Why Capital Punishment Is Wrong?

In the article, Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault, he describes a social theory called panopticism. In Foucault’s panopticism he talks about the panopticon, an architectural plan that was created by Jeremy Bentham. The Prison structure of the twenty first century uses that same building design as the panopticon. We see how the plague town in the Panopticism shows a chain of authority. Prisons in the twenty first century use the same style of chain of authority in their correctional institutes. The panopticon brings out a lot of mental effect to the prisoners when they are sent into the cell. Prisoners in today 's society society go through the same mental effects of inmates in the Panopticon. The ideas of panopticism are relevant to the development of the twenty first century through building structure, a chain of authority command, guard surveillance, and mental effects that prisoners go through.

Often, when a criminal is sentenced to the death penalty for committing a murder, people begin to question the legality and morality of it, and try to defend or attack it. One of the first few things that come to mind when people try to defend the death penalty is the statement, “an eye for an eye,” or the principle of lex talionis, meaning we treat people the way they have treated others (Textbook, 538). Although this argument is well-backed up, it does not always prove to be the best principle when determining the type of punishment, one deserves. Stephen Nathanson, an abolitionist to the death penalty, discusses this idea in his article “An Eye for and Eye,” specifically within his argument stating that equality retributivism does not justify the death penalty and that it should be rejected (Textbook, 539). Equality retributivism, which is the idea that we penalize criminals with punishments that are equal to their crimes, serves as a great principle for some crimes but not all. I find this statement, along with Nathanson’s argument, to be true because not all crimes can have a punishment equal to it. Throughout this paper, I will discuss Nathanson’s argument, some objections raised, and lastly, whether the objection succeeds or not.

Panopticism, a social theory based on Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon and developed by Michel Foucault describes a disciplinary mechanism used in various aspects of society. Foucault’s Discipline and Punish discusses the development of discipline in Western society, looks in particularly at Bentham’s Panopticon and how it is a working example of how the theory is employed effectively. Foucault explains, in Discipline and Punish that ‘this book is intended as a correlative history of the modern soul and of a new power to judge’ (Foucault, 1977) and opens with accounts of public execution and torture revealing how law and order is created because of the shift from these to prison rules and discipline. Foucault describes the quarantining and

Whether the capital punishment, the legal punishment that deprives an individual’s life, is constitutional, moral or necessary is constantly debated. Although the United States maintain the retentionist view of capital punishment that executes hundreds of criminals each year, many revolutionists are challenging our current legal system and trying to abolish the use of capital punishment. In this paper, I will discuss the theory of the capital punishment, and the controversial points of the abolitionist and retentionist debate. Siding with abolitionist argument, I will be presenting my arguments beginning with retentionist view, then move into abolitionist rejection. I will also argue against the

In the United States there are currently thirty one states that still practice Capital Punishment leaving the remaining nineteen states with death penalty bans such as the state of New York. The authors moral compose dictates a personal position that regardless of what actions a person takes against another, even if it is violent in nature, all life is precious and being put to death as a penalty is not an option. In line with the abolitionist view “Retribution is uncivilized” and putting someone to death cannot bring back the victim or in any meaningful way repay the victims loved ones(Souryal,

The intent of this paper is to share the views of those who oppose capital punishment. I, for one, am part of the majority that is in support of the death penalty. I am in agreeance of the old saying of “An eye for an eye”. The death penalty is one of the most controversial issues in our criminal justice system. There is an increase in opposition against the death penalty, not only in the United States. Many Americans feel that capital punishment is wrong. It is hard for people to fathom the idea of putting someone else to death. It is not the physical mechanics involved in executions that are hard to handle. It is the emotions involved in carrying out the process. Many feel that the death penalty violates the eight Amendment of a

Prison: The prison develops from this idea of discipline; it aims both to deprive the individual of his freedom and to reform him. The penitentiary is the next development and it combines the prison with the workshop and the hospital. The penitentiary replaces the prisoner with the delinquent where it is created as a response to changes in popular illegality, in order to marginalize and control popular behavior. In his writing, the eighteenth century saw various calls for reform of punishment; the reformers, according to Foucault, were not motivated by a concern for the welfare of prisoners. But rather they wanted to make power operate more efficiently. “The prison, that darkest region in the apparatus of justice, is the place where the power

The man, that hasn’t done anything wrong, is put to death. Convicted for the killing three people he didn’t even know but, yet they still believe it was him. Though there was very little evidence. Before the man was strapped to the gurney he mumbles a few simple words “ I thank,you mother. For giving me the life that I have lived.” within a few minutes the man is dead from three doses of three different substance.The man accepted his fate. This year let alone six states killed people on death row with Texas killing the most, thirteen people. The US sees it as a way to get rid of the criminals who have destroyed everyone hopes and dreams, but the way some people see it is more sentimental. The way they believe is that the will pay for their

The Founding Fathers had in mind that no man ought to be subject to “cruel and unusual punishment”. However, taken out of context nearly 250 years later, the notion of capital punishment may seem both cruel and unusual. The death penalty for capital crimes has stirred not only moral and religious ,but poses an economic issue as well. Opponents of the death penalty cite that Lex talionis, or the idea that one ought to retaliate for wrongs done, is an idea gone and has no place in a new civilized society. Also they does an eye an eye make the whole world blind. The death penalty is a barbaric and inefficient way of punishing criminals. In many areas of the country, the death system of appeals and trials makes up 60-80% of the total criminal

Burgess, Regehr & Roberts (2013), lamented “The Bill of Rights, ratified in 1791, controlled the use of capital punishment by prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment in the Eighth Amendment” (p. 175). The justice system has valid alternatives to the death penalty, such as life imprisonment without parole, that constitute adequate punishment even for the most repugnant crimes. Moreover, it is dangerous to engage in ethical equivalencies and hierarchically rank human beings; the point should not be to judge whose life is more vulnerable, but rather to affirm that all human life must be valued. A system that ends a human existence cannot stand in a righteous and just society. The solution is for the justice system to provide remedy to victims, not vengeance. Moreover, this view fails to give due credence to the reality that the death penalty system has not been and cannot be proven to be a successful deterrent, is more expensive than relevant alternatives because of the appellate process, is subject to human error, and is often riddled with economic and racial bias in its application. The irrevocable nature of the death penalty renders it an unsustainable and indefensible remedy in an imperfect justice system. What should be done to the death penalty is not an intellectual exercise. The death penalty can divide and damage families, due to the fact that death is final and because individuals have deeply held feelings about the morality and utility of executions, unlike any other punishment the death penalty creates irreconcilable conflict amongst the surviving family members of murder

Capital Punishment is defined by the legal authorization to kill someone as a punishment for a crime (Dictionary.com). The death penalty is an inhumane form of punishment that dates back to the fifth century B.C. While the death penalty used to be administered in unthinkable ways such as tearing people from limb to limb, tar and feathering, being boiled alive and even forced to drink boiling metals; it has evolved overtime as lethal injection and electrocution (forcechange.com). Although the way that the death penalty is done has changed to more modern times, it is still just as the definition reads as killing someone, and that is still wrong for many reasons.

   Old Sparky and Gruesome Gertie (affectionate names for the electric chair) have taken the lives of many, even the innocent (Finnerty 18). They are prejudiced and lack compassion. However, many Americans believe that they represent justice. Capital punishment does not represent justice, but vengeance and hate. Among the 7,000 people estimated to have been killed in the United States between 1900 and 1985, at least 23 were innocent (Finnerty 18). In at least 8 of 261 executions performed since 1976, something went wrong; for example, the executioner couldn't find a good vein, or the first jolt of electricity failed to do the trick (Finnerty 18). An innocent person, let alone 23 that

Michel Foucault is a very famous French intellectual who practiced the knowledge of sociology. Foucault analyzed how knowledge related to social structures, in particular the concept of punishment within the penal system. His theory through, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, is a detailed outline of the disciplinary society; in which organizes populations, their relations to power formations, and the corresponding conceptions of the subjects themselves. Previously, this type of punishment focused on torture and dismemberment, in which was applied directly to bodies. Foucault mentions through his literary piece, “the soul is the effect and instrument of a political anatomy: the soul is the prison of the body (p.30). However, today, the notion of punishment involves public appearances in a court and much more humane sentences. However, it is important to note and to understand the idea of power and knowledge; it is fundamental to understand the social system as a whole.

This is a summary of Michel Foucault's seminal work on the history of criminal punishment and social discipline as it transformed from punitive to correctional models during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

In this paper I’m going to talk about Capital Punishment and the numerous ideas, thoughts, views and opinions people have about it and how they feel about this type of punishment. There are people who see capital punishment as morally wrong and committing a murder or on the side of the spectrum people see it as the right thing to do and believe that the individual receiving the punishment deserves it. I will also talk about how capital punishment can be used as a deterrent and make individuals second guess the decision they want to make and this may very well be a consequence of their actions. Another thing I will look at and talk about is how people have been falsely accused and sentenced to death or are currently sitting on death row. Also the technology and resources that are available today are so precise and extremely effective that to falsely convict someone is extremely slim and not common at all. There are numerous types of methods used to commit capital punishment and I will take a look at them and discuss them and look at some of them are inhumane and cruel. The process of getting on death row and eventually getting put to death is a very long and tedious one and it takes years to happen. I will discuss how people can make appeals, try and have their case heard again and to try and get off death row even though at times it isn’t successful at all. I will also discuss the states that still practice capital punishment and what states have outlawed