Who has the right to take away someone’s life? No one really, but the bitter truth is that the government does. The way they see it is an eye for an eye. Protecting the rest of the world from what is considered to be a monstrous human being filled with only hatred and violence, with no chance of changing or improving their horrific behaviors. The death penalty is racially and economically biased, rarely reversed for the wrongly accused, and the government should not have that power. What is the death penalty some might ask? According to WiseGreek “It is a punishment that involves executing someone after being found guilty of a capital crime. It is considered to be an act of retribution, making sure that the person cannot and will not repeat these offenses. Depending on where you live the death penalty differs. In the United States that honor is reserved for those who commit murder in the first degree, espionage, or treason. A typical sentence would be a decade or more just waiting for execution; where they will die from lethal injection. Until then prisoners on death row spend majority of their time suffering in isolation. Unlike the other prisoners those on death row are held to different standards. Unable to enjoy their last moments of their lives, living in unbearable and harsh living conditions. The 8ft by 8ft cells they are placed in can only hold a bed and toilet. During visiting hours inmates are separated by glass and closely watched. Janis Barkdale once stated in a recent interview with Aja Beech and myself that when she went to visit her fiancé that in addition to the glass separating them and the guards Robert Lark was also wearing hand and ankle cuffs. Not to mention that when they are allowed to go outside for a... ... middle of paper ... ...E ON DEATH ROW.” Web blog post. Death Penalty Information Center. Michigan Law Review, 2005, June 2008. Web. 13 Jan 2014. Donohue, John J., and Justin J. Wolfers. “Uses and abuses of empirical evidence in the death penalty debate.” Stanford law review 58.1 (2006): 791-846. “Death Penalty Appeals Process/ Capital Punishment in context”. Death Penalty Appeals Process/ Capital Punishment in Context. N.P., n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2014. . "Does the Death Penalty Violate the 8th Amendment?" The Premier Online Debate Website. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2014. Equal Justice imitative.” Racial Bias. N.p., n.d. Web. 16. Jan 2014. . “Has DNA Testing Led to Significant Improvements in the Criminal Justice Statem?” ProCon.Org. 19 Aug. 2008. Web. 15 Dec.2013
Lester, D. (1998). The death penalty issues and answers (2nd edition.). Springfield, IL: Library of Congress Cataloging.
Andre, Claire, and Manuel Velasquez. “Capital Punishment.” Our Duty or Our Doom. 12 May 2010. 30 May 2010 .
The death penalty, also known as capital punishment, is when someone convicted of a crime is put to death by the state. This practice has been around for centuries. The death penalty has evolved from acts like public hanging, to the more “humane” lethal injection used today. Many people view this as the only acceptable punishment for murderers, mass rapist, and other dangerous crimes.
Radelet, Michael L., and Ronald L. Akers. "Deterrence And The Death Penalty: the Views Of The Experts[*]." Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 87.1 (1996): 1. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 28 Feb. 2011.
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 also known as the capital punishment is used to punish the criminal involving in serious criminal cases. This happens after he or she has been found guilty of a crime by the legal system. This form of punishment is to ensure that the person cannot commit future crimes, and/or as a deterrent to potential criminals. The inmates could choose from the following way of death they are lethal injection, electric chair, gas chamber, firing squad, and hanging. Each of these punishments is inhuman and a violation of the 8th amendment of the Constitution.
The Death Penalty practice has always been a topic of major debate and ethical concern among citizens in society. The death penalty can be defined as the authorization to legally kill a person as punishment for committing a crime, this practice is also known as Capital Punishment. The purpose of creating a harsher punishment for criminals was to deter other people from committing atrocious crimes and it was also intended to serve as a way of incapacitation and retribution. In fact, deterrence, incapacitation, and retribution are some of the basic concepts in the justice system, which explain the intentions of creating punishments as a consequence for illegal conduct. In the United States, the Congress approved the federal death penalty on June 25, 1790 and according to the Death Penalty Focus (DPF, 2011) organization website “there have been 343 executions, two of which were women”.
Narration: When it comes to the death penalty there are Opponents and Proponents and although both aim to defend and protect society from crime their beliefs differ in how to accomplish this.
“The case Against the Death Penalty.” aclu.org. American Civil Liberties Union, 2012. Web. 12 Feb. 2013
Death penalty, also known as capital punishment, is the punishment of execution that is administered to someone who committed a capital crime. Capital crimes include murder, treason, genocide and many other serious crimes (Did 1 of 3). Over 1,000 people were executed in the United States between 1977 and 2009. 32 states allow the death penalty, and 17 do not; the latest state to outlaw the death penalty was Maryland. The death penalty involves many debatable issues such as cost, religion, deterrence, possibility of executing an innocent and the cruelty of the punishment. The death penalty is cruel and the need for retribution is unjust, so it is unacceptable and shouldn’t be performed.
"The Case Against the Death Penalty." American Civil Liberties Union. The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU Foundation., 2011. Web. 01 Nov. 2014.
D’Alembe, Talbot “Understanding the Death Penalty Study Commission Report” Raising the Bar in Capital Cases. 34.2 ( 2007): n.pag. Web. 24 Jul 2014.
Pasquerella, Lynn. “The Death Penalty in the United States.” The Study Circle Resource Center of Topsfield Foundation. July 1991. Topsfield Foundation. 03 Feb 2011. Web.
Capital Punishment is defined as the legal infliction of the death penalty. The death penalty is corporal punishment in its most severe form and is used instead of life long imprisonment. Putting people to death that have committed extremely terrible crimes is an ancient practice, but it has become a very controversial issue in today's society. Capital punishment has been used for centuries, even the Bible contains over thirty stories or incidents about a person put to death for a crime they committed. Public executions stopped after 1936. The death penalty has been inflicted in many different ways. Today in the United States, there are five ways that the death penalty is performed. These criminals are put to death by a lethal injection, electrocution, lynching, a firing squad, or the gas chamber. These punishments are much less severe than the forms of execution in the past. In the past, people were executed by crucifixion, boiling in oil, drawing and quartering, impalement, beheading, burning alive, crushing, tearing, stoning, and even drowning. The methods used today compared to those of history are not meant for torture but instead for punishment for heinous crimes and to rid the earth of these dangerous people. The majority of America supports the death penalty.
Rubin, P. H. (2009). Don't scrap the death penalty. Criminology & Public Policy, 8(4), 853-859.