...The use of capital punishment in America stems from Britain influence and began early on in the settlement of the European colonies. The earliest recorded execution dates back to 1608 (Death Penalty Information Center, 2011) . However, the use of capital punishment in the United States centuries later has been very controversial. Thirty-four states 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...
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...It can be very difficult for a family member that have lost someone to the death penalty to express their loved one’s situation with the death penalty. Death penalty is also known as capital punishment or execution. Communities from all over the world have used this punishment at one point in history, in order to avenge criminals. Most common reasons for being sentenced to death were war crimes, war treason, murder, theft, property damage, practicing magic, and espionage. In America and England, there are still cases where the death penalty occurs. In America, the idea of capital punishment has been proposed to be abolished but was rejected. In England, the idea of capital punishment was abolished first and came back into the people’s lives. The idea of abolishing capital punishment is similar in America and in England because it was thought to be abolished by both countries but was approved in England. In America, proposals were made to abolish capital punishment, but were not successful, while in England capital punishment is abolished, which holds meaning to the people in both countries. The United States has had the death penalty since the eighteenth century. Execution in the United States became the first legal system which continues to enforce the law and its responsibilities. The death...
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...Clementina Arriaga Racial Discrimination in the Death Penalty The death penalty is a punishment in which a person is executed for having committed a serious crime. This punishment has been carried out in many different ways all over the world and has been around for many centuries. Since it started here in the United States, however, we have been seeing racial discrimination in sentencing to the death penalty. An African American man who kills a white man is more likely to be sentenced to this punishment than a white man if he kills an African American. African Americans form most of the minority group here in the United States and they are a majority that are falling in this discriminating situation. Being sentenced to the death penalty is an unjust way of punishment for any crime committed, and it is even worse to be sentenced to the death penalty because of the race or class standing of a convict. The race of the convict and the race of the defendant in capital cases are major factors in determining who is sentenced to die in this country. This is ethically wrong. It is choosing to end someone’s life because we do not like their physical appearance or because they cannot afford their way out of it. This is unconstitutional and is definitely not a way to practice for our safety. It is a choice made by a judge that can easily be protected by the law, and that is unfair. We need a system that affords the same fairness to everyone, that does not accept racial discrimination...
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...controversy on its own, is made even more complicated when we begin to discuss the ideas of race, racism, and other biases. Research shows us that more racial and culturally diverse juries, especially death qualified juries, can help to fight this problem. Education on the research of bias prosecution and the criminal justice system itself may also help combat the problem. A diverse and representative jury should decrease the impact of prejudice United States Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’ Connor once observed “Conscious...
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...as the most progressive and advanced society in the world. Unfortunately, when it comes to the existent of capital punishment, America is far behind. The death penalty’s use in America was influenced by Great Britain. When European settlers came to America, they brought with them the practice of capital punishment. In 1846 Michigan became the first state to abolish the death penalty, but opposition to the death penalty waned during the Civil War. During the early 20th century death penalty abolishment was scattered. Due to Prohibition and the Great Depression, the death penalty saw a resurgence. In 1972 the death penalty was suspended in the United States due to Furman v. Georgia, where it was ruled that the death penalty statutes were ruled as unconstitutional. After death penalty reforms were ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court, the death penalty was reinstated (History of the Death Penalty). To this day the use of capital punishment still exists in the United States. The practice of the death penalty has come under fire in recent years. The financial burden of the death penalty, the failure to act as a deterrent, and racial discrimination are major reasons for the death penalty to be eradicated. All other industrialized nations have abolished the death penalty, it is time for the United States to catch up to the rest of the world by abolishing capital punishment in its entirety. When the country is in debt, and states are facing budget shortages, $620,932 is a lot...
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...Problem Definition Assignment Capital Punishment The issues on capital punishment and the problems associated, this policy should always be considered an issue until it is resolved in a just manner. Capital punishment directly violates the ban on cruel and unusual punishment, giving the authority to take the life of another, if for no other reason, than it is discriminatory, or done in a premeditatory fashion. One chief complaint is that capital punishment exacts retribution for crimes that severs as justice to murder victims and their survivors. Another complaint is the inequities that relate to the moratorium on executions, this just states the debate as to the fairness of the policy. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), their opposition is that the death penalty in the US is applied in a manner that is unfair towards people, based on money, skills of their attorney, race and where the crimes have taken place. Statistics state that the race of the victim is the biggest factor in determining whether or not a person will be executed. The importance of capital punishment is to answer some direct questions: 1. Does this deter crime? 2. Is this fiscally responsible for the government and taxpayers? Does this somehow fix the deficit? 3. Does this create a better economy? 4. Who does this punishment have the greatest impact on? This paper will cover, checking governmental policies, state and federal in Missouri, other states as a...
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...and how wrong he was. Lethal Injection Lethal injection is an easy way out but Mr. Cuomo states “True life imprisonment is a more effective deterrent than capital punishment.” (Cuomo, 2011) I do not agree with this; life in prison means they get to eat three hot meals, get exercise, watch cable television, sleep in a bed, have internet access and take showers all on the tax payer’s dime. It is so much scarier to me that I would get the death penalty and cease to be on this earth than to have life in prison. They have more than an elderly person in a nursing facility. Even in the bible it says to give these people the death punishment. “In Genesis 9:6, God told Noah that the penalty for intentional murder should be death: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” [ (Mohler, 2014) ]. This is something that I feel very strongly about and is something I believe to be true. “In the simplest form, the Bible condemns murder and calls for the death of the murderer. The one who intentionally takes life by murder forfeits the right to his own life.” [ (Mohler, 2014) ] Then he pulls the race card “capital punishment appears to threaten white drug dealers, white rapists and white killers less frequently than those of other races” (Cuomo, 2011). Pulling the race card on everything means you have no grounds to make your argument. Yes there are some...
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...Abolishing Capital Punishment The death penalty, also known as capital punishment, has existed as a type of punishment for a long time. Although this has been around for what feels like forever, the question that has also been present for that same amount of time is whether it is right or wrong. Many states use capital punishment for reasons such as justice for the victim and their family and to prevent the likelihood of the same crime. However capital punishment does not assure these results, therefore the United States should eliminate the death penalty. The death penalty dates back to the Eighteenth Century B.C. Death sentences were done by crucifixion, drowning, beating to death, burning alive, and impalement (DPIC). The Death Penalty Information Center states that “Britain influenced America's use of the death penalty more than any other country. When European settlers came to the new world, they brought the practice of capital punishment. The first recorded execution in the new colonies was that of Captain George Kendall in the Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1608. Kendall was executed for being a spy for Spain.” In the 1930’s death penalty statistics began to be collected on a regular basis. By the end of the 1960’s, all but ten states had laws allowing capital punishment. Due to strong pressure by people against the death penalty there was a suspension on executions that began in 1972 and ended in 1976. Before the suspension there was an average of 130 executions...
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...Persuasion and Resistance: Race and the Death Penalty in America Mark Peffley Jon Hurwitz University of Kentucky University of Pittsburgh Although there exists a large and well-documented “race gap” between whites and blacks in their support for the death penalty, we know relatively little about the nature of these differences and how the races respond to various arguments against the penalty. To explore such differences, we embedded an experiment in a national survey in which respondents are randomly assigned to one of several argument conditions. We find that African Americans are more responsive to argument frames that are both racial (i.e., the death penalty is unfair because most of the people who are executed are black) and nonracial (i.e., too many innocent people are being executed) than are whites, who are highly resistant to persuasion and, in the case of the racial argument, actually become more supportive of the death penalty upon learning that it discriminates against blacks. These interracial differences in response to the framing of arguments against the death penalty can be explained, in part, by the degree to which people attribute the causes of black criminality to either dispositional or systemic forces (i.e., the racial biases of the criminal justice system). he conventional wisdom on public opinion toward the death penalty in the United States, as summarized nicely by Ellsworth and Gross, is that people “feel strongly about the death penalty, know little...
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...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 contradictory (McAdams, 1996). Penalty The “mass market” racial disparity argument is that the criminal justice system is tougher on black offenders than white offenders, and particularly is more inclined to execute blacks than whites. This argument is simple, palatable, and easy to sell. It flows effortlessly from our generic presumption that black people will be treated unfairly...
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...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 a crime that they committed...
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...he death penalty has been around for centuries. It dates back to when Hammurabi had his laws codified; it was “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”. Capital punishment in America started when spies were caught, put on trial and hung. In the past and still today people argue that, the death penalty is cruel, unusual punishment and should be illegal. Yet many people argue that it is in fact justifiable and it is not cruel and unusual. Capital punishment is not cruel and unusual; the death penalty is fair and there is evidence that the death penalty deters crime. A big part of abolitionist’s argument is that the death penalty is not humane. They pull in Amendment 8, “…nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” What the victim went though was indeed “cruel and unusual punishments’.” The murderers’ death is not cruel. The people will demand justice for what he or she has done (Bidinotto 19). Hanging and the electric chair are topics more reasonable to argue, but now because of lethal injection capital punishment has become more humane. The death penalty is not barbaric, the pain and agony that the victim went through is barbaric. Abolitionists were very upset in 1996 when rapist and murderer John Albert Taylor was executed by firing squad; they said his death was barbaric (Feder 32). Charla King, the poor 11-year-old girl he raped and strangled with a telephone cord, her death was barbaric! It makes no sense to think that John Taylor’s’ death was barbaric or inhumane. He would...
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...Name Tutor Course Date Federal Death Penalty Law Death penalty is advocated for by the state legislature or congress in cases of murder and certain capital crimes. A ruling from the Supreme Court rules that the death penalty does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban regarding unusual and cruel punishment. However, the Eighth Amendment shapes the procedures to be employed by the jury regarding the use of the death penalty. According to the U.S. Supreme Court’s law, a penalty given to the defendant should be proportional to the kind of crime committed. Contrary to this, the punishment will have violated the Eighth Amendment, which is against unusual and cruel punishment (U.S. Department of Justice 3). The Supreme Court has to consider a number of factors in determining whether a death penalty is the appropriate penalty in the case. First, the court has to consider the gravity and severity of the penalty. Second, the court has to consider the jurisdiction under which other criminals are punished. Finally, the court has to consider the jurisdiction under which the same crime cases are punished. The defendant is granted a death sentence penalty in certain circumstances. First, in the event that he/she is charged guilty of a crime committed and capital sentence is the only legal authorized sanction. Second, if the defendant is found guilty of intentionally killing the victim. Finally, if the case presents several aggravating factors that feature in the statutory list...
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...sentenced to death than those who killed blacks. (Pierce & Radelet, Santa Clara Law Review, 2005). For over one hundred years there have been adamant efforts to abolish capital punishment in America. (Davis, 1957) The death penalty has been a constant controversy amongst American citizens. There are many standpoints to be taken on the dispute. Supporters of the death penalty plead that it can be justified with sufficient due process, while others contradict that a human’s life is irreplaceable and that every person has the right to live. In order to gain a deeper understanding and a better idea of the death penalty and its development into modern day society, it is crucial to examine the historical lawsuits that have been decided in favor or against the capital punishment in America. In 1987 a monumental lawsuit hit the Supreme Court. McCleskey vs. Kemp 481 U.S. 279, (1987), ruling that McCleskey was to be sentenced to death for an armed robbery that resulted in the murder of a police officer. Appealing for his life, McCleskey argued that studies proved that racial discrimination lived with in capital punishment rulings. He heavily relied on a study conducted by Professor David C. Baldus also known as “Baldus Study”. His study concluded that black defendants were more likely to be punished with capital punishment than white defendants, especially if the victim was white. McCleskey tried to state that this proved his sentence was unconstitutional due to the Fourteenth Amendment...
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...Capital Punishment: Why the Death Penalty is Morally Permissible Karina Morgan April 13, 2010 Professor Mark Reynolds PHI 206 Sec. 04 Word Count: 1,910 Syllogism for Argument: 1. Every human has a right to life 2. But this right is not absolute because a person’s life can be overridden for good reasons 3. So the right of life does not hold in every situation no matter what 4. One of these situations includes taking the life of another innocent human 5. Therefore, it is morally permissible to set the right to life aside, and use the death penalty, if they took the life of an innocent human. Outline I. The Death Penalty -Thesis- Although all humans have the right to life, there are certain situations that can overrule this right, such as taking the life of an innocent human. Since the right of life does not hold in every situation and if an innocent human’s life is taken, then it is morally permissible to set the right to life aside and use the death penalty on the person who committed murder. II. Pro-Death Penalty A. Retribution a. The death penalty is the best way in order to serve justice to convicted murderers of innocent people. b. The families and friends of victims will feel more secure if justice is served. c. There will be no worry about the murderer being able to commit more murders or to have any chance of receiving parole. B. Deterrence b. If the death penalty is continuously used in...
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