...What Differences Between the Criminal and Civil Justice Systems? There are two different types of court systems: criminal and civil. There are vast differences between the two systems, including different types of punishments, laws, and burdens of proof. While the two systems are usually separate, there are some situations where they seem to overlap, such as wrongful death cases and cases involving police misconduct. How Does Each System Work? The first difference that should be noted is that in the criminal system, the government (either state or federal) seeks to punish a person for violating rules that have been set by a state legislature or Congress. In the civil system, there is usually a dispute between individuals or organizations as to rights and/or duties that they owe each other. In the civil system, the injured party starts things by bringing a suit. On the other hand, a prosecutor can bring a criminal case regardless of the victim¿s wishes. What Punishment are Available in Each System? In the criminal system, if you are convicted you could face fines, probation, and jail time. If you are found to be liable in a civil case, you face possible monetary damages and you may be forced to give up property. But, you will never face jail time in a civil case. Also, it should be noted that one of the purposes of the criminal system is to stigmatize an individual, unlike the civil system. What about the Burden of Proof? The burden of proof is higher in criminal cases....
Words: 438 - Pages: 2
...it is hard to find doctors that are willing to violate their ethics is inexcusable. The are more issues at hand then just the correct administration of capital punishment. Many of the people executed in this country are innocent. The legal system direly needs to be reworked. There should be protections in place to protect innocent people from being murdered by the courts. The amount of legal red-tape in the appeals process is excruciatingly high. The case of Leo Jones is one example. On May 23, 1981 patrolman Thomas Szafranski was shot by high-powered 30-30 rifle while he was stopped at a traffic light. Leo Jones who lived in apartment near by was later arrested (Mills, 2008). That night he was beaten until he confessed to the murder (Mills, 2008). Retired police officer Cleveland Smith testified that officer Officer Lynwood Mundy had bragged about beating Jones (Mills, 2008). Jones was taken to the hospital after the arrest for injuries received during the beating. During the appeals process 12 witnesses were brought forward who testified that another man had confessed to the crime to them or that they saw another man leaving the scene with a rifle. Despite the evidence...
Words: 837 - Pages: 4
...punishment is the legal process whereby a person is put to death by the state, as a means of punishment for having committed a capital crime. In this essay, I will discuss some of the main advantages and disadvantages of capital punishment and whether capital punishment is a morally and ethically viable approach to punishment. I hold a firmly retentionist position and believe that the most just and fitting punishment for one who has committed a capital offence would be the death penalty. I will support my position with statistics showing that capital punishment has successfully been used to deter people from committing capital crimes. As well, I will discuss various philosophies regarding the morals of execution and punishment in general. My goal in writing this paper is not to force abolitionist thinkers to change their position with regards to capital punishment, but rather to show abolitionist thinkers that there is another way to look at capital punishment. Two of the main principles that are used to support the retentionist philosophy are deterrence and retributivism. Deterrence is the theory that the death penalty is morally just because it will deter would-be murderers from committing capital crimes, which carry a sentence of execution. Retributivism is the idea that criminals should be punished because they deserve to be punished, a robber must return what he stole while a murderer deserves to be put to death for having killed someone. The concept of deterrence is based...
Words: 2523 - Pages: 11
...crimes. The majority of capital sanctions are imposed on the state level for murder. Currently, thirty-two states have death penalty statutes. Of those thirty-two, only seven states carried out executions in 2014 (Bureau of Justice Statistics 2015). Those executions total 35 (Bureau of Justice Statistics 2015). As a result of the low number of executions carried out, experts in the United States have examined the efficiency of the death penalty. To accurately assess the economic costs of the death penalty, the difference between the costs...
Words: 3210 - Pages: 13
...Is Capital Punishment justified? Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, can be defined as "the premeditated and planned taking of a human life by a government in response to a crime committed by that legally convicted person" (White). The death penalty is executed in many countries whether they are developed, developing or underdeveloped nations. Many different types of execution are used around the world. The most common forms would be lethal injections, electric chairs, and gas chambers. In many countries execution by shooting, stoning, hanging or beheading are still used. One can argue that capital punishment has positive impacts, although statistics, research and professional studies show serious flaws. By using a system that values retribution over rehabilitation, men, women, and even children, are all put at risk of facing execution whether they are truly proven guilty or wrongfully convicted. The death penalty is unjustified because it is fundamentally immoral, ineffective in preventing crime, and sometimes mistakenly used to punish innocent people. The possibility of execution of an innocent citizen is reason enough for capital punishment to be considered an injustice. Since 1973, over 140 people in America have been wrongfully convicted and exonerated from death row due to the evidence of their wrongful conviction. (Amnesty International) “We all make mistakes” is a phrase often used and demonstrated through human behaviour. However, this mistake...
Words: 1262 - Pages: 6
...Wrongful Convictions Author: Balko, Radley After carefully reading the article “Wrongful Convictions” by Radley Balko (Reason. Jul2011, Vol. 43 Issue 3, p20-33 14p.) I have learned how our technology has advanced greatly in the last 2 decades as far as DNA testing and Forensic Science is concerned. Though still suggests all possible mistakes and errors made in a wrongful conviction case. This article has also shed light on the ignorance and indolence of our government and all other parties involved in these wrongly convicted cases such as our law enforcement, members of the bar, judges, forensic analysts, and many more. As well as pointing out the trials and tribulations of the wrongly convicted from the first initial interrogation to the conviction and then on to what may or may not lead to their cases being overturned and those accused of being “guilty” proven innocent and being set free. Their main example used in this article pertaining to the wrongfully convicted cases in the United States was a man named Paul House. The first exoneration took place in 1989 thanks to the advancement of DNA testing. Since then 268 convicts have been exonerated and set free. On average most of those had already served 13 years in prison as well as waiting on death row. It has been found that 17 convicts that have already been sentenced to death were wrongfully convicted. Now since the onset of DNA testing in the year 2000 it has added great pressure for those awaiting the death penalty...
Words: 948 - Pages: 4
...Attorney/Client Privilege Name: Donna Marie Brown Date: July 26, 2015 Possible Points: 100 Confidentiality and Attorney- Client Privilege Donna Marie Brown Kaplan University Confidentiality and the Alton Logan Case “Sometimes trying to make wrongful conviction right, creates an ethical tension for civil and criminal attorneys. With any kind of practice, but mostly with criminal defense, a lawyer may learn from a client that they committed a crime ascribed to someone else. When an innocent person is faced with conviction, imprisonment, or in some cases, the death penalty, and the attorney is mindful of the injustice occurring to a third party, the lawyer is still bound by the rules of confidentiality to honor their commitment to their client.” (Strutin, 2015) And this begins the case with Mr. Alton Logan. In 1982, Alton Logan was convicted of killing a security guard at a Chicago-area McDonalds. Even though the testimony that Logan was at home when the murder happened, the jury still found him guilty of first degree murder And to top it off, the two attorneys, Dale Coventry and Jamie Kunz, knew Logan was innocent. And how did this knowledge come about? Andrew Wilson, the attorneys’ client, admitted to the murder. The two attorneys who were representing Wilson, for killing two policemen, was told by Wilson that he was also guilty of killing the security guard at McDonalds. But because of the attorney-client privilege, Coventry and Kunz kept Wilson’s confession to...
Words: 1005 - Pages: 5
...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
...Should the death penalty be mandatory for people that kill other people PANNASASTRA UNIVERSITY OF CAMBODIA Commitment to excellence Commitment to excellence PROFESSIONAL WRITING HOMEWORK ESSAY Topic Should the Death Penalty Be Mandatory For People That Kill Other People? Submitted to Professor LY Meng Written By NHEN Socheath May 30, 2014 Brainstorming Process Should the death penalty be mandatory for people that kill other people? Proponents Opponent * Guarantee justice for the victims - A life in prison is enough * Decrease Crime Rates - Crime remains the same * An eye for an eye is the solution - give a second chance to change * Killing a murderer is fair - Killing is always wrong * Killing is not cruel - Killing is cruel * Practices sometime go wrong - Risk of taking innocent life * It is morally right and fair - Against religious ethics Proponents Opponent * Guarantee justice for the victims - A life in prison is enough * Decrease Crime Rates - Crime remains the same * An eye for an eye is the solution - give a second chance to change * Killing a murderer is fair - Killing is always wrong * Killing is not cruel - Killing is cruel * Practices sometime go wrong - Risk of taking innocent life * It is morally right and fair - Against religious ethics OUTLINING I. Introduction Thesis Statement: I personally do not agree that death penalty can...
Words: 1535 - Pages: 7
...Jackie Delaney World of Crime Fiction Professor Nagy 12/14/15 Using DNA to Prove the Innocence of Death Row Inmates How has DNA evidence helped to identify innocent people on death row? DNA is a key factor in validating or invalidating the prosecutor or defendants case against the accused. This topic raises the question of how many people on death row are really meant to be there and how many are actually innocent. Before DNA evidence became more advanced most people were identified by eye witness accounts. With out further looking into cases of people on death row who had been accused during this less advanced stage in forensics some of them may be innocent people being put to death for a crime they did not commit. According to C. Ronald...
Words: 1367 - Pages: 6
...18-10638 Should Death Penalty Is Compulsory For The People Who Kills Other People? Death penalty is a very contradictive topic and has received tremendous support to abolish it. Society considers death penalty to be very unethical and barbaric. Death penalty is basically a legal process in which the criminal is executed for committing serious crimes such as murder, rape or human trafficking. Death penalty is the most debatable issue in the world. There are also some people who think that death penalty should be legalized in order to provide justice to the people. However I personally disagree that death penalty can put to end to a crime, nor can it help promote social security; but instead it is just a form of inhumane act which is immortal and it promotes violence and risks the innocent lives. The proponents of this argument believe that death penalty is morally right and fair because when one life is taken, one life must be paid in return. This is a complete mistake in mortality. The fact is that every form of killing, even through death penalty, is obviously wrong because it does not make us moral by killing a killer. The question most people ask is that if the first killing is wrong then why do we allow the second killing? The former U.S president Jimmy Carter also stated that the process of death penalty is broken and cannot be repaired and now it should be the time to seek a better way and more moral substitution (Carter,2012a). In addition death penalty is not only...
Words: 1107 - Pages: 5
...Death Penalty Since the creation of humans, crime has been prevalent in our history. The most heinous crime a human could commit is and will always be murder. For a long time, the death penalty was the go-to punishment for murder. Recent research and studies have concluded that the death penalty is cruel and ineffective. The death penalty is ineffective in many because ways there have been many cases of wrongful convictions. It does not lower crime, and it is way too costly. The death penalty is morally wrong “an eye for an eye makes the world blind.” The government cannot succumb to the same level of murderers. By killing those that murder, we become the same thing we fear, murderers. Furthermore, there is a chance that someone may be convicted wrongly and executed by the death penalty. According to Amnesty International, “Since 1973, over 130 people have been released from death rows throughout the country due to evidence of their wrongful convictions.” There are many factors that can lead to a false conviction, including inadequate legal representation, perjured testimony and mistaken eyewitness testimony, suppression and/or misinterpretation of mitigating evidence, and political pressure to solve a case (Amnesty International). One such case where there was a false conviction was that of Daniel Wade Moore in Alabama. Moore was originally found guilty for murder and sexual assault of Karen Tipton in 2002, and he was sentenced to death by the judge. However, he was acquitted...
Words: 1184 - Pages: 5
...In life we are taught that murder is against the law and is totally unacceptable. Murder is the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another. The death penalty goes against everything that we are taught in life and everything that our parents have taught us. The death penalty cost New Mexico between three to four million dollars per year and New Mexico doesn’t have the death penalty. As of April 1, 2012 there are 3,170 inmates on death row in the United States. Since 1973 140 people have been exonerated or let go off death row and freed from death row. “The death penalty is much more expensive than life in prison without the possibility of parole because the constitution requires a long and complex judicial process for capital cases.” (deathpenalty.org 2012) If the death penalty was replaced with life in prison it would save each state millions of dollars and it would take away the chance of permanent mistake. The permanent mistake is executing someone on death row that is really innocent of the crime that they are charged for. Life in prison without the possibility of parole means you spend 23 hours a day in a cell and there is no way to get out of prison unless you can prove your innocence. There are five methods of execution in the United States; lethal injection, electrocution, gas chamber, hanging and firing squad. All states have lethal injection as the primary method. “New Mexico abolished the death penalty in 2009. However, the act wasn’t retroactive...
Words: 970 - Pages: 4
...bias in order to receive an incentive or for some reason the testimony is recanted. This kind of incentivized lie is often referred to as a jailhouse informant, or a snitch. The jailhouse informant is used mostly in drug and murder cases and has been one of the largest contributions to a wrongful conviction and most judicial systems do not place proper policy to prevent this manipulation. This essay will highlight the history of the use and abuse of jailhouse informants, laws that prevent the misuse of snitches, and the many sides around the controversial issue. Historical Background As long as eye-witness testimonies have been regarded as a reliable source, they have been potentially unreliable. Rob Warden for The Northwestern University School of Law Center of Wrongful Convictions (2004) states that the history of the snitch dates back to our most rudimentary sense of law, predating the Pilgrims arriving to the New World. Although, the first documented case in the United States isn’t until 1819. This case involved two brothers, Jesse and Stephen Boorn, who were suspects of their brother-in-law’s murder. One of their cellmates, Silas Merrill, testified Jesse confessed to the murder and Merrill was rewarded with freedom. Both brothers were sentenced to death but saved when their brother-in-law turned up alive (Warden, 2004, p. 2). The jailhouse informant is important to law enforcement because they make the sacrifice of giving incentives to small scale...
Words: 1942 - Pages: 8
...The Death Penalty: Cruel and Unjust As Ronald Ryan fell to the ground on February 3, 1967, a flock of pigeons flew away in a scare (York). Everyone nearby knew this man’s life had been taken from him and never to be used again. This moment was the last of Australia’s executions. 50 years later, however, the United States of America still commits Capital Punishment, and regularly, too. The topic is debated whether or not the Capital Punishment should be legal. The government is already involved in the lives of those who commit crimes, but the idea of it taking away someone’s life creates an uneasy thought. Some people believe that execution is wrong, inhumane and should be abolished while others believe that it projects positive impacts and will benefit the world, in such ways as lowering crime rates and ridding the world of the worst criminals....
Words: 1439 - Pages: 6
