Death Penalty: Justice or Revenge?

701 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Controversy over the death penalty

The death penalty has many supporters and opposes and i would have to say i am one of the opposes because whether they did or didn 't comment the crime . I don 't think it gives us as the people of the united states the right to kill a Man or Woman that does the horrific Crime . I mean don 't get wrong i am a true believer that everyone person is responsible for their actions and that justice needs to be taken. I believe most people think that if they get justice for their loved ones it would solve everything it may for the few minutes. But killing a person for their crime is just not justice Its just revenge for the families they harmed.

The history of the death penalty is a long and brutal one. From the stoning and crucifixion killings …show more content…

In 1972, the United States Supreme Court suspended the imposition of the death penalty, finding it unconstitutional because it was imposed disproportionately on minorities and the poor. The ban was brief. The Court approved new death penalty statutes in 1976, and government-sponsored killings resumed.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the most common method of execution among states with the death penalty is lethal injection, which is authorized by 35 states, as well as the U.S. Military and the U.S. Government. Smaller numbers of states continue to use methods such as electrocution, gas chambers, hanging, and even firing squads

The cost of the death penalty is extraordinary. California has spent more than $4 billion administering the death penalty since 1978, or more than $300 million per person for each of the 13 people who have been executed since the death penalty was reinstated. Conversely, it costs approximately $200,000 to $300,000 to convict and sentence an individual to life without the possibility of parole. If those sentenced to death received life sentences instead, we accomplish the same deterrent effect of the death penalty: criminals remain off the streets for the rest of their lives. The money saved could be spent on improving the criminal justice system such as increasing

Show More
Related

  • Richard Hickock And Smith Character Analysis

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    The death penalty is much more expensive than life without parole because the Constitution requires a long and complex judicial process for capital cases. If the death penalty was replaced with a sentence of Life Without the Possibility of Parole, which costs millions less and also ensures that the public is protected while eliminating the risk of an mistake, the money saved could be spent on programs that actually improve the communities in which we live. Scientific studies have consistently failed to demonstrate that executions deter people from committing crime anymore than long prison sentences. Moreover, states without the death penalty have much lower murder rates. The South accounts for 80% of US executions and has the highest regional murder rate (Death Penalty

    Read More

  • Capital Punishment: California's Financial Burden and Legal Nightmare

    1436 Words  | 3 Pages

    Notwithstanding issues of morality, the death penalty process of California is financially inefficient and ineffective. At the current rate of executions, “it would take 1,600 years to execute everybody on death row.” [The Death of the American Death Penalty, 122] The average delay in implementing a death sentence calculates out to be 25 years, at an added cost of $90,000 per year over normal incarceration. [Guy, 2] This is a “premium that currently totals more than $60 million a year” [Guy, 2]. When you take the added costs of death row incarceration and total them up with the additional costs of prosecution and the handling of the many legal appeals death row inmates are entitled to, the unnecessary amount of spending is significant. We could eliminate “$126 million a year” in additional costs by simply sentencing death row inmates to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. [Guy, 2] Because of the afo...

    Read More

  • Pros and Cons of the Death Penalty

    1667 Words  | 4 Pages

    Each year there are about 250 people added to death row and 35 executed. From 1976 to 1995 there were a total of 314 people put to death in the US 179 of them were put to death using lethal injection, 123 were put to death using electrocution, 9 were put to death in a gas chamber, 2 were hanged, and 1 was put to death using the firing squad. The death penalty is the harshest form of punishment enforced in the United Sates today. Once a jury has convicted a criminal, they go to the second part of the trial, the punishment phase. If the jury recommends the death penalty and the judge agrees then the criminal will face some form of execution, lethal injection is the most common form used today. There was a period from 1972 to 1976 that capital punishment was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Their reason for this decision was that the death penalty was "cruel and unusual punishment" under the Eighth Amendment. The decision was reversed when new methods of execution were introduced. Capital punishment is a difficult issue and there are as many different opinions as there are people. In our project, both sides have been presented and argued fully.

    Read More

  • The Pro And Pros And Cons Of The Death Penalty

    894 Words  | 2 Pages

    Capital punishment is the type of punishment that allows the execution of prisoners who are charged and convicted because they committed a “capital crime.” Capital crime is a crime that is considered so horrible and terrifying that anyone who commits it should be punished with death (McMahon, Wallace). After so many years this type of punishment, also known as the “death penalty”, remains a very controversial topic all around the world, raising countless debates on whether it should be legalized or not.

    Read More

  • The Case Against The Death Penalty

    869 Words  | 2 Pages

    Unfortunately, this is not a scene in a horror flick; these are the surroundings of an actual prison execution. As early as the founding of the United States, capital punishment has been a controversial and hotly debated public issue. The three most common forms of death penalties currently used in the United States are the gas chamber, electrocution, and lethal injection. The firing squad is an option in Idaho, Oklahoma, and Utah; and death by hanging still remains an option in New Hampshire and Washington state.

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of The Death Penalty

    1013 Words  | 3 Pages

    Deborah Hastings of The Associated Press wrote “Turns out, it is cheaper to imprison killers for life than to execute them, according to series of recent surveys.” (http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-03-07-exepensive-to-execute_N.htm). In an article Richard C. Dieter, Esq. Executive Director said “The high price of the death penalty is often most keenly felt in those counties responsible for both the prosecution and defense of capital defendants. A single trial can mean near bankruptcy, tax increases, and the laying off of vital personnel. Trials costing a small county $100,000 from unbudgeted funds are common and some officials have even gone to jail in resisting payment.”(http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/millions-misspent 19940). Capital punishment doesn’t fix any problems, all it does is cost the government more money. If the death penalty was abolished completely our government would save more money just by sentencing life in prison without

    Read More

  • Opposing viewpoints

    639 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many opponents of the death penalty believe that the death penalty violates the basic human right preventing cruel and unusual punishment under the constitution. The supporters of the death penalty believe that the punishment should fit the crime, some even go so far as to say that the perpetrator of the crime should be killed the same way he killed his victims. Radicalism is rampant on both sides of this argument.

    Read More

  • A Defense of Justice

    888 Words  | 2 Pages

    The death penalty has been around since the time of Jesus Christ. Executions have been recorded from the 1600s to present times. From about 1620, the executions by year increased in the US. It has been a steady increase up until the 1930s; later the death penalty dropped to zero in the 1970s and then again rose steadily. US citizens said that the death penalty was unconstitutional because it was believed that it was "cruel and unusual" punishment (Amnesty International). In the 1970s, the executions by year dropped between zero and one then started to rise again in the 1980s. In the year 2000, there were nearly one hundred executions in the US (News Batch). On June 29, 1972, the death penalty was suspended because the existing laws were no longer convincing. However, four years after this occurred, several cases came about in Georgia, Florida, and Texas where lawyers wanted the death penalty. This set new laws in these states and later the Supreme Court decided that the death penalty was constitutional under the Eighth Amendment (Amnesty International).

    Read More

  • Capital Punishment Essay - Benefits of the Death Penalty

    1419 Words  | 3 Pages

    Have you ever thought about if the person next to you is a killer or a rapist? If he is, what would you want from the government if he had killed someone you know? He should receive the death penalty! Murderers and rapists should be punished for the crimes they have committed and should pay the price for their wrongdoing. Having the death penalty in our society is humane; it helps the overcrowding problem and gives relief to the families of the victims, who had to go through an event such as murder.

    Read More

  • Capital Punishment

    964 Words  | 2 Pages

    The methods used currently differ greatly from earlier periods of history. The most common method of execution favored by most countries is lethal injection; other legal options available also include the electric chair, gas chambers, hanging, or a firing squad. Execution by asphyxiation, crucifixion... ... middle of paper ... ... n, that one wrong act condemns a person to death.

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of The Death Penalty

    1678 Words  | 4 Pages

    The death penalty is also known by many names such as Capital Punishment. The death penalty is the often referred to as the” death sentence. Since the year 1976 there has been 1,419 executions in the United States. Presently the death Penalty is legal 19 states, including Connecticut and illegal in 31 states. There are many pros and cons to death penalty. With the death penalty there are many bias as well.

    Read More

  • Death Penalty Pros And Cons Essay

    1478 Words  | 3 Pages

    Until now, the issue of the death penalty remains being debated. Texas leads in the number of executions since 1976 in the United States (TDCJ). To date, Texas has executed 525 offenders and there are still criminals on the list waiting to be executed (TDCJ). There are pros and cons of the death penalty. I will explain those as well as some insight into other reasons why the death penalty should be abolished.

    Read More

  • Pros and Cons of Death Penalty

    623 Words  | 2 Pages

    The death penalty has been an issue of debate for several years. Whether or not we should murder murderer’s and basically commit the same crime that they are being killed for committing. People against the death penalty say that we should not use it for that very reason. They also make claims that innocent people who were wrongly convicted could be killed. Other claims include it not working as a deterrent, it being morally wrong, and that it discriminates.

    Read More

  • Does Death Penalty Fulfill The Goal Of Retribution

    302 Words  | 1 Pages

    After a convict pleaded guilty, the jurors and the judge will determine and give the decision what punishment the convict should get. They might sentence to prison for years, lifelong or death. The first major theory of the philosophy of punishment is retribution. In retribution, the convict would get the punishment that they deserved basic on what they did. But does Death Penalty fulfill the goal of retribution? In the article Death and Retribution, the author argued that the Death Penalty is a punishment, but it’s morally impermissible. The offenders have themselves consented the punishment is at least presumptively morally acceptable. Even the death penalty fulfill the goal of retribution, but it is not a good way to punish the offenders.

    Read More

  • Death Penalty Essay: Barbaric Capital Punishment

    1361 Words  | 3 Pages

    Under our current U.S. Constitution which has been around for over 200 years, prisoners of the government cannot be subjected to any kind of punishment which is deemed cruel and unusual. However all the forms of capital punishment that the government uses are questionable as to whether or not they are legal according to the Constitution. Forms of capital punishment that are still used in the United States include hanging, firing squad, electrocution, gas chamber, and lethal injection. With hangings a rope is attached to a persons neck proceeded with them being dropped from a certain height with the other end of the rope attached to something higher than them. The result is either strangulation which can take a while or complete decapitation. With the firing squad option a prisoner is tied to a chair and blinded. After this a firing squad composed most of the time of five individuals fires gun shots at a target attached to the prisoners chest (ACLU).

    Read More

More about Death Penalty: Justice or Revenge?

Open Document