When remarking on the issue of capital punishment, Henry Ford was quoted as saying that “[c]apital punishment is as fundamentally wrong as a cure for crime as charity is wrong as a cure for poverty”(“Henry Ford”). His comment, while not saying that capital punishment and charity does not have the right idea about how to deal with the issues that plague societies, it does say that it does not properly address the issue so that it can be completely solved. While portrayed as the solution for to stop those thinking about committing serious offenses, this does not seemed to be the case at all. Capital punishment does not deter nor solve the issues that it is meant to deal with and instead creates more. In this paper, it will go over a brief history of capital punishment, the current state of capital punishment in the United States and what the outlook for it is.
According to Michael Kronenwetter, punishment of any kind stems from the fact that “[...] [t]here must be a penalty for wrongdoing”. Prior to governments taking over the administrative role, people “[...] were expected to take their own revenge on those who had wronged them. If a man robbed or killed another person, or raped a woman, it was up to the victim or the victim's family to exact a price from the wrongdoer”. This created major problems in the fact that it left those who were weak in power at the mercy of the strong. False accusations could go unchecked and unjust punishment would be given to those who could not properly defend themselves. Death was used a penalty for crimes that were “applied […] sparingly and only for the most terrible of crimes. Others imposed it for minor offenses” such as under the Roman Law of the Twelve Tablets death was the penalty for publis...
... middle of paper ...
...if.: ABC-CLIO. (Original work published 1993)
Laurence, J. (1960). A history of capital punishment. New York: Citadel Press.
Mcguire, E. (2010, May 15). Capital punishment: The ugly truth.The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/280643763?accountid=28518
Murder. (2012, August 20). FBI. Retrieved November 10, 2013, from http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/violent-crime/murder
Reggio, M. H. (2012). History of the Death Penalty. Frontline, 0. Retrieved November 10, 2013, from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/execution/readings/history.html
Waltenburg, E. N. (2008). The future of america's death penalty: An agenda for the next generation of capital punishment research.Justice System Journal,29(3), 447-X. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/194778726?accountid=28518
...eter, Richard C. “Death Penalty Information Center” A Crisis of Confidence: Americans’ Doubts about the Death Penalty. 2007. 1-30 Print.
Lester, D. (1998). The death penalty issues and answers (2nd edition.). Springfield, IL: Library of Congress Cataloging.
Capital punishment has long been a topic for heated debate throughout the United States of America and the civilized world. For many politicians, the death penalty has been a key pillar to winning a state or election; and, to some extent, politics have been a key influence in America’s justice system. Many nations have outlawed capital punishment, with the United States included between 1972 and 1976. In the United States, there has been a renewed movement for this “eye for an eye” method, citing such arguments as “deterrence” and “victims’ rights.” This movement begs a single question – is there any economical, legal, or statistical support for the ultimate punishment? This article will strive to answer that question by evaluating several key issues (be they supporting or otherwise) concerning capital punishment – the legitimacy of ‘deterrence,’ the legality of capital punishment under the Eighth Amendment’s “cruel and unusual punishment” clause, and the cost associated with putting a man to death in relation to the cost associated with life imprisonment.
There are over sixty offenses in the United States of America that can be punishable by receiving the death penalty (What is..., 1). However, many individuals believe that the death penalty is an inadequate source of punishment for any crime no matter how severe it is. The fact remains, however, that the death penalty is one of the most ideal forms of punishment. There are other individuals who agree with the idea that capital punishment is the best form of punishment. In fact, some of these individuals believe that this should be the only form of punishment.
Geraghty, Thomas F. "Trying to Understand America’s Death Penalty System and Why We Still Have it." Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 94.1 (2003): 209-237. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 5 Nov. 2009.
...ed United States. U.S. Government Accounting Office. Capital Punishment. Washington: GPO, 1994 Cheatwood, Derral and Keith Harries. The Geography of Execution: The Capital Punishment Quagmire in America. Rowman, 1996 NAACP Legal Defense Fund . Death Row. New York: Hein, 1996 "Ex-Death Row Inmate Cleared of Charges." USA Today 11 Mar. 1999: 2A "Fatal Flaws: Innocence and the Death Penalty." Amnesty International. 10 Oct. 1999 23 Oct. 1999 Gest, Ted. "House Without a Blue Print." US News and World Report 8 Jul. 1996: 41 Stevens, Michelle. "Unfairness in Life and Death." Chicago Sun-Times 7 Feb. 1999: 23A American Bar Association. The Task Ahead: Reconciling Justice with Politics. 1997 United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Uniform Crime Report. Washington: GPO, 1994 Wickham, DeWayne. "Call for a Death Penalty Moratorium." USA Today 8 Feb. 1999: 17A ILKMURPHY
“The case Against the Death Penalty.” aclu.org. American Civil Liberties Union, 2012. Web. 12 Feb. 2013
Harrison, Brigid C. “Death to Capital Punishment.” The New York Times, Late Edition. New York, New York: Dec. 2, 2007. Print.
Pasquerella, Lynn. “The Death Penalty in the United States.” The Study Circle Resource Center of Topsfield Foundation. July 1991. Topsfield Foundation. 03 Feb 2011. Web.
Bedau, H. A. (2004). Killing as Punishment:Reflections on the Death Penalty in America. York, Pennsylvania. Maple Press. Northeastern University Press. Print
In conclusion, although there are objections to this way of thinking, I believe that capital punishment can be morally justified. Not only will the use of capital punishment help provide the families of victims with a feeling of security and reduce the ever rising population in our prisons, but it will also act as a deterring factor. Again, my goal in arguing for the moral justifiability of capital punishment is in a way that reduces the use of this practice to a minimum. This means that capital punishment will not become an everyday practice, but rather would be used in extreme situations where benefits such as deterrence, closure, and a population decrease can arise.
Van Den Haag, Earnest, and John Conrad. The Death Penalty: A Debate. New York: Plenum Press, 1997.
The death penalty has been an ongoing debate for many years. Each side of the issue presents valid arguments to explain why someone should be either for or against the subject. One side of the argument says deterrence, the other side says there’s a likelihood of putting to death an innocent man; one says justice, retribution, and punishment; the other side says execution is murder itself. Crime is an unmistakable part of our society, and it is safe to say that everyone would concur that something must be done about it. The majority of people know the risk of crime to their lives, but the subject lies in the techniques and actions in which it should be dealt with. As the past tells us, capital punishment, whose meaning is “the use of death as a legally sanctioned punishment,” is a suitable and proficient means of deterring crime. Today, the death penalty resides as an effective method of punishment for murder and other atrocious crimes.
Costanzo, Mark. Just Revenge: Costs and Consequences of the Death Penalty. New York: St. Martin's, 2001. Print.
Cavanagh, Suzanne. “Capital Punishment: A Brief Overview”. CRS Report For Congress 95-505GOV (1995): 4. Sellin, Thorsten. The Penalty of Death. Sage Publishing Co.,1980.