The Death Penalty Debate
The issue of the death penalty is widely disputed. So disputed that maybe I shouldn’t have picked this topic. But nevertheless, the death penalty is an issue that needs to be addressed. Should the death penalty be abolished from our criminal justice system? Well, that depends on whom you ask. If you ask me… no. I personally don’t see anything wrong with the death penalty because there are a lot of criminals that are just too dangerous to society and death is the only punishment they deserve.
I know that it is in the eighth amendment that prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, and I can’t think of a greater punishment for a crime than death, but I believe that exceptions should be made.
Despite U.S. Supreme Court rulings to the contrary, many death penalty opponents consider capital punishment in and of itself to be cruel and unusual. They believe the death penalty to be a barbarous practice that should be discarded. Specific methods of execution also frequently come under attack as violating the Eighth Amendment. Death penalty advocates counter that the framers of the Constitution took capital punishment for granted, and did not consider it cruel and unusual. Some proponents of the death penalty believe some methods of execution, such as lethal injection, are more humane than others. (http://ethics.acusd.edu/death_penalty.html)
From 1930, the first year for which statistics are readily available from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, to 1967, 3,859 persons were executed. During this period, over half (54%) of those executed were black, 45 % were white, and the remaining 1% were members of other racial groups -- American Indians (19), Filipino (13), Chinese (8), and Japanese (2). The vast ...
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...ht make all the violent offenders think twice before they commit the crime.
Works Cited:
Death Penalty Debate. (http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/just/
death/), Online, March 2000.
-Gives information on the states that have reinstated capital punishment into their justice system and gives a list of the 12 states that still do not have the death penalty.
Pollitt, Katha: The Nation, New York; Mar 6, 2000; Vol. 270, Iss. 9; pg. 10, 1 pgs, EBSCOhost March 2000
-Gives a detailed two sided argument on the death penalty and argues how it costs more to house an immate for life in prison.
Punishment And The Death Penalty. (http://www.ethics.
acused.edu/death_penalty.html), Online, March 2000.
- Gives statistical facts on the history of the death penalty.
Sullum, Jacob: Reason, Los Angeles; Mar 2000; Vol. 31, iss. 10, pg. 14, 1 pgs, EBSCOhost March 2000
Don't you think that putting people to death is brutal? Wouldn't you rather have them stay in prison for the rest of their lives? In fact, it costs far more to execute a person then to keep him or her in prison for life. The EighthAmendment states that it prevents cruel and unusual punishment, and the death penalty is violating it. The Supreme Court case, McCleskey v. Kemp (1987) violates the Eighth Amendment purpose. Therefore, the death penalty clearly defies the Eighth Amendment and shouldn't be used for people who have convicted murder.
...e is a pretty good argument when it comes to legalizing the Capital Punishment. He claims that nothing actually confirms his belief that life imprisonment is actually worse than the death sentence, and poses a pretty good question: “Murder isn't rational, so why expect a rational response to incentives?” ("It's Time to Abolish the Death Penalty")
A significant aspect of the eighth amendment to the United States Constitution is that the infliction of cruel and unusual punishments is prohibited. However, interpretations of the definition of what a cruel and unusual punishment consists of have become extremely ambiguous. For example, many argue that the death penalty is unconstitutional because it is cruel to take another person’s life willingly; however, others argue that it is acceptable if it is done in a controlled and humane manner. Over the course of the United States history, punishments have ranged from public whippings
Many call capital punishment unconstitutional and point to the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution for support. The amendment states that, "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines be imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment be inflicted." Those who oppose the death penalty target the 'cruel and unusual' phrase as an explanation of why it is unconstitutional. Since the Framers of the Constitution are no longer with us and we base our nation on the words in which that document contains, the legality of the death penalty is subject to interpretation. Since there is some ambiguity or lack of preciseness in the Constitution, heated debate surrounding this issue has risen in the last ten years.
The death penalty is legal in thirty-one states and illegal in nineteen states. There are at least forty-one federal capital crimes in the United States that can be considered or guaranteed with the death penalty. The death penalty should be abolished because it is unlawful to society, humanity, and civilization as a whole. It costs far more to execute a person rather than to keep them in prison for the rest of his or her life. Logically speaking, the death penalty is an illicit and wrongful punishment no matter what the crime. The emotion and anger toward the criminals that commit horrible crimes can overcome what is actually right for society. There are many more opposing factors towards the death penalty than there are supporting ones. Capital punishment is nefarious to say the least and there are other consequences and actions that can be substituted rather than directly executing a person for their actions.
The eighth amendment states that no person shall be submitted to cruel and unusual punishment. The question is whether or not this right is under attack from those who support the death penalty. When the bill of rights was created it was intended to stop judges from unruly, and unreasonable punishments of people who committed certain crimes. However in the day and age we live in now, the supreme court has placed provisions and rules on the use of the death penalty, and with its support it is threatening the idea of the eighth amendment, and those who oppose it.
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.
The death penalty debate in the United States is dominated by the fraudulent voice of the anti-death penalty movement. The culture of lies and deceit so dominates that movement that many of the falsehoods are now wrongly accepted as fact, by both advocates and opponents of capital punishment. (Sharp) Opponents of capital punishment are extremely outspoken and vehement in their arguments. The American Civil Liberties Union believes the death penalty violates the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment. However, the death penalty is not cruel and unusual punishment, the authors of the United States Constitution’s Eighth Amendment related “cruel and unusual” punishment to methods used in ages past. The Eighth Amendment was created to outlaw such practices as bur...
Capital punishment is biased not only this way but also racially. The color of the skin of the accused and victim alike decides whether the death penalty wi...
In the United States, since the 1970s there have been more than 1270 executions according to the death penalty information center (Fact Sheet), What’s alarming about that number, is the number of people who were condemned to be executed based on race, income and social status alone, targeting those that could not afford good legal counsel, and were appointed attorneys that were “inexperienced and had below appropriate professional standards” (Hessick 1069), which sealed the fate of those literally fighting for their lives, on the day of sentencing.
Racism Review: Scholarship and activism toward racial justice. (2010). Race and the Death Penatly 2: Black defendants, White Victims . Retrieved from Racism Review: Scholarship and activism toward racial justice : http://www.racismreview.com/blog/2010/04/17/race-and-the-death-penalty-ii-black-defendants-white-victims/
The Eighth Amendment was ratified on December 15, 1791 and it states “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” (Rossum & Tarr, 2009). However, since the latter part of the 1970’s the United States has proceeded with the execution of 1277 convicted felons (Death Penalty Information Center, 2011). To many people these executions represent a violation of the felon’s constitutional rights and should not have been allowed. On the other hand, if we take an in-depth look, we can see that death caused by electrocution or lethal injection recognizably would not be considered immoral or unjustified provided that the felon was granted a fair trial in a court of law (Bedau, Cassell, 2004).
The death penalty dates back to the eighteenth century. Criminals received many punishments throughout the centuries such as hangings, quartering, and burning at the stake. The death penalty consists of lethal injections today. The death penalty is a controversial topic because some people are for the death penalty and some people are against the death penalty. There is no one consensus for or against the death penalty. Although there have been many studies on the immorality of the death penalty and whether or not to limit the death penalty in some ways or just completely abolish it all together. It appears that more people are leading towards getting rid of the death penalty, but the courts want to keep it because the courts argue that that it is a successful fear tactic and may prevent future crimes. The death penalty is inhumane, biased, arbitrary, and an unsuccessful fear tactic so it should be abolished.
The death penalty is racist, it punishes the poor, it causes the innocent to die, it is not a deterrent against violent crime, and it is cruel and unusual punishment. More than half of the countries in the world have already abolished the death penalty and the U.S should abolish it too. It is wrong and cruel. Some states in the U.S still hold the death penalty because they think it will keep U.S citizens safe, but we can just keep the murders in a separate patrolled jail. Abolish it and we may save the lives of the people that may have been executed innocent.
The death penalty, ever since it was established, has created a huge controversy all throughout the world. Ever since the death penalty was created, there have been people who supported the death penalty and those who wanted to destroy it. When the death penalty was first created the methods that were used were gruesome and painful, it goes against the Eighth Amendment that was put in place many years later. The methods they used were focused on torturing the people and putting them through as much pain as possible. In today’s society the death penalty is quick and painless, it follows the Eighth Amendment. Still there are many people who are against capital punishment. The line of whether to kill a man or women for murder or to let him or her spend the rest one’s life in prison forever will never be drawn in a staight.