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Capital punishment in an ethical view
Arguments that the death penalty should be acceptable
Arguments For Capital Punishment
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A Non-Pacifist Argument Against Capital Punishment
ABSTRACT: In this paper I present a moral argument against capital punishment that does not depend upon the claim that all killing is immoral. The argument is directed primarily against non-philosophers in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Oddly, the moral argument against capital punishment has not been effective in the United States despite the biblical injunction against killing. Religious supporters of the death penalty often invoke a presumed distinction between ‘killing’ and ‘murdering’ and avow that God forbade the latter but not the former. Self-defense and just wars are cited as cases of morally justified killing. Accepting these premises, I point out that when cases of justified killing in self-defense are altered to include an element of delay, disarming and premeditation, they too become murder. Since the death penalty clearly involves the elements of delay, disarming and premeditation, I conclude that the death penalty is murder in the biblical sense and ought to be abolished in any God-fearing (or otherwise moral) society.
Traditional opposition to capital punishment has generally been based on one or more of the following claims: (1) Capital punishment is immoral because all killing is immoral, (2) Capital punishment is unjust because killing is irreversible, or (3) Capital punishment is ineffective because killing is not a deterrent to killing.
I propose to argue instead that capital punishment is immoral because of the kind of killing it is, rather than because it is a kind of killing simpliciter. This is a specifically moral argument, but it differs from the usual pacifist argument in that it does not assert or depend upon the claim that all killing is i...
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...emeditation, they too become murder. Since the death penalty clearly involves the elements of delay, disarming, and premeditation, I conclude that the death penalty is murder in the biblical sense and ought to be abolished in any God-fearing society.
Notes
(1) Haines, Herbert H., Against Capital Punishment, p. 163
(2) Shin, Kilman, Death Penalty and Crime: Empirical Studies, p. 4-5
Bibliography
Haines, Herbert H., Against Capital Punishment: The Anti-Death Penalty Movement in America, 1972-1994; New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996
Hart, Harold H. (ed.), Punishment: For & Against; New York: Hart Publishing Company, Inc., 1971
Shin, Kilman, Death Penalty and Crime: Empirical Studies; Fairfax, VA: George Mason University Center for Economic Analysis, 1978
Sorell, Tom, Moral Theory and Capital Punishment; Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987
Randa, Laura E. “Society’s Final Solution: A History and Discussion of the Death Penalty.” (1997). Rpt.in History of the Death Penalty. Ed. Michael H. Reggio. University Press of America, Inc., 1997. 1-6 Print.
... or disobeys God’s way in committing premeditated murder or involuntary manslaughter should be put to death immediately.
Pham, Phuong N., Patrick Vinck, and Eric Stover. "The Lord's Resistance Army and Forced Conscription in Northern Uganda." The Lord's Resistance Army and Forced Conscription in Northern Uganda 30.2 (2008): 409. JSTOR. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
"U.S. Relations With Uganda." U.S. Department of State, 08 Oct. 2013. Web. 20 May 2014. .
25 Hugo Adams Bedau, The Death Penalty in America: Current Controversies (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997) 250.
Mappes, Thomas A., Jane S. Zembaty, and David DeGrazia. "The Death Penalty." Social Ethics: Morality and Social Policy. 8th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. 105-53. Print.
Eagan, Jeffrey A. “Capital Punishment: Deterrent Effects and Capital Costs.” Law.columbia.edu. Columbia Law School, 2013. Web. 12 Feb. 2013.
In Wendy Glauser’s Northern Uganda Cautiously Courts Freedom as Peace Talks Progress (http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/1675/northern-uganda-cautiously-courts-freedom-as-peace-talks-progress), negotiations between the Ugandan government and the LRA are discussed. Time after time, Joseph Kony has been given opportunities to sign peace treaties but he has denied. Now that these negotiations have been going on for quite some time now, more and more people are willing to give in to Kony’s conditions to ensure peace than they were before.
Hecht, David. “Sierra Leone Dispatch.” The New Republic 3 Nov. 1997: 1-3. eLibrary. Web. 14 Feb. 2011.
Americans have argued over the death penalty since the early days of our country. In the United States only 38 states have capital punishment statutes. As of year ended in 1999, in Texas, the state had executed 496 prisoners since 1930. The laws in the United States have change drastically in regards to capital punishment. An example of this would be the years from 1968 to 1977 due to the nearly 10 year moratorium. During those years, the Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment violated the Eight Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. However, this ended in 1976, when the Supreme Court reversed the ruling. They stated that the punishment of sentencing one to death does not perpetually infringe the Constitution. Richard Nixon said, “Contrary to the views of some social theorists, I am convinced that the death penalty can be an effective deterrent against specific crimes.”1 Whether the case be morally, monetarily, or just pure disagreement, citizens have argued the benefits of capital punishment. While we may all want murders off the street, the problem we come to face is that is capital punishment being used for vengeance or as a deterrent.
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