...An Argument Against the Death Penalty Capital punishment should be abolished. One reason for abolishment is that the cost to imprison an inmate on death row costs more compared to someone facing a lifetime sentence. In a report released by the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice they found that on average the state was spending $137 million per year on the death penalty...life without parole would cost only $11.5 million per year (qtd. in Dieter 14). Additionally, there are several people on death row who suffer from varying degrees of mental illness. Even though the United States Supreme Court ruled during Ford v. Wainwright that it is unconstitutional to execute an insane person, these executions still take place....
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...Death Penalty Death penalty is an serious issue that has the United States very much divided. While there are thousands of supporters of death penalty, there is also a great amount of opposition. As of now, there are thirty-three states where death penalty is legal and seventeen states that are against death penalty. Opposing arguments do not hold up due to a limited amount of bias thoughts. Reasons death penalty should be legal in all fifty states because of deterrence, retribution, and it is the only moral response to some crimes. Back in the old days death penalty was a fashionable event but, people do not see death penalty that way anymore. Death penalty acts as a deterrent to crime is widely removed but there is plenty truth in death penalty than the liberals and abolitionists like to acknowledge(Anderson). Studies show that three to thirteen lives are saved each year due to death penalty by killing a guilty killer. Documents shows that some governments try to raise fee cost to prevent human killing each other but that seemed to increase the crime rates. More research needs to be embarked upon to ensure the quality and accuracy of the methodology and data but the results seem incontrovertible(Anderson). The death penalty acts as a deterrent and as a result saves and secure lives....
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...injured a man, so it shall be inflicted on him..” a quote from the Bible, Leviticus 24:20. It is kind of ironic how people would argue that the death penalty is going against the the Bible’s moral code of “Thou Shalt Not Commit Murder,” one of the the Ten Commandments in the Bible, when the Bible also encourages justice for those who has been done wrong. The death penalty is a form of punishment against criminals who committed a crime so wrong, the only way of justice would be sentenced to death. Many would argue that this form of punishment is morally wrong. It is true that execution may be considered as a form of murder too, but the intentions of the execution is not as...
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...In 1995, Larry Griffin was sentenced to death for the murder of 19 year old Quintin Moss based on only one witness report. Almost 10 years later, new evidence by the NAACP had confirmed that Griffin was not involved in the crime, however, it was too late for he had already been executed. The death penalty, also known as capital punishment, is a sentence of execution for some form of crime such as murder, treason, espionage, war crimes, and large-scale drug trafficking. The death penalty in the United States is extremely flawed; it is applied unfairly and unequally, expensive, ineffectual against deterring crime, puts innocent lives at risk, and largely unethical. Despite the overwhelming evidence against capital punishment, thirty-one US states...
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...money to pay for one of their own. Lindsey's lawyer was said to be "a respected civil attorney from Mobile" (Page 69). He had previously worked on Wayne Ritter's case who convicted and executed a year prior. The case left Bagwell "disillusioned and angry." In a letter, he had written that he vowed: "never to take another death penalty case, even if they disbar me for refusal." The letter also read that Bagwell showed favor towards the death penalty because "mad dogs ought to die" (Page 69). This statement alone goes to show that Ritter didn't care much about Lindsey's case and whether or not he deserved to be executed. As far as Dunkin he suffered from intellectual disabilities, and the trial judge discovered that he had "mental retardation" established on his school records and prior testing. Unfortunately, 13 years after Dunkin was executed, in Atkins vs. Virginia, the Court realized that executing people with intellectual disabilities was "cruel and unusual punishment" and then prohibited the execution as unconstitutional (Page 71)....
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...The Death Penalty The death penalty is a form of punishment in which a person who has been convicted of a serious crime is executed under the precept of the criminal justice system. The death penalty has been in existence for thousands of years and has gained wide acceptance in the United States since early colonial times. Even those who framed the Constitution specifically the Fifth Amendment approved of it though implicitly (McCord and Latzer 9). Despite the growing acceptance of the death penalty as an appropriate punishment for certain kinds of crimes such as first degree murders, there are still some people who argue against it on certain grounds. The debate as to the justification of the death penalty has raged on for a long time. On one hand, there are those who are of the opinion that the death penalty is a cruel punishment which is morally wrong and a violation of the right to life for its victims. Others defend their opposing views by citing the wave of abolition of other types of corporal punishment such as branding and flogging and propose that imprisonment should also replace the death penalty (McCord and Latzer 9). However, the death penalty has proved to be a punishment befitting certain crimes such as horrific murders as it is the ultimate punishment. It has taken many harmful elements off the streets besides acting as a deterrent for both the convicted criminals and other potential murderers out there. In essence, it has saved many innocent lives that otherwise...
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...The Death Penalty The death penalty is a form of punishment in which a person who has been convicted of a serious crime is executed under the precept of the criminal justice system. The death penalty has been in existence for thousands of years and has gained wide acceptance in the United States since early colonial times. Even those who framed the Constitution specifically the Fifth Amendment approved of it though implicitly (McCord and Latzer 9). Despite the growing acceptance of the death penalty as an appropriate punishment for certain kinds of crimes such as first degree murders, there are still some people who argue against it on certain grounds. The debate as to the justification of the death penalty has raged on for a long time. On one hand, there are those who are of the opinion that the death penalty is a cruel punishment which is morally wrong and a violation of the right to life for its victims. Others defend their opposing views by citing the wave of abolition of other types of corporal punishment such as branding and flogging and propose that imprisonment should also replace the death penalty (McCord and Latzer 9). However, the death penalty has proved to be a punishment befitting certain crimes such as horrific murders as it is the ultimate punishment. It has taken many harmful elements off the streets besides acting as a deterrent for both the convicted criminals and other potential murderers out there. In essence, it has saved many innocent lives that otherwise...
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...Resistance: Race and the Death Penalty in America Mark Peffley Jon Hurwitz University of Kentucky University of Pittsburgh Although there exists a large and well-documented “race gap” between whites and blacks in their support for the death penalty, we know relatively little about the nature of these differences and how the races respond to various arguments against the penalty. To explore such differences, we embedded an experiment in a national survey in which respondents are randomly assigned to one of several argument conditions. We find that African Americans are more responsive to argument frames that are both racial (i.e., the death penalty is unfair because most of the people who are executed are black) and nonracial (i.e., too many innocent people are being executed) than are whites, who are highly resistant to persuasion and, in the case of the racial argument, actually become more supportive of the death penalty upon learning that it discriminates against blacks. These interracial differences in response to the framing of arguments against the death penalty can be explained, in part, by the degree to which people attribute the causes of black criminality to either dispositional or systemic forces (i.e., the racial biases of the criminal justice system). he conventional wisdom on public opinion toward the death penalty in the United States, as summarized nicely by Ellsworth and Gross, is that people “feel strongly about the death penalty, know little about it, and...
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...Arguments and reasons to be against the death penalty Argument two: The death penalty is morally wrong by having the death penalty we are effectively sinking to the same level as those we are trying to punish. While people disagree on ethics and moral codes most people agree that killing is fundamentally wrong. Even if killing people would have better consequences it still morally the wrong thing to do. Mercy is objectively a good thing and retribution isn't. This doesn't mean that we should let violent criminals on the streets but means that we needn't sink to there level and kill them just like they killed the victims. Argument three: Violence begets more violence One of the best arguments for the death penalty is that if we really want to promote a nonviolent society our legal system needs to set the example. If we want people to be less violent than we need our judicial system to be nonviolent. If we as a society are saying killing people is an acceptable method of dealing with a problem than other people will interpret that as a green light to use killing to fix their problems. The only real way to stop violence is to promote the sanctity of life and send a clear message to society that killing isn't okay under any circumstances and it's impossible to do that while the state itself is killing people. Argument four: The death penalty carries with it the risk of executing innocent men Over the years several people have been killed by the state for crimes they did...
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...the death penalty. Death penalty is whereby a state through its judiciary system gives a court punishment for an offence as death. That person would be legally killed within a set period of time. This is an ethical question in that some people feel that death penalty is wrong, while others feel that it is justifiable in some cases. This is a great debate in most countries and the debate includes a lot of civic and religious groups. In some cases the discretion to give a death penalty is vested in a few people in the judiciary system. Looking at the issue of death penalty, there are varied reasons that support the penalty as well as some reasons that seem to suggest that death penalty is bad. In many countries the constitution tells whether or not the death penalty should be upheld in the country. Overberg (n.d) says that about 75% of the people in the United States indicated that they favour death penalty. The same author says that the Catholic Bishops and Jews are against the penalty. The contrasting thing is that in 1966, according to this same author only half the population in USA approved of the death penalty. This shift in number of people favouring the death penalty is suggested to come due to the increased number of murders and violent crimes. So some people believe that the death penalty would deter would be violent offenders to shun violence as the would fear the death penalty. It is reported that the USA government has a shift towards wanting the death penalty. The...
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...The idea of putting another human to death is hard to completely fathom. The physical mechanics involved in the act of execution are easy to grasp, but the emotions involved in carrying out a death sentence on another person, regardless of how much they deserve it, is beyond my own understanding. However, this act is sometimes necessary and it is our responsibility as a society to see that it is done. Opponents of capital punishment have basically four arguments. The first is that there is a possibility of error. However, the chance that there might be an error is separate from the issue of whether the death penalty can be justified or not. If an error does occur, and an innocent person is executed, then the problem lies in the court system, not in the death penalty. Furthermore, most activities in our world, in which humans are involved, possess a possibility of injury or death. Construction, sports, driving, and air travel all offer the possibility of accidental death even though the highest levels of precautions are taken. These activities continue to take place, and continue to occasionally take human lives, because we have all decided, as a society, that the advantages outweigh the unintended loss. We have also decided that the advantages of having dangerous murderers removed from our society outweigh the losses of the offender. The second argument against capital punishment is that it is unfair in its administration. Statistics show that the poor and minorities...
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...The debate concerning the death penalty has been ongoing for decades. The central question is whether capital punishment should be retained or abolished worldwide. While the death penalty continues to be used today, most countries have eliminated it in their criminal justice systems. One substantial country that continues to use the death penalty is America. Capital punishment is significant because it permits individuals to be killed lawfully. The death penalty carries enormous power around the legal system in addition to the persons that are accused of serious crimes. The purpose of this paper is to find out the diverse arguments surrounding capital punishment that has led some countries against it and others for it? This will be done by...
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...Catholic Church condemns this type of punishment but those who have been victimized are crying for justice. Another argument is that the methods used for capital punishment is against the Eight Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. My intentions for this paper are to present and analyze both sides of the argument. Is the death penalty immoral or is it immoral not to impose it? Introduction Capital punishment, also known as the death, has been one of the most controversial issue currently still under fire about its morality. Many believe it is both unethical and morally wrong for the government to take one’s life while others believe capital punishment is right and is needed to the deterrence of crime. This is a very controversial issue and brings up many different points of views from many different people. Some argue that murderers should be executed and pay for the crimes they’ve committed while others believe life imprisonment is suffice. The Catholic Church condemns this type of punishment but those who have been victimized, including their families, are crying for justice to be served. Another argument is that the methods used for capital punishment is against the Eight Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Is the death penalty immoral or is it immoral not to impose it? This paper will present and analyze both sides of the argument. The death penalty is...
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...Arguments for and Against the Death Penalty from http://deathpenaltyinfo.msu.edu/ ARGUMENT 1 DETERRENCE The death penalty prevents future murders. Society has always used punishment to discourage would-be criminals from unlawful action. Since society has the highest interest in preventing murder, it should use the strongest punishment available to deter murder, and that is the death penalty. If murderers are sentenced to death and executed, potential murderers will think twice before killing for fear of losing their own life. For years, criminologists analyzed murder rates to see if they fluctuated with the likelihood of convicted murderers being executed, but the results were inconclusive. Then in 1973 Isaac Ehrlich employed a new kind of analysis which produced results showing that for every inmate who was executed, 7 lives were spared because others were deterred from committing murder. Similar results have been produced by disciples of Ehrlich in follow-up studies. Moreover, even if some studies regarding deterrence are inconclusive, that is only because the death penalty is rarely used and takes years before an execution is actually carried out. Punishments which are swift and sure are the best deterrent. The fact that some states or countries which do not use the death penalty have lower murder rates than jurisdictions which do is not evidence of the failure of deterrence. States with high murder rates would have even higher rates if they did not use the death penalty....
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...Arguments for and Against the Death Penalty from http://deathpenaltyinfo.msu.edu/ ARGUMENT 1 DETERRENCE The death penalty prevents future murders. Society has always used punishment to discourage would-be criminals from unlawful action. Since society has the highest interest in preventing murder, it should use the strongest punishment available to deter murder, and that is the death penalty. If murderers are sentenced to death and executed, potential murderers will think twice before killing for fear of losing their own life. For years, criminologists analyzed murder rates to see if they fluctuated with the likelihood of convicted murderers being executed, but the results were inconclusive. Then in 1973 Isaac Ehrlich employed a new kind of analysis which produced results showing that for every inmate who was executed, 7 lives were spared because others were deterred from committing murder. Similar results have been produced by disciples of Ehrlich in follow-up studies. Moreover, even if some studies regarding deterrence are inconclusive, that is only because the death penalty is rarely used and takes years before an execution is actually carried out. Punishments which are swift and sure are the best deterrent. The fact that some states or countries which do not use the death penalty have lower murder rates than jurisdictions which do is not evidence of the failure of deterrence. States with high murder rates would have even higher rates if they did not use...
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