...Capital punishment is the legal process when a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for their crimes. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a social justice organization that’s actively working to abolish capital punishment in the United States. The ACLU does this by working within legislature to change laws to improve the lives of those in need of help. The ACLU stands against capital punishment and is justified in doing so because it interferes with the first amendment, being the right to life. Capital punishment cases also clog the court system with appeals and hearings, and aren’t any cheaper for the state than a life in prison without the chance for parole charge would be. The ACLU is founded on protecting our civil rights, which include our right to life. Capital punishment violates the right to life provided by Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) (ACLU Death Penalty par.1). While the right to life is more commonly referred to in the issue of abortion, it still applies in the issue of capital punishment. Article 3 of the UDHR does not specify that it is to only guard certain people and not others. The right to life protects all people, criminal or not, and we cannot take away their right to life just because they are brought into custody. What would make someone’s life less important or less worthy than how we see our own? What makes us, as a society, think we are above one another and have the right to execute...
Words: 1123 - Pages: 5
...2011 Capital punishment is the death penalty; it has been in use since ancient times to punish a selection of crimes. The Bible even promotes death for murder and other offenses like kidnapping. Often we hear the Bible quoted as a justification for capital punishment: “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth” (from Leviticus 24:20; also Exodus 21:24). This follows a more direct passage: “Whoever takes the life of any human being shall be put to death” (Leviticus 24:17). When the term death penalty is said, it makes screaming and shouting from both sides of activists. There are numerous arguments that are for and against capital punishment. One side of the argument might say it is justice served, while the other side might say, but you might execute an innocent man. People against the death penalty may believe: the death penalty fails as a deterrent, it does not discourage crime, death penalty fails to rehabilitate, encourages brutality, relative suffering, or that conviction of the innocent may occur. People that are for the death penalty may see it as: decreasing the rate of homicide, when you commit a felony it is a matter of free will, there is no proof of any innocent human being executed, the death penalty saves lives, or they may possibly see it as “An eye for an eye”. Currently, there are several pros and cons to the death penalty issues. However, if individuals evaluate the arguments accurately, and have sympathy for the victims, they will be more inclined to be for capital punishment...
Words: 1734 - Pages: 7
...Crime and punishment why do we need laws · if there were no rules there would be chaos · if there were now laws about business deals and work, society ould not operate · we need laws to protect the weak from the strong · we need laws to keep everything organised why does there need to be a connection between the law and justice · if the law is unjust, people will feel that it is right to break the law · if the law is unjust, they are not fulfilling their purpose of making sure that people are rewarded for their work. · if the laws dont create a just society , people will think the legal system isnt working and might start a civil war. · if laws are unjust, they will disrupt rather than unite society. theories of punishment 1. retribution is the theory that criminals should pay for their crimes because : · it makes criminals pay for their crimes in proportion to the crime committed . · it make s the criminals suffer for their crimes · it punishes the criminal. 1. deterrence is the theory that the punishment should put people off committing crimes . 2. reform is the theory tht criminals should be taught not to commit crime again.Many people think this is the best way because: · the onl way to stop crime is to turn criminals into law abiding citizens. · most criminals have had a bad upbringing and they do no know how to live without crime. · gives criminals meansto find propper jobs and stay out of trouble 1. protection is the theory that...
Words: 1020 - Pages: 5
...CJA 303 Capital Punishment Powerpoint- Please Add Own Images (UOP) For more course tutorials visit www.tutorialrank.com Would capital punishment be an effective deterrent to crime? Would capital punishment be considered a humane method of retribution for murder? What criteria should be considered before rationalizing the use of capital punishment? ------------------------------------------------------------------- CJA 303 Entire Course (UOP) For more course tutorials visit www.tutorialrank.com CJA 303 Week 1 Discussion Questions CJA 303 Week 2 Discussion Questions CJA 303 Week 3 Discussion Questions CJA 303 Week 4 Discussion Questions CJA 303 Week 5 Discussion Questions CJA 303 What Justice Means to Me CJA 303 Week 3 Group Paper Individual Rights vs. Public Order CJA 303 Capital Punishment Powerpoint- Please Add Own Images CJA 303 Week 4 What Society Expects of its Criminal Justice System CJA 303 Week 5 Police and Police Issues- Due Process Powerpoint - PLEASE ADD OWN IMAGES CJA 303 Week 2 Quiz CJA 303 Week 5 Quiz ------------------------------------------------------------------- CJA 303 Week 1 Discussion Questions (UOP) For more course tutorials visit www.tutorialrank.com What is the criminal justice system? ------------------------------------------------------------------- CJA 303 Week 2 Discussion Questions (UOP) For more course tutorials visit www.tutorialrank.com Do you think the field of policing needs to be professionalized...
Words: 392 - Pages: 2
...Jin Law Professor Moss ENGL 1301 April 21, 2009 Should capital punishment be abolished or retained? Capital punishment, or the death penalty, has been using for thousands of years. In the last two centuries, as people have realized the importance of human rights, debates over capital punishment have never stopped. More and more people join the campaign against capital punishment, while the others defend it. However, either abolishing the death penalty or retaining it has inextricable problems. The writer’s opinion is that capital punishment will vanish from this planet someday in the future, but for a long span of time from now, to abolish it or not depends on the social situations of different countries. People who are against capital punishment, and advocate replacing it with lifetime imprisonment, list five reasons why they condemn it. Right to life is the first punch. In The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 3 says, “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person” (1). Among all the human rights, right to life is the cornerstone and the carrier of all the other human rights. Deprivation of the right to life is equivalent to deprivation of all the rights, which is inhumane in modern society. On the other hand, capital punishment is a product of the old barbaric concept “an eye for an eye, a life for a life;” and it is actually vengeance killing. Nowadays, most societies do not agree with vengeance killing. Such a brute act...
Words: 2159 - Pages: 9
...Dr. Margaret Dunn October 24, 2012 Is Capital Punishment Justifiable Is capital punishment really worth it. Is the planning of taking human life really that cost effective that we as humans can break our own morals and laws. Passions in the US are sharply divided and are equally strong on both sides of the argument. Since colonial times, roughly about 13,000 people have been executed under capital punishment, but what makes it right? Many people argue that capital punishment is well deserved to some of the criminals we see in the old today. "There are some defendants who have earned the ultimate punishment our society has to offer by committing murder with aggravating circumstances present. I believe life is sacred. It cheapens the life of an innocent murder victim to say that society has no right to keep the murderer from ever killing again. In my view, society has not only the right, but the duty to act in self defense to protect the innocent" says a New York Attorney. Many people agree with him as well. They feel that if someone feels like its ok to take anthers life then their life can be taken as well for punishment. People also feel that they pay for what these criminals do. To hold an inmate in prison, on death row or not, its about $30,600 per year that comes straight out of our taxes. So in reality people feel that we pay for the mistakes of these criminals when some of them should be held to capital punishment for the crimes that they have committed...
Words: 731 - Pages: 3
...Capital punishment is the legal process where a person may have to pay the ultimate price with death. Many countries have abolished capital punishment, and these countries seem like they are on the right path. They think nobody deserves death no matter the circumstance or do they? Capital punishment is like a double edge sword. The motto, "Eye for an Eye" is that really justice or murder. In the victim's eye, that is justice but for the convicted family members nothing but murder. How do we justify murder in our legal system? If our legal system convicts someone of murder with the capital punishment, why not sentence to death immediately. Do we really need to prolong the time if there is not doubt that they committed the crime? What purpose does that serve? The victims of the family never have closure. If they took the life of another human being, why should theirs be spared? But what if later, evidence proves the innocence, is that really justice being serve. The justification one life for another will always be debatably. Our prisons are over populated with people sitting on death row. The overwhelming cost to the tax payers is astounding. It would make sense, if the person who committed the crime pays for the crime with his or her life and not sit on death row for years abusing the legal system, and every single loop hole. In the same sense, what if the person is wrongly convicted and again the legal system loop holes puts an innocent person to death....
Words: 551 - Pages: 3
...Most everyone has different views or opinion of the criminal justice system, such as harsh, too lax. favor one side, or the other. Trends have been there for many years but the main issue has been the capital punishment. Capital punishment has been around for centuries but was cheap in those days where they use an axe or a sword to behead a criminal, and this was the method used, and the tools used were always readily available. Throughout the history capital punishment has been an aspect within the criminal justice system, but not accepted by many. Capital punishment is still used but there has been so much controversy, different methods has been used in the past and present, and have advanced with technology, with lethal injection and electrocution. When creating the new method, there were many items being viewed to forbid cruelty and barbaric. Today these methods are used in certain states; although this is legal there are states that want to do away with the practice of capital punishment, and this remains an issue in the criminal justice system. This will always be an issue in the future because there are people who are against the death penalty as others are for it, this will cause more debate as time goes on. There are countries that outlaw capital punishment,...
Words: 1447 - Pages: 6
...justification for punishment – deterrence, retribution, rehabilitation or incapacitation? Give reasons for your answer. In this essay the following methods of punishment; deterrence, retribution, rehabilitation and incapacitation will be critically evaluated with example to reference, thus the most appropriate method in collaboration with the justice system for the UK can be selected. There has been much debate with regards to the meaning and purpose let alone the most efficient method of punishment for many years. For the purpose of this essay punishment can be defined as ‘social artefact’ Garland (1990). Punishment such as prison and ASBOs tell us a lot about society such as who has broken the law and who is legit and trustable, nevertheless dose this in reality justify why punishment exists and conducted in a social environment? As stated by Durkheim punishment has a diverse effect on each person certain people react in a positive manner and others in a negative. However he left us to question from all the different strategies at the core of punishment which one actually works in different places or at different times, do societies use different kinds of penal strategy? Why did punishment such as ducking stools and stocks go out of fashion? Why have so many industrial democracies given up on capital punishment? Why has imprisonment become such an important form of punishment” Hudson, J (2003). Capital punishment can be defined as ‘capital punishment has been relatively...
Words: 2282 - Pages: 10
...April 15, 2012 Capital Punishment Capital Punishment is the killing of people as punishment for their crimes legally (Haines 3). Since the beginning of time, capital punishment has been a way of punishing people who have committed higher levels of crimes. Although capital punishment has been around for centuries, the first known case of the death penalty in the American colonies happened in the James town colony in 1608 when George Kendall was executed for spying for the Spanish (Green, Melissa S.,compiler. (1998-2009). Focus on the Death Penalty). Capital Punishment is a subject in the United States that was and still is very controversial. Many people want capital punishment to be abolished but on the other hand there are a handful of people who want capital punishment to end. The purpose of this study is to show why capital punishment should be abolished. Capital punishment needs to be abolished because there are way too many cases and executions. During the time span of the Revolutionary war, capital punishment was widely accepted. During this time 162 documented cases of capital punishment were recorded. In the nineteenth century, following that era, capital punishment had increased to 1,391 documented cases. As of April 1, 2008, there were a total of 1,099 people who received the death penalty. The State of Texas had the most cases of capital punishment with a number of 405 cases (Bureau of Justice Statistics 1-2). That is way too many cases just for one state. The...
Words: 1632 - Pages: 7
...Capital punishment known to some as the death penalty is the execution of a criminal by the state as a punishment. It has been around for a long time to stop political rebellion and for the punishment of a criminal. As of post WW2 91 countries have abolished capital punishment. Now in America this punishment is only given to the harsh of offenses such as murder, treason, and espionage. The United States has executed 42 criminals last year. In our country we have an issue with capital punishment. Many of our citizens call it inhumane and costly than just giving a criminal the death penalty, some believe that we don’t have the right to take someone’s life and to let them live their lives in prison. To be sentenced to death is a four step plan that must be meet sentencing, direct review, State Collateral Review, and Federal Habeas Corpus. In the United States the method of capital punishment is lethal injection which is a more humane way than off the past 50 years. The United States is split on the issue of if capital punishment is justified or not. There are some points in this paper that will show you why capital punishment is well justified and needed in our country. The first point is that 69 percent of the nation favors the death penalty. The death penalty has also decreased the crime in our nation. January 17, 1977 Gary Gilmore was executed by the firing squad in Utah. That same year that state had 55 murders but after the execution the murders in the state went from...
Words: 923 - Pages: 4
...Capital punishment is the death penalty. It has been used throughout history to punish a variety of offenses committed. Whether or not there should be a death penalty is one of the most debated issues in the Criminal Justice system. It is polled that approximately 62% of Americans support the death penalty. Behind that percentage is poorly based reasons like revenge or misrepresented facts, such as cost and a sense of justice. The United States had a 2012 murder rate of 4.8 victims per 100,000-meaning that nearly 15,000 people were victims of homicide that year. (Benoit) These criminals, it appears, are not fearing capital punishment as a consequence of their crimes as much as people hope they would. The death penalty should be abolished because criminals are not deterred from committing crimes, millions of dollars are wasted, and innocent people may be executed. Attorney General Janet Reno stated, “I have inquired for most of my adult life about studies that might show that the death penalty is a deterrent, and I have not seen any research that would substantiate that point.” (J Donahue and J Wolfers) While many would like to believe that the death penalty would be more of a deterrent than a long prison sentence, criminals rarely consider the consequences of their actions. A crime of passion is exactly that, where they would not think about what would happen if they went through with a crime. These criminals, who commit these heinous crimes that would lead to the...
Words: 2134 - Pages: 9
...Is capital punishment to violent and inhuman to think of? Do you believe that capital punishment should be abolished without question? Should a man or woman not receive the same punishment as they committed? Is it better to kill a person or allow them to sit in prison for there whole life? What do you think is right, what do you think America needs to do about capital punishment? Capital punishment dates back to the eighteenth century B.C. in the code of King Hammurabi of Babylon. At this time only twenty five crimes were punishable by death. These crimes were carried out by crucifixion, drowning, beating to death, burning alive and impalement. As you can tell capital punishment has been around for a long, long time and probably not going anywhere (DPIC). Do you know when the first form of capital punishment was performed on North American soil? The first execution in the colonies was that of Captain George Kendall. The execution took place in the Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1608. Captain Kendall was executed for being a spy for Spain. From there on out, capital punishment continued throughout the colonies. The crimes punishable by death varied for colony to colony (DPIC). Today, there are around fifty countries that still use the death penalty. One of these countries is the United States of America. The United States has condemned over a ten thousand people to the death penalty since its beginning. Should the United States continue with the death penalty or should it...
Words: 1339 - Pages: 6
...opinions on how a country chooses to control crime. The dictionary meaning of capital punishment is the legally authorized killing of someone as punishment for a crime. The purposes for the use of capital punishment varies from retribution to deterrence (Austin et al). Retribution only comes into play when the same amount of pain the victim has suffered is given to the criminal as punishment. Deterrence, on the other hand, according to the National Policy Committee, implies a utilitarian purpose. Specific and general are two forms of deterrence (Austin et al). Specific deterrence leans more towards punishing a criminal for his or her crimes...
Words: 1684 - Pages: 7
...Kevin Reasoner Professor Kraskin English 1101 December 8th, 2012 Capital Punishment Capital punishment is a debate our politicians argue each year with. Many people are for it and many are against it. Our very own Supreme Court still debate on this topic. If properly used right, capital punishment is good for society because it is a deterrence against future crimes and protect the rights of victims of malicious murders, capital punishment is a legal and an appropriate measure in the United States legal system. Capital punishment was reestablished in 1976 by the Supreme Court as an appropriate measure for murder cases. Since then, many murderers have been convicted and put to death for their awful crimes. With each execution of a murderer, society is a safer place. When a human makes the ultimate decision to commit a crime of murder, rape, child rape, and torture, would a life in prison term be fair. Prison's are for much less acts of crime and people who do the acts against fellow humans should be punished by capital punishment. Prisons and jails are used as a deterrent so that people in today’s' society will not perform an act against another human. If they do, they know the repercussions of the acts they are performing. Some people are clearly not mentally capable of knowing the difference between right and wrong and they are put into hospitals because of their sickness. The majority of society know the difference of right and wrong. Another form of a deterrent...
Words: 1741 - Pages: 7
