Evaluating the Arguments For and Against Capital Punishment

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Evaluating the Arguments For and Against Capital Punishment

Capital Punishment is referred to as the death penalty, is judicially ordered execution of a prisoner as a punishment for a serious crime, often called a capital offense or as a capital crime. Some jurisdictions that practice capital punishment restrict its use to small number of criminal offenses principally treason and murder. Prisoners who have been sentenced to death are usually kept segregated from other prisoners in special parts of the prison pending their execution. I believe capital punishment has ethical problems and is wrong because it decreases the value and dignity of human life. The eighth amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. The death penalty is a form of cruel and unusual punishment no matter what the crime an individual commits. Murder is wrong whether it is a person killing another person or a state’s decision, murder is murder, and it is all the same. Two wrongs don’t make a right. It also sends a wrong and unmoral message to the people in the community who’s trying to obey the law. The Government says death is wrong when a person kills another but murder is right when done by the government by using the death penalty. They too are committing murder.

Many people who are for the death penalty see the death penalty as the government securing the rights of the people, and keeping things under control. How do governments secure equal rights? The Government prohibits interference with rights by law, and to make the legal prohibitions stick, governments threaten punishment to anyone who violates them. This is what the criminal law does (Van Den Haag). Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, tha...

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...e: 1991.

Isenberg, Irwin. The Death Penalty. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1977

Kane, Gregory. To murder Victims’ Families, Executing Killers is Justice. http://www.baltimoresun.com

Law Enforcement Views on Deterrence | Death Penalty Information Center. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/law-enforcement-views-deterrence.

Long, Robert E. Criminal Sentencing. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1995

Olen, Jeffrey and Vincent Barry. Applying Ethics: A Text with Readings, Belmont. Wadswoth Group.

Place for Vengeance. US News & World Report. 1997.

Roucek, Joseph. Capital Punishment. Charlottesville, NY. 1995

Van Den Haag, Ernest and John Conrad. The Death Penalty: A Debate. New York: Plenum Press, 1983.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/columnists/wickam/2001-07-11-whicham.htm

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