...still use the death penalty as a punishment while 16 states have abolished its use (Death Penalty Information Center, 2011) . The constitutionality of capital punishment is in question and is constantly interpreted. The death penalty requires arbitrary decisions to be made by jurors. The studies on race in death penalty cases, the exonerations of those individuals on death row, and the cost of the death penalty are reasons to abolish capital punishment in the United States. Recent studies on the death penalty show surprising facts about the race of defendant and victim. In North Carolina it was found that the odds of receiving the death penalty rose by 3.5 for defendants whose victims were white. A California study found that defendants who murdered Whites were three times more likely to receive the death penalty than those who murdered Blacks and four times more likely than those who murdered Latinos. Race-of-victim and race-of-defendant discrimination has been found in 96 percent of the states in which death penalty and race studies have taken place (Death Penalty Information Center, 2011) . The exonerations of those on death row are somewhat shocking. To know that individuals on death row could be innocent should deter the public from supporting capital punishment. More than 130 people have been released from death row since 1973 with proof of innocence. From 2000 to 2007 there has been an average of 5 exonerations each year (Death Penalty Information Center, 2011) . The outstanding...
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...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 guidelines to enforce the death penalty. This would mean that the death...
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...you’ll that the death penalty should be abolished. Primary Audience Outcome: I want you’ll to become willing to contact their local lawmakers to make the necessary change to eliminate the death penalty as form of capital punishment. Introduction (Attention Getter) After committing a capital crime which is defined as a crime such as first-degree murder or rape of a child, a large percentage of people are sentenced to capital punishment. The end result is absolute death! But what if you were actually innocent of the crime? This unsettling tombstone could be on the grave as a result of the death penalty! (Thesis Statement) There has been a nationwide decline in capital punishment, but unfortunately potentially innocent people are still often executed. (Preview of the main points) This afternoon, I will first share with you some of the injustices that are occurring in the American legal system. Then I will explore with you reasons why we should consider adopting life without the parole as the only form of punishment for capital crimes. Body The death penalty has more victims than just the person who was convicted of the crime. A. Wrongly convicted people are often exonerate, but more than not executed. 1. The 100-plus innocent people exonerated from death row represent further proof that the death penalty should be abolished. Issues & Controversies On File (2009) 2. A prime example is the details related to the posthumous exoneration of Timothy Cole which was...
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...that the death penalty should be abolished. Primary Audience Outcome: I want you’ll to become willing to contact their local lawmakers to make the necessary change to eliminate the death penalty as form of capital punishment. Introduction (Attention Getter) After committing a capital crime which is defined as a crime such as first-degree murder or rape of a child, a large percentage of people are sentenced to capital punishment. The end result is absolute death! But what if you were actually innocent of the crime? This unsettling tombstone could be on the grave as a result of the death penalty! (Thesis Statement) There has been a nationwide decline in capital punishment, but unfortunately potentially innocent people are still often executed. (Preview of the main points) This afternoon, I will first share with you some of the injustices that are occurring in the American legal system. Then I will explore with you reasons why we should consider adopting life without the parole as the only form of punishment for capital crimes. Body The death penalty has more victims than just the person who was convicted of the crime. A. Wrongly convicted people are often exonerate, but more than not executed. 1. The 100-plus innocent people exonerated from death row represent further proof that the death penalty should be abolished. Issues & Controversies On File (2009) 2. A prime example is the details related to the posthumous exoneration of Timothy Cole which was...
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...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...
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...innocent people. Many unjust convictions such as lack of eyewitness identification, false confessions and the access to have DNA testing has caused our country’s criminal justice system to convict many innocent individuals, who have been sentenced to death. In the United States of America, there are 3,146 known death row inmates. There are 29 states with current death penalty statutes, as well as federal civilian and military legal systems, and 21 states without death penalty statutes. Since the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976, there have been a total of 1,307 executions (NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Quarterly Report, October 1, 2012). According to James Brockway (Guest Blogger, Death Penalty Focus), “Exoneration has been incredibly important for those who oppose capital punishment. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, 138 death row inmates have had their convictions overturned… While organizations like the Innocence Project put their tireless efforts into remedying these miscarriages of justice, there have been at least ten instances when the state put an innocent to death.” DNA tests, scientific techniques, investigations and the dedicated work of multiple attorneys have become greatly needed tools due to the fact that they can provide much greater certainty in regards to the defendant’s innocence then was previously available....
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...such cases. United States, China and Japan among other countries believe that death penalty is a favorable sentence. United States has authorized death penalty in most federal governments, including the military. Some of the methods used in death penalty include the electric chair. Most of these procedures used in death penalty have been considered to be violating constitutional rights. Though fewer legislatures have been made to change these procedures, death penalty should be abolished. This is the position that is appropriate and offer should be supported. It is a racist tool of criminal punishment. Evidences explaining the reasons against this issue are clearly highlighted in the issue. The arguments behind the support of death penalty as a criminal punishment tool are at no point strong enough to be supported. Abolition is the only option. As an indicator, the number of countries abolishing this type of punishment has increased. This shows the support of the view that death penalty should be abolished is on the rise. This has been...
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...million over a 25-year period and also had no executions.” The expense of capital punishment in the US is the highest in the world and according to BBC UK, “the cost of convicting and executing Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City Bombing was over $13 million.” Compared to life imprisonment, capital punishment is an unnecessary waste of taxpayers’ money, especially when the national debt is soaring and budget continues receiving cuts. Furthermore, spending money on executing reduces funds for genuine crime control measures such as crime prevention, mental health treatment, education, rehabilitation, and drug treatment program. The national government can reduce crime through other less expensive methods and abolishing capital punishment should be the first. By preventing crime, society does not need to worry about capital punishment from...
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...Should Death Penalty be abolished in America? Death penalty, or capital punishment, the most severe punishment for criminals, has been in the punishment system in countries all over the world for thousands of years. The history of death penalty is almost as long as the history of human beings. Death penalty was once considered as natural as life itself. It was usually applied to those criminals who had conducted grave crimes and no one would feel pity for the criminals in the past. However, with the development of human beings, different voices about death penalty appear more and more often. Some people argue that in modern society where life is highly valued, death penalty that deprives of a person’s life would be too cruel. Therefore, campaigns are launched for the purpose of abolishing death penalty. However, there are still some other people who firmly support death penalty. As a result, in today’s society, death penalty has become an extremely controversial issue, both sides of which have its own supporters and reasons. This paper explores to the different sides of death penalty, to find whether death penalty is necessary or not in today’s world. In the coin of death penalty, side A stands the firmly supporters of death penalty, claiming that death penalty is a cruel necessity in today’s world. A latest Gallup poll shows that 64% of the Americans support death penalty and 29% oppose it. For especially atrocious crimes, the support rate rises to 80% (Jones, Jeffrey M)....
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...Pros and Cons of Death Penalty Does the execution of a murderer serve justice for all? One of the most controversial topics in the world today not only deals with the death penalty, also known as capital punishment, but whether it should be abolished or not . While some believe that the death penalty is “cruel and unusual punishment” violating the 8th amendment of the United States Constitution, others argue that “an eye for an eye” does justice. Thirty-four different states support this type of punishment including Oklahoma, leaving fifteen states that do not. According to Newport and the Gallup Polls, as of May 2007, “sixty-six percent of Americans -- almost the same percentage that supports the death penalty” consider the death penalty “morally acceptable.” Only twenty-seven percent of people believe the death penalty is morally wrong. Some say that the “legality in the United States is critically undermining American moral stature around the world (Ballaro & Cushman)." The death penalty is a very emotional, complex, and rather complicated matter that includes, but not limited to, the argument of the pros and cons as well as the fact that some convicted people whether executed or not are then later freed from guilt and blame (exonerated). There are many different pros of the death penalty, but I have chosen to only discuss a few of the most controversial topics. Supporters of death penalty believe that “[j]ustice is only achieved when a crime is met with the proper punishment...
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...The Death Penalty: We Do Not Need It The death penalty has been one of the most controversial debates throughout history. It has been drawing more and more attention in the United States since the Supreme Court reinstated it in 1976. In my point of view, death penalty is a violent and brutal act that is against human moral principles and does little good for the country. Therefore, it should definitely be abolished, especially in this highly civilized society. No one can deny the fact that, the death penalty is a brutal action of killing, regardless of what way people carry it out. In a sense of morality, there is not much difference between a society killing a criminal and a criminal killing an ordinary people. They are both violent acts that turn a human being into a corpse. People are created for being loved, helped and saved, not destroyed. “Thou shalt not kill,” the commandant sets out the basic respect toward people’s life. Neither any individual nor any group of people, which included a country and a society, has the right to decide if a person should live or die. The death penalty, with no doubt, is an action that disregards this most fundamental right of human beings. It is wrong enough for criminals to commit homicides; it makes even less sense to kill criminals for the killings. It can not bring back the lives of those who already died. The only thing it does is to destroy one more life and make more people- the families of the criminals- suffer the pain from...
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...The Death Penalty Capital punishment is putting a condemned person to death. When one reads history of the world, it is seen that many people were sentenced to death because they raised a voice against the king. Ending a person’s life without giving him a chance to repent is not the best of the correctional methods. It might serve as deterrence for others but to what extent is that entirely true will be examined in the paper. The “cruel and unusual” clause in the eighth amendment states that “cruel and unusual punishment” such as torture or lingering death can not be inflicted on anyone as a form of execution. It is however permissible under the 8th Amendment to execute a convict by means of hanging, shooting, electrocution, and lethal gas. There is still confusion about what is actually constitutes “cruel and unusual punishment.” There have been several court cases of interest that have challenged and redefined this concept. In Louisiana ex. Rel. Francis v. Resweber, a convicted murderer was subject to a botched execution, and subsequently argued that a second attempt at execution would be a violation of the Eighth Amendment constituting cruel and unusual punishment. Previously the forms of execution were very painful. Many were beheaded while many were crucified. Crucifixion was the method used to execute Jesus according to Christianity. Such methods aimed at prolonging the pain before death. “Some may attempt to argue that there is scriptural authorization for the death penalty...
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...In the last decade, DNA analysis has become a mainstay of the criminal justice system the gold standard for identification (Liptak). The role of deliberation in the integration of technology and society examines where we, as a society, have reached a consensus or should on the use of DNA in the justice system, and also points to the unsettled areas of debate in which there remains room for reasonable disagreement. DNA technology has been rapidly and fairly easily integrated into the courtroom; its integration into the pre and post-trial areas has been slower and more complex. Nevertheless, some broad areas of agreement exist, or should exist, in these areas, including: that some level of post-conviction relief is warranted; and that some forms of DNA databases are effective and appropriate investigatory tools. Areas of Consensus There are two broad areas of consensus. First, that DNA changes the meaning of time in the justice system. From this principle follows a number of measures to take in consideration: that evidence must be preserved; that there should be statutory criteria for post-conviction access and review of evidence; and those statutes of limitation should be increased or abolished. The second area of consensus is that DNA databases in some form, at least are legitimate and effective investigatory tools. Time has been deeply programmed into justice both pre conviction, with respect to statutes of limitation, and post-conviction, in limitations on bringing...
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...Final: Capital Punishment a just social problem SOC 203 Intro to Social Problems The debate of capital punishment will always generate passion, it is one of the most debated issues in the Criminal Justice system. The absence of capital punishment would prove a greater problem for the sake of society. Many opponents will argue the death penalty should be abolished, they fail to offer up any comparable alternatives for the crime for murder. It is a harsh punishment but, in all fairness, the punishment fits the crime. Capital punishment does what the name suggests: it punishes and it removes the notion that one can kill and get away with it. It serves as a deterrent for those contemplating murder and in the end, it brings justice. Capital punishment defends the sanctity of life and until we evolve to the place where murders are no longer a part of our society, we must punish this crime fairly. To know we have removed a murdering criminal from the street is a relief thankful to deterrence of violent crime, retribution, Christianity, and innocence. One argument for the death penalty is the fact that it deters crime. Those enticed by killing someone might think twice if they know their life will be taken as a consequence. Joanna Shepherd explores the history of capital punishment and explains that while many studies produced mixed results, modern economic studies reveal executions “significantly deter murders” (Shepherd). In addition, Wesley Lowe reports when the death penalty...
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...of the iceberg. If you take into account; the multiple decades that many innocent people have sat behind bars awaiting their execution and add in the billions of dollars spent above what non-death penalty cases cost, the benefits of abolishing the death penalty outweighs the risk. Most of those, who oppose abolishing the death penalty, also feel there should be much higher standards for those who are eligible for capital punishment, however, there is no way to increase the maximum penalty for someone after they are convicted of a Capital crime. The most plausible way to prevent wrongful death penalty convictions is to abolish the death penalty completely. If we eliminate capital punishment, then we also eliminate the possibility of potentially taking an innocent life, it will also save millions of dollars every year in almost every state that still uses capital punishment, as well as save the many victims of the death penalty. It doesn't only effect those who are accused of the crime but also their; parents, children, spouses, friends ect. The cost of the death penalty is a major reason it should be abolished. The cost begins with the original trial. Jury selection alone can take over a month and there is extensive questioning about views on the death penalty to look for any bias that may become a factor in how they vote after the trial. They will not allow someone who is against the death penalty to serve on jury because they are practically guaranteed to say...
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