...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....
Words: 332 - Pages: 2
...Arguments FOR and AGAINST the death penalty The death penalty has been used since ancient times in almost every culture. Today it will still executed in some states like the USA, China, or in Islam Countries. I would like to talk about the Arguments for and against the death penalty. There are many justifications going around for capital punishment. Deterrence is the most common used argument for the death penalty. Many states believe that it is necessary to kill a prisoner to disadvise other people from committing the same kind of crime. Some people who commit violence are highly unstable or mentally ill. Murders are most committed in moments of passion, when extreme emotions overcomes himself or under the influence of drugs. In none of these cases can fear of the death penalty be expected to deter. Sometimes maybe a murderer or a rapist has a bad conscience due to his act. However, he can‘t make it undone. If he has a life-long sentence, he will always suffers for his felony. He must live with that and will never have the chance to apologise. In my opinion this punishment is a better way and in many cases it‘s much more striking. Of course many people think there are some lawsuit which are so brutal or horrifying that the murderer „must“ be killed, because it‘s not fair that he has any rights to live. The problem is, that often the murderer wants to be executed, because of his actions. So is it then punishment or deliverance for him? The protection from...
Words: 630 - Pages: 3
...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....
Words: 720 - Pages: 3
...of the death penalty is an issue that is passionately debated in the United States. Opponents of capital punishment often view the sentence to be cruel because it is ethically unjust. For example, ethical problems involve the moral issues in addition to whether it is ever right to execute another human. On the other hand, pro death penalty supporters regularly claim that the punishment is just because it may provide closure to the victims loved ones and it is the direct answer to a murder. Additionally, it is argued that as a result of the injection the supposed criminal may never commit further crimes. Both sides of the issue have strong claims to support...
Words: 1943 - Pages: 8
...Introduction Capital punishment in the United States is largely viewed as retaliation and compensation against society's most malicious criminals. The federal government rarely imposes capital punishment for 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
...Should the death penalty be illegal? This is a question America has struggled with for hundreds of years, the answer to this question varies by person. Hammurabi's code very much valued the “eye for an eye” policy but we are long past the days where the American public is judge, jury, and executioner. The justice system has a come a long way from when it first began. Does giving someone a lethal injection or strapping them to an electric chair make you any less of a murderer? A life is still a life, no matter what way you choose to look at it. The way I see it, the idea of carrying out a life sentence and having to rot in a jail cell is enough of a deterrent. The 8th Amendment of the constitution forbids against “cruel and unusual punishment”...
Words: 606 - Pages: 3
...Historically in Canada, the death penalty existed as the maximum punishment for criminals convicted of committing capital offences before it was abolished from Canada’s Criminal Code in 1976 (Thompson, Andrew.S. 2008, p. 172). Presently the highest form of punishment is as a maximum of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years (Roberts and Stalans, 1997, as cited in Lambert, E., Baker, D., & Tucker, K. 2006, p.3). Many Canadians support the return of the death penalty, an illustration of this would be when the House of Commons held a free vote“…in 1987 …regarding the reinstatement of the death penalty”, although the free vote was defeated “46% of the votes cast were for reinstatement”. (Lambert, E., Baker, D., & Tucker,...
Words: 329 - Pages: 2
...few key words: fairness, equality, common good, merit and morals (What Is Justice?). These words form a foundation to allow society to function properly with free will and choice without totally controlling the people. As stated before, every person may have a different meaning to what social justice is and who deserves social justice, which presents issues around the world. The death penalty is a major issue that is problematic to the question of “what is social justice?” Society looks at criminals as outsiders, uncivilized and dangerous. So society decided to form the procedure of the death penalty, which sentences a person to death who has committed a capital crime. Some people find the death penalty just while others do not. Some individuals feel that the death penalty helps society. By killing the criminal you eliminate any further opportunity to commit any more crimes and keep safe the greater good. Also individuals support the idea of merit or “an eye for an eye”, that if a person kills somebody then they also should be killed. On the other hand, people who do not believe in the death penalty use morals to define their social justice. They believe that no person deserves to die by the hand of no man other than God, no...
Words: 691 - Pages: 3
...jail time, but life sentences are the right thing. The 8th amendment does not support the death penalty. There is also the problem of innocent inmates that die, and then there is the money issue. There are a lot more reasons to keep the people off of death row and end the death penalty. One reason we should quit the death penalty is that 1 out of 25 inmates put to death are innocent and have been put up for the death penalty because of the lack of effort from their legal team. Either that or the state will deny their motion. They go to the death penalty to quick and do not even give it thought. In the case of a Death Row inmate Willie Poindexter...
Words: 976 - Pages: 4
...The death penalty has been around for a long time. It has been and still is a substantial part in the punishment of those who did not obey the law. This punishment instilled fear in many, it made everyone ‘deathly’ afraid. It would put those who defied the laws in a ‘grave’ situation.(Pun). This is where the question come in as to whether the death penalty is Constitutional, or even humane. This act has been around ever since the eighteenth century B.C. in the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon and is still being used today for criminals who is seen to be lost souls, non redeemable. Of course, the saying, ¨an eye for an eye,¨ is reasonable. What if the people that have the person has been raised by and cared for one day suddenly died because...
Words: 927 - Pages: 4
...For thousands of years, the death penalty has served as part of the criminal justice system. The U.S uses the death penalty for prosecuting certain crimes. The debate over the death penalty has progressed for many centuries. However, in the past years, the debate has increased in the United States. In the recent past, opponents have held that the death sentence is ineffective, racist, barbaric, as well as against the American values. Conversely, the majority of people view the death punishment as a vital tool in fighting violent pre-meditated murder. Both sides have appealing arguments. Regardless, the support of the society for capital punishment is wanting. The death penalty is cruel and immoral. The society punishes murderers by killing...
Words: 1258 - Pages: 6
...other ideas. In today’s society, capital punishment is a very controversial topic. Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is a legal sentence to die for serious criminal behavior. The death penalty is a controversial topic because some crimes are so odious that the perpetrator deserves to die and another view is that the authority makes mistakes and capital punishment cannot be reversed, once the convict is dead, he can not be brought...
Words: 1355 - Pages: 6
...In the United States there are 31 states that allow the Death Penalty and 19 states that have banned the Death Penalty. The Death Penalty, also known as Capital Punishment, has been a topic that has been debated about whether it should be legal or if it should be banned for years. The Death Penalty is the punishment of execution, ordered to someone who commited a capital crime, like murder. There are many reasons as to why the Death Penalty should be legal but there are just as many reasons for why it should be banned. Death penalty should be legal because it gives closure to families that have been affected by those who have been convicted for a capital crime. In the article “Reform, Don't Repeal, the Death Penalty,” written by The Los Angeles...
Words: 1017 - Pages: 5
...executed in Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1608 for being a Spanish spy. 4. Once the moratorium was lifted, when and where was the first execution in the US? Once the moratorium was lifted, Utah would be the first to execute Gary Gilmore in 1977. 5. How many states currently have the death penalty? 31 states currently have the death penalty. 6. What was decided regarding capital punishment in Atkins v. Virginia? Atkins v. Virginia is a case in which the Supreme Court ruled that executing people with intellectual disabilities violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishments. However, intellectual disability was left to...
Words: 1251 - Pages: 6
...of a man who is caught up in something bigger than himself and somehow rises to the occasion. The “Man Under Pressure” this time is Jim Donovan (Tom Hanks), an insurance lawyer called into duty by his government when the aforementioned painter, a man named Rudolph Abel (Mark Rylance), is captured for the crime of espionage against the United States on behalf of the USSR. It is 1957, and the Cold War is a constant concern. Adults still discuss the Rosenbergs around the dinner table while Jim’s children learn about how easily they’ll survive nuclear fallout if they just duck and cover or fill their bathtubs with drinking water. Donovan is asked to serve as Abel’s defense attorney by his boss (Alan Alda), who just wants Donovan to be a warm body—someone to sit next to the traitor to make sure the judicial process runs appropriately. One gets the impression—ably assisted by Hanks’ steely-eyed determination, which recalls the movie icons of cinema's golden age—that Donovan has never just been a cog in a machine. And so he actually tries to mount a defense for Abel, arguing that the seizure of evidence was unconstitutional and making the case that the death penalty would...
Words: 625 - Pages: 3
