...society is the use of capital punishment, informally known as the death penalty. There are two main sides to this topic; some people want to abolish the death penalty, while others want to continue or even increase its use. The people that want to abolish the death penalty view it as unconstitutional, as they see it as “cruel and unusual;” while others view the death penalty as an appropriate punishment that fits the horrendous crime of murder. The death penalty has been shown to have a deterrent effect on crime, which is why the U.S.A and other nations worldwide should continue the use of capital punishment (Muhlhausen). HISTORY The death penalty has been around since the start of time. It is...
Words: 1700 - Pages: 7
...Racial Disparity and the Death Penalty Jeanine Clark PHI 103 Namoi Sanderovsky July 2, 2012 Penalty Racial Disparity and the Death Penalty We should, generally, want fairness in all areas of public policy. We should especially want fairness with regard to the death penalty, since the stakes are so high. Yet the opponents of the death penalty make a most peculiar argument about fairness. They argue that if the death penalty is not administered fairly, and especially not administered with racial fairness, it must be abolished. Nobody would even think of trying to apply this principle in a consistent way. If we find that black neighborhoods get less police protection than white neighborhoods, would we withdraw cops from both black and white neighborhoods? If banks are discriminating against black home buyers in mortgage lending, would we demand they stop all mortgage lending? If we find the IRS discriminating against middle-class and poor taxpayers, would we want to abolish the IRS? The first question, of course, is whether the death penalty is administered unfairly. Among right-thinking, politically correct people, the phrase “racial unfairness” is a mere tautology. It is difficult to imagine that anything in American society is administered with racial fairness. But, in fact, the opponents of capital punishment have both a “mass market” version of the racial disparity argument and a “specialist” version, and the two versions are flatly...
Words: 1875 - Pages: 8
...Constitution in today’s debates. There are those who advocate for the death penalty and those who oppose it, arguing that it constitutes as cruel and unusual punishment. With that being said, this paper will discuss the constitutionality of the death penalty. Controversy over the death penalty in the U.S. Supreme Court can be traced back to 1879 with Wilkerson v. Utah, which stated that the Utah territorial statue of execution by firing squad was not cruel and unusual punishment under the eighth amendment of the U.S. constitution. (Wikipedia: Wilkerson v. Utah) In 1972, the United States Supreme Court struck down capital punishment, reducing all death...
Words: 1439 - Pages: 6
...The Death Penalty Lucious Davis PHI200: Mind and Machine Instructor: Michelle Loudermilk October 10, 2011 The United States is still one of the countries that still use the death penalty as punishment for crimes. While some see it as barbaric and totally against American values, others view it as an important deterrent to violent crimes- such as murder. Regardless of which side you are on, one thing is for sure- the debate isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Capital punishment, another name for the death penalty, has been present in the United States since 1608. This is the process by which a person a person is tried and put to death for crimes they have committed. The list of crimes that are punishable by death vary from state to state (the U.S. government and the U.S. military have their own criteria), as well as the methods used for execution. Lethal injection is the standard for execution, but there are several other methods used, including: electrocution, hanging, and death by firing squad. Although every state does not employ the death penalty- a vast majority do. Along with the District of Columbia and the U.S. government, 36 states currently have the power to execute inmates. Through the centuries there has been endless debate about the morality, legality, and constitutionality of capital punishment. For many (and for my paper’s sake) the debate is whether or not the death penalty is ethical. Specifically, is it ethical to put someone to death for...
Words: 2978 - Pages: 12
...Introduction Nowadays, the death penalty debate is a heated issue in many countries, especially in the United States. The death penalty or the capital punishment is a sentence imposed by the law, which remove the legal life of the person who commit or is suspected of having committed a serious crime. The history of death penalty in the U.S is long and ruthless and the first recorded execution was in 1608. There are many kinds of death penalty which have been used in US such as shooting, electric chair, hanging, lethal injection. Some people believe that it is never ethical and justifiable to carry out the death penalty as means of punishment by the law. Nowadays, approximately 2/3 of all countries have banned the death penalty included 18 states of the United States. Most executions take place in the Southern states, according to this source, until 2008, 930 out of 1136 executions took place there, with Texas having carried out 422 (The pros and cons of the death penalty in the USA, n.d). This research will indicate whether the death penalty in the U.S should be abolished. Body Paragraph Reasons for the abolishment of Capital Punishment in the U.S It is possible to argue that the death penalty in the U.S should be eliminated because of inviolable human rights, unjust punishment and faint correlation between executions and crime rates. Firstly, inalienable human-rights are against the death penalty in all over the world because no one can decide who could be...
Words: 1238 - Pages: 5
...CONTINUE TO BE A PART OF THE U.S. JUSTICE SYSTEM? Should Capital Punishment Continue to be a Part of the U.S. Justice System? Siddiqui Carter Research Process Outline Paper University of Phoenix RES 341 Dr. Frank Poter January 1, 2005 Week 2 Should Capital Punishment Continue to be a Part of the U.S. Justice System? Capital punishment has long been a part of the American criminal justice system and the topic has created much debate on if this punishment is appropriate for the U. S. society. Many believe capital punishment is a necessary punishment for those who commit capital offenses and acts as a deterrent to violent criminals. Essentially, Americans that support the death penalty believe that it contributes to the overall wellbeing of U. S. society. Activists still desire to eliminate the punishment. Though, this country’s founding fathers broke away from England they did not completely disagree with everything they believed. When it came down to capital punishment, they adopted it from British common law. Even as history is reviewed, debate over capital punishment can be seen as far back as the American Revolution Debates over capital punishment continued from the Civil War until the 1960’s. During this period some states abolished and later reinstated the death penalty, but from 1968 to 1976, due to public out cry, no executions took place in the U.S. In 1972 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the death penalty in the Supreme Court case Furman...
Words: 1563 - Pages: 7
...THE DEATH PENALTY IS CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT PHI 103: INFORMAL LOGIC JUNE 2, 2012 THE DEATH PENALTY IS CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT In the United States there are currently 33 states that have the death penalty as a form of punishment. The legal system in the U.S. is imperfect resulting in many innocent people’s convictions of death. There have been several exonerations of innocent people on death row. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, “From 1973-1999 there was an average of 3 exonerations per year. From 2000-2011, there has been an average of 5 exonerations per year” (Death Penalty Information Organization, pg 2 para 3). Because of the imperfections of the legal system there are thousands of people as well as politicians that believe the death penalty should be abolished in the the United States, I am one of the people that are against the death penalty but for more reasons other than just the imperfections of the legal system. The other reasons the death penalty should be abolished are more based on the ethical issues, people’s rights to life, and the economic issues associated with the death penalty. Because of all the exonerations in the past three or four decades this form of justice should be abolished, it is not applies fairly and just and it makes me wonder how many people were actually put to death that were innocent. Fact is that in the 33 states that use the death penalty as a form of punishment do not all use the same...
Words: 1804 - Pages: 8
...Of the Death penalty 2/6/2016 On the issue of death penalty the suggestions and thinking of justice Marshall and Brennan, that the death penalty is unconstitutional. After this decision the court has decide to leave the decision on the states to make their laws on the issue of capital punishment. Now advocates are trying to make new laws to end the autocracy and 35 states including Florida they enact the new laws of death penalty. Death penalty was imposed by Supreme Court in 1976 with some reforms which were come from all the states. They provide some guidelines for judge & jury on which behalf death penalty should impose. The guidelines were accepted in 1976 by supreme court in in Gregg v. Georgia (428 U.S. 153), Jurek v. Texas (428 U.S. 262), and Proffitt v. Florida (428 U.S. 242) and commonly this decision is known as Gregg decision. This death penalty decision is imposed or we can say reinstated first on Florida, Georgia & Texas. It came under the 8th amendments of the constitution. Under these reforms there were three procedures which is going to follow every time when someone came under death penalty. First bifurcated trials happened in which there is separate comment for the guilt and number of phases of the trial. Then after it second one is to see whether the crime require death penalty or lesser punishment. Last reform is to review convictions and punishment made. These procedural reforms will helps to states to eliminate the death penalty cases. Due...
Words: 472 - Pages: 2
...Flagler College History and Evolution of the Death Penalty in the United States Ethics of Judiciary and Sociology of Criminal Law The history of the death penalty is tumultuous, from the punishment being initiated to abolished, and then reinstated. The death penalty, initiated in the United States in 1622, continues to be exploited by 32 states, regardless of its integrity and use to discourage people from committing serious crimes. It is now being eroded again and the abolition of the death penalty seems to be inevitable. One problem with the death penalty is that it has been shown that many people have been executed when they have not committed the crime. Since 1973, hundreds of innocent people have been released from death row, after the evidence that sentenced them to death was found to be inaccurate. Many of these innocent people were victims of wrongful convictions based on confused witnesses, mistakes by lawyers and inaccurate forensics, while the person actually responsible for the crime was still free. Cases involving DNA evidence in court, such as Ray Krone's case, can be denied access even if life and death are on the ropes. Found guilty, Krone was sentenced to death for rape and murder in Arizona, even though DNA found on the victim did not correlate with his. Arizona argued that no submission of DNA evidence could interfere with the jury decision. A decade later, without a court order, a crime lab worker identified the person who actually committed the...
Words: 2123 - Pages: 9
...Death Penalty In 1991, Cameron Todd Willingham had been accused of murder of his three daughters by burning down his house. There was no physical evidence of this accusation, and he pleaded not guilty time and time again. Yet in 2004, Willingham was put to death. After his execution, the case was investigated, and the truth was uncovered. He was innocent like he had been pleading all along (Grann). Is the death penalty really worth the risk of killing an innocent person? Today, the death penalty remains a method of punishing for murder and other heinous crimes. But is this really the most effective method to stop people from committing a crime? Arguments on whether the death penalty serves as a valid and justifies form of punishment continual to spread on in today’s society. One says it is a form of justice and punishment, when the other side says execution is an act of murder. But since the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime, it has a much higher cost than keeping the criminal in prison, and the belief is true because our society is much more highly evolved, therefore, the death penalty should be abolished. The death penalty was supposed to decrease homicides, but there is no evidence that has proved this theory. Most people who commit murders either do not expect to be caught or do not carefully think through the differences between an execution and life in prison before they act. Studies have also find out that states without the death penalty have better...
Words: 988 - Pages: 4
...No Justification for Death Penalty Death penalty or the capital punishment is a severe punishment given by the government to a criminal for offending crimes that are categorized under the capital crimes like murder. When the criminals are convicted of capital crimes and are sentenced for death penalty, the government legally takes life of the criminal by hanging them to death, lethal injection or by electrocute. Death penalty used to be performed all over the world, but many countries have outlawed it with regards to its violation of human rights and religious causes. In United States, most of the states have the authority to give death penalty to criminals. Death penalty is a very serious issue that has caused a big controversy between its supporters and opposers. People who support death penalty argues that it is the right kind of punishment for the criminals, provides justice to the victims and the families as well help deter the crime rates. But I really don’t think death penalty has any justification because there is a maximum chance for innocent people being convicted, it is also a violation of human rights as well as a religious sin to take life of people, and the crimes have not lowered due to death penalty, rather it takes a lot of tax payer’s money to execute a criminal. I rather think that such criminals should be given life imprisonment without parole. The foremost reason for abolishing the death penalty is the wrongful conviction. There are lots of cases where...
Words: 1394 - Pages: 6
...Death Penalty Death penalty or capital punishment is the killing person by judicial process as a punishment for an offense. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offenses. People have different opinion about this issue. Some people support death penalty and some people are against death penalty. It is very hard to decide what is right thing with this issue, but both sides have good reasons why should and why we should not have death penalty. In “The Federal Death Penalty as a Safety Valve” the author asserts that “Fifteen states do not have a death penalty, and yet the federal government can federally prosecute capital cases on historically state-prosecuted violent crimes”(Mysliwiec 255). The author thinks that government has to much power when it comes to the death penalty. In U.S. states have power to decide do they want to have death penalty or not. This depends on who is majority in government. Usually republicans are for death penalty and democrats are against death penalty. In “Death penalty views in China, Japan and U.S” the author shows us the study where we can see the level of death penalty support and views on capital punishment among college students from China, Japan and U.S. (Jiang 1). This study is very interesting because we can see how young people from these countries are thinking and what is they opinion about this issue. It was found that Chinese respondents reported the highest level of death penalty support, followed...
Words: 1486 - Pages: 6
...Introduction It’s time to execute the death penalty. For those of you that do not know what the death penalty otherwise known as capital punishment is, It is when the government sentences a person to death by the state as a punishment for a crime. The sentence that a criminal is punished in such a manner is known as the death sentence, And when the government goes through with the sentence it is known as a execution. And some people believe that this sentence stops future crimes. Well i'm here to tell you that my opinion is that the death penalty does not stop future crimes. And that we should get rid of the death penalty altogether. For my research I mainly looked at the United States and the states that allow and do not allow the death penalty. And i will be talking about the cost of the penalty altogether. Why We Should Stop The Death Penalty States in the U.S. that allow the death penalty have higher murder rates than the states that do not allow the death penalty. If anything everytime that the government executes a criminal it’s showing us as citizens of this nation that their respect for life is slowing diminishing. And with that there would be more violent crimes and especially more homicides. And most claims that are made that there is proof that the death penalty can be...
Words: 838 - Pages: 4
...this is the only acceptable punishment. Capital punishment does not only lower the murder rate, but it's value as retribution alone is a good reason for handing out death sentences. Support for the death penalty in the U.S. has risen to an average of 80% according to an article written by Richard Worsnop, entitled "Death penalty debate centres on Retribution", this figure is slightly lower in Canada where support for the death penalty is at 72% of the population over 18 years of age, as stated in article by Kirk Makir, in the March 26, 1987 edition of the Globe and Mail, titled "B.C. MPs split on Death Penalty". The death penalty deters murder by putting the fear of death into would be killers. A person is less likely to do something, if he or she thinks that harm will come to him. Another way the death penalty deters murder, is the fact that if the killer is dead, he will not be able to kill again. Most supporters of the death penalty feel that offenders should be punished for their crimes, and that it does not matter whether it will deter the crime rate. Supporters of the death penalty are in favour of making examples out of offenders, and that the threat of death will be enough to deter the crime rate, but the crime rate is irrelevant. According to Isaac Ehrlich's study, published on April 16, 1976, eight murders...
Words: 1376 - Pages: 6
... (Meese III, 2010). Defendants that were found guilty of murder and prison break were put to death. Oliver Ellsworth was appointed Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1796. “In Furman v. Georgia (1972), the U.S. Supreme Court found that the death penalty, which was applied capriciously and on a racially discriminatory basis, violated the Eighth Amendment.” These death penalties are cruel and unusual. (Head, n.d.). U.S. Supreme Court voted upholding the death penalty in Gregg v. Georgia in 1976 by 7-2. In regards to the vote, there would be some changes to the Crimes Act of 1790 that would not allow defendants eligible for the death penalty. One of the changes is the defendants I.Q. When the defendant’s has an I.Q. below 70, the defendant would be labeled mentally retarded and would not be eligible for the death penalty. When the defendant is under the age of 18 at the time of the crime, the defendant would not be eligible for the death penalty. President Clinton signed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 in the aftermath of the World Trade Center and the Oklahoma City bombings, this Act allowed the defendant found guilty would be subject to the death penalty. According to "U.S. Army Corrections System: Procedures For Military Executions " (2010), “Only the President of the United States can approve and order the execution of a death sentence (under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) Article 71(a), Rules for Courts-Martial...
Words: 530 - Pages: 3
