of capital punishment has become a very controversial one in the past couple decades. Many people are against it, saying that it is a “cruel and unusual punishment” and those for it fight say what a great deterrence it can be. While capital punishment may have had a purpose in the past, in our modern society I believe it should be an obsolete practice.

Supporters of the capital punishment system penalty argue that when enforced, the death penalty saves lives. The fault placed into the opposing side for using the system with new trials to postpone execution. The problem with that argument is that in Florida, a total of twenty-five death row prisoners had been released due to erroneous convictions and were able to prove innocence, not a strong argument when lives are at risk.

“…Over 600 people were falsely convicted and 35 faced death for crimes that they did not commit…”(Johnson). The death penalty is an ineffective and expensive way of dealing justice to the American people. It is easier and cheaper to send someone to prison for life than to have them face the death penalty and be executed. Capital punishment is an unnecessary punishment because criminals are already managed at prisons.

There's a long history of capital punishment in the USA as it has been used since colonial times. The American constitution gives each state the right to govern over their own criminal laws. 31 states still have capital punishment and they use it on a number of crimes, including treason and crimes causing death, and use a number of different methods to kill those convicted of capital crimes. The death penalty has its supporters and opponents. Both groups have heated and emotional reasons for their point of view, plus, they each have their statistics to strengthen their argument. Additionally, each side uses the US Constitution to bolster their argument. Proponents use the Fifth Amendment which outlines the conditions for capital crimes. Opponents

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

Supporters of capital punishment also argue that it “hold society’s most vicious criminals accountable” (Muhlhausen). However, inmates are dying or natural causes before their execution date, so they are serving a life in jail rather than being sentenced to death. The system is also costing the taxpayers millions of dollars for justice that is not being served. Abolishing capital punishment would serve the justice that is intended, life without

In the world we as people live in violence. Violence has gotten so out of control that it has affected everyone. The one thing about violence is that it also leads to crimes. And crimes leads to some people being imprisoned, while others are put on death row. But if crimes are crimes, what makes them minor or major? Who decides if they are minor or major? Nowadays minor and major crimes are being pushed together. For example, someone gets shot and the shooter gets 5 years in prison. But if someone is raped it cannot be proven and the victim is left suicidal while the rapist goes about their day. Both are major crimes but one has a sentence and the other one does not. With this happening in the world it makes me wonder if we as the people

The Death Penalty. Immoral or moral; just or unjust? These are just a few of the questions people ask themselves when debating the Death Penalty which is arguably the most controversial topic of the United States today. Every time these words come up, we start yelling out our opinions on what we feel is right. Pro death penalty people shout deterrence across the room while the anti death penalty supporters shout about potentially killing an innocent man; some argue that is just and the murders deserve their punishment while others say we are murdering people too if we kill the suspect.

Money talks. In the pro capital punishment argument, supporters speak about the cost related to incarceration. In 1996, Martin Kasten published An Economic Analysis of the Death Penalty in which he stated, “Assuming annual incarceration costs are $17,957 and the average life expectancy for a death row inmate is 40 years in prison, the marginal benefit of executing one inmate is $415,071 when discounted at 3 percent over 40 years. When multiplying the benefit by 30, the approximate number of inmates executed every year, the death penalty saves $12,452,130 in reduced incarceration costs” (Kasten). These numbers were over twenty years ago, so imagine with all the inflation, that number is closer to three or four times that amount. This is the cost per inmate, now multiply this number by the thousands of prisoners in all fifty states. While the use of capital punishment is meant to be discretionary, just a few inmates sentenced to capital punishment have the potential to save the tax payers millions. Those for capital punishment don’t want the money they pay in taxes to go towards supporting the life of someone who has committed a crime; to them it is just providing the criminal with free room and board, access to healthcare and education programs in jail. To the people for capital punishment this isn’t really a punishment, sure the criminals are cut off from society but they have a staff catering to their potential

People are not against the death penalty, they want to see people get killed for their mistakes; (APW wrote: DP another way) "I am wondering if any of you who can support the death penalty, would be willing to push the buttons, or inject the poison to commit murder? They are murderers, and rapists and the like, so they kill. We are Children of God; we haven't the right to kill another soul. That is in the hands of God alone. We have the responsibility to keep these people away from others, and rehabilitate, if possible. That is all. Would any of you push that button?" It's hard to see us pass the law of murder, why should we make the same mistake they did.

Putting people to death for committing murder makes other potential murderers think twice about killing someone. Capital punishment deters many murders every day. If all that had to be done was spend life in jail, getting free meals, having a roof over their head, and place to sleep at night, then killing

Welcome to America, the land of the free, of the prosperous, of the opulent. America the Beautiful, one of the only places in the world where all citizens regardless of race, background, or social class are constitutionally guaranteed life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—that is unless you're on death row. In modern day America we are still faced with the antiquated ritual of capital punishment, a practice that interferes directly with the law of the land. The same forms of punishment used during the middle ages are still in effect today, the same ideas that should have been abolished had the U.S. government revised it's penology. Capital punishment is cruel as well as unusual and inadequate for our advanced society. The United