Opponents of the death penalty will site several reasons to abolish death penalty such as the usage of death penalty as a deterrent, the cost of death penalty vs life in prison, unfairness in the application of death sentencing, and possible mistakes. Opponents would much rather focus on the rights’ of criminals than the victims and their families.
Eliminating the death penalty as a method of punishment will only allow criminals to wreak havoc and chaotic in our community without the fear of death. When a person commits a crime, they are disrupting the order in the community. Justice help restore the disruption of that order. The Death penalty restore social order and give the states authority to maximized retribution for the victims. When the state does not have the authority to maximum retribution, the public may put the law in their own hands. Although, execution may be cruel and inhumane, it is nothing compared to the fate of many victims in the hand of the murderers. The purpose of the death penalty is to provide retribution for the victims and their families. However, retribution is not revenge. “Vengeance signifies inflicting harm on the offender out of anger because of what he has done. Retribution is the rationally supported theory that the criminal deserves a punishment fitting the gravity of his crime” (Pojman, 2004).
Opponents argues that the death penalty does not deterrent individuals from committing crimes. However, there are evidence that death penalty saves lives. Opponents wants us to believe that criminals are unable to rationally make right or wrong choices. According to the rationality choice theory, human behavior are based on self-interest and rational choices about effective ways to accomplish goals with ...
... middle of paper ...
...n.org : http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=001004#answer-id-006248
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/
Wagner, J. (2013, May 31). Petition drive to halt Maryland's death penalty repeal falls short . Retrieved from The Washington Post : http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/petition-drive-to-halt-marylands-death-penalty-bill-falls-short/2013/05/31/1bd64bf6-ca1d-11e2-9f1a-1a7cdee20287_story.html
Washington State Legislature. (2014). RCW 10.95.020 Definition. Retrieved from Washington State Legislature: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=10.95.020
From the time the first colonists arrived in the late Sixteen Hundreds Pennsylvania executions were carried out by public hanging (Cor.state.pa.us, 2014). In Eighteen Forty Three, Pennsylvania became the first state to abolish public hangings. From Eighteen Thirty Four until Nineteen Fifty Three each county was responsible for carrying out private hanging of criminal within the wall of the county jail.
This paper will examine the pros and cons of the death penalty. Is it a deterrent or is that a myth. Does it give the family of the victim peace or does it cause them to suffer waiting for appeal after appeal. What are the forms of execution and any evidence of them being cruel and usual punishment. Is the death penalty fair if there are glaring, disparities in sentencing depending on geographic location and the color of the offender and victim’s skin?
The Article provides numerous reasons the United States and Great Britain should have the death penalty. O’Sullivan addresses all the main counter arguments when explain to his audience his conclusion. His supporting evidence includes death penalty decisions in history and several other statistics. Emotionally terms, faulty cause and effects scenarios, and either/or point of views are other ways the author conveys his opinion to the audience.
The use of the death penalty shows us that revenge is honored in our society. The cost of incarcerating an offender for their lifetime is much less than the cost of executing that same offender. In spite of the lower cost to imprison, we continue to execute offenders. To me, this mindset shows a system that considers the death of another to be a victory.
Capital punishment, a topic that is constantly debated, is questioned on whether or not it serves its purpose which is to deter criminals and if it is morally acceptable. It is my goal to evaluate arguments that promote or reject capital punishment and its deterrence factor. It would be beneficial comparing crime statistics for states that uphold and states that abolish capital punishment. Finally, an investigation of criminals facing the death penalty and their thoughts as well as modern prison conditions will provide insight to this debate. Capital punishment could be a great deterrent to crime or it may have no effect at all.
The death penalty continues to be an issue of controversy and is an issue that will be debated in the United States for many years to come. According to Hugo A. Bedau, the writer of “The Death Penalty in America”, capital punishment is the lawful infliction of the death penalty. The death penalty has been used since ancient times for a variety of offenses. The Bible says that death should be done to anyone who commits murder, larceny, rapes, and burglary. It appears that public debate on the death penalty has changed over the years and is still changing, but there are still some out there who are for the death penalty and will continue to believe that it’s a good punishment. I always hear a lot of people say “an eye for an eye.” Most people feel strongly that if a criminal took the life of another, their’s should be taken away as well, and I don’t see how the death penalty could deter anyone from committing crimes if your going to do the crime then at that moment your not thinking about being on death role. I don’t think they should be put to death they should just sit in a cell for the rest of their life and think about how they destroy other families. A change in views and attitudes about the death penalty are likely attributed to results from social science research. The changes suggest a gradual movement toward the eventual abolition of capital punishment in America (Radelet and Borg, 2000).
Race plays a large factor in showing how you are viewed in society. Although there is no longer slavery and separate water fountains, we can still see areas of our daily life clearly affected by race. One of these areas is the criminal justice system and that is because the color of your skin can easily yet unfairly determine if you receive the death penalty. The controversial evidence showing that race is a large contributing factor in death penalty cases shows that there needs to be a change in the system and action taken against these biases. The issue is wide spread throughout the United States and can be proven with statistics. There is a higher probability that a black on white crime will result in a death penalty verdict than black on black or white on black. Race will ultimately define the final ruling of the sentence which is evident in the racial disparities of the death penalty. The amount of blacks on death row can easily be seen considering the majority of the prison population is black or blacks that committed the same crime as a white person but got a harsher sentence. The biases and prejudices that are in our society relating to race come to light when a jury is selected to determine a death sentence. So what is the relationship between race and the death penalty? This paper is set out to prove findings of different race related sentences and why blacks are sentenced to death more for a black on white crime. Looking at the racial divide we once had in early American history and statistics from sources and data regarding the number of blacks on death row/executed, we can expose the issues with this racial dilemma.
One hundred and ninety-eight countries have abolished the cruel punishment of death penalty in law by 2012 (Valeontis, 2012, para. 5). The capital punishment is cruel and cannot be said as a viable form of punishment for crime control. Taking away someone’s life cannot be justified in any way as a form of punishment. Death penalty is cruel and should be abolished because it violates right to life, it is cruel to humankind or gives birth to brutalization and it cannot be reversed.
Almost all nations in the world either have the death sentence or have had it at one time. It was used in most cases to punish those who broke the laws or standards that were expected of them. Since the death penalty wastes tax money, is inhumane, and is largely unnecessary it should be abolished in every state across the United States. The use of the death penalty puts the United States in the same category as countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia which are two of the world’s worst human rights violators (Friedman 34). Lauri Friedman quotes, “Executions simply inject more violence into an already hostile American society.”
The Death Penalty should be discontinued to the families, human rights, and statistics. The families of the victim and the family of the one, who committed the crime, have no closure at all. The death penalty is killing a human for being convicted of a terrible crime one family may think its right but both suffer by their lost ones. “Although true closure is never really possible for the families, studies have shown that the continual process, along with the returning to court for many years, force families to confront the gruesome details of the crime many times over, making it impossible to get on with their lives.
When someone is legally convicted of a capital crime, it is possible for their punishment to be execution. The Death Penalty has been a controversial topic for many years. Some believe the act of punishing a criminal by execution is completely inhumane, while others believe it is a necessary practice needed to keep our society safe. In this annotated bibliography, there are six articles that each argue on whether or not the death penalty should be illegalized. Some authors argue that the death penalty should be illegal because it does not act as a deterrent, and it negatively effects the victim’s families. Other scholar’s state that the death penalty should stay legalized because there is an overcrowding in prisons and it saves innocent’s lives. Whether or not the death penalty should be
The death penalty, a constant source of controversy and divided opinion, is the punishment of death given to criminals who commit severe crimes. As the severity of crimes that attract the death penalty is debatable, so is its correctness and effectiveness. The justice system is based upon punishment for crimes committed with emphasis on the punishment fitting the crime. Countries such as China and Singapore have used it to punish drug traffickers and therefore fuelled debate on how fitting the punishment is in such cases. For all it aims to achieve, the death penalty has well documented weaknesses, not least of which is its brutality and finality, and it is these frailties that lead to the calls for its abolishment. The death penalty is inhumane, wrongly applied and completely unjustifiable irrespective of the crime. Life imprisonment without parole or pardon achieves all that the death penalty seeks to achieve without costing the society its moral standing.
Petrie, Owen. "New Jersey Panel Recommends Abolishing The Death Penalty." Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, 8 Dec. 2013. Web. 8 Dec. 2013.
The death penalty is not the most effective form of punishment for criminals. The death penalty is hypocritical; it condemns killing by killing people. Many supporters of capital punishment cite retribution as being a justification for the death penalty; however, no matter what the circumstance, murder is never justified. Ghandi once said “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” Two wrongs can never make a right. Capital punishment should be abolished because while even though many supporters of the death penalty claim that it prevents crime, there is no evidence that it has been proven to do so. Also, many people support the death penalty because it prevents criminals from ever being allowed back on the streets to commit further crimes. The death penalty is a preferred method of punishment because it is permanent; however, it should be avoided because it is permanent. There is too much of a possibility that an innocent person could be executed for a crime that they did not commit. An execution cannot be undone. Studies have also shown that the death penalty is a biased method of punishment because disadvantaged people, such as minorities and people of lower social status are more likely to be executed. This is unfair because all people have the same rights and should receive equal and fair punishment for their crimes. An alternative punishment to the death penalty is life without parole; it is just as effective a way to prevent someone committing more crimes as executing them. Supporters of the death penalty also argue that it is cheaper to execute a criminal than it is to keep them in prison for life. However, statistics have shown that the cost of putting a criminal to death, including all of the time and money spent in...
Capital punishment is now illegal in many countries, like the United Kingdom, France and Germany, but it is also legal in many other countries, such as China and the USA. There is a large debate on whether or not capital punishment should be illegal all over the world, as everyone has a different opinion on it. In this essay, I will state arguments for and against the death penalty, as well as my own opinion: capital punishment should be illegal everywhere. Firstly, many believe capital punishment should be reinstated in the United Kingdom because of the financial cost of prisoners. Annually, it costs about £26,978 per prisoner when they are in jail.