...29th 2015 Should the death penalty 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. My 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, the constitution states, “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person”. 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 does nothing but more harm. Criminals should be punished...
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...government should get rid of capital punishment? I believe that it should be kept because it benefits the U.S. Here is my point of view, if you take someone’s life what gives you the right to enjoy the gift of living? I believe that if there is strong evidence, and you are not mentally insane and authorities know for sure that a person has committed murder, there should be a penalty involved. The Bible says that if a person should murder, they should deserve to lose their life also. I believe in the death penalty because it eliminates criminals who commit horrific murders, it gives closure to many who have been affected by those criminals, and it also provides more space in jail and prisons. Today, I strongly believe that our consequences are a joke and that is why killing sprees are getting worse and more violent. It’s some people out here that enjoys killing people like serial killers, which they need to be stopped. A person’s religious matter might prevent them from supporting capital punishment. This is why some judges sentence murderers or serial killers to life in prison or a even lesser punishment with parole. Just giving them a life sentence is overcrowding prisons. I don’t think we should reward murderers by keeping them alive and feeding them. While the family of the victim forever mourns. Another thing that I think is dumb is to let them out for good behavior. They can kill again when they get out. I have seen it happen before. People that are against capital punishment...
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...Capital Punishment Many distinctive doctrines in criminal law originated in efforts to restrict the number of capital crimes and executions. For instance, in the late 18th century, when all murder in the United States was punishable by death, Pennsylvania pioneered in dividing murder into two categories. The state enacted laws that authorized punishment of first-degree murder by death, while second-degree murder was punishable by imprisonment only. Elsewhere, penal codes uniformly required death for certain serious crimes. In these jurisdictions, discretionary powers to commute death sentences gradually expanded. (A commutation substitutes a lesser penalty for a more severe one—for example, replacing execution with a life sentence.) Today in many nations, including Turkey and Japan, the death penalty remains legal but the number of executions has declined over time. Although many jurisdictions limited imposition of the death penalty, no government had formally abolished capital punishment until Michigan did so in 1846. Within 20 years Venezuela (1863) and Portugal (1867) had formally eliminated the practice as well. By the beginning of the 20th century the death sentence had been abolished in a handful of nations, such as Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Norway, and The Netherlands. Although not formally eliminated, it had fallen into disuse in many others, including Brazil, Cape Verde, Iceland, Monaco, and Panama. The defeat of the Axis powers provided a foundation for...
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...Capital Punishment Many distinctive doctrines in criminal law originated in efforts to restrict the number of capital crimes and executions. For instance, in the late 18th century, when all murder in the United States was punishable by death, Pennsylvania pioneered in dividing murder into two categories. The state enacted laws that authorized punishment of first-degree murder by death, while second-degree murder was punishable by imprisonment only. Elsewhere, penal codes uniformly required death for certain serious crimes. In these jurisdictions, discretionary powers to commute death sentences gradually expanded. (A commutation substitutes a lesser penalty for a more severe one—for example, replacing execution with a life sentence.) Today in many nations, including Turkey and Japan, the death penalty remains legal but the number of executions has declined over time. Although many jurisdictions limited imposition of the death penalty, no government had formally abolished capital punishment until Michigan did so in 1846. Within 20 years Venezuela (1863) and Portugal (1867) had formally eliminated the practice as well. By the beginning of the 20th century the death sentence had been abolished in a handful of nations, such as Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Norway, and The Netherlands. Although not formally eliminated, it had fallen into disuse in many others, including Brazil, Cape Verde, Iceland, Monaco, and Panama. The defeat of the Axis powers provided a foundation...
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...a justified and valid form of punishment? There are two arguments for this topic with a lot of different reasons and explanations .One says prevention, the other side says there's a potential of executing an innocent man; one says justice and punishment; the other side says execution is murder. However, c0rime is an evident part of society, and everyone is aware that something must be done about it. In several parts of the world, the death penalty has been apportioned to those who have committed a variety of felonies. The Roman Empire made use of the death penalty liberally, as did the Church of the Middle Ages. As history tells us, capital punishment is an acceptable and efficient means of deterring crime. Today, the death penalty remains an effective method of punishment for murder and other terrible crimes because it helps lower the rate of violent crimes, makes the streets safer and provides us a better environment to live in. People will rob, take advantage of others, and commit crimes as long as it is in their best interest to do so. The purpose of our entire criminal justice system is to protect the rights of life, freedom, and property for all its citizens. To be able to accomplish this, the punishment for crime must be harsh enough to deter potential criminals. Under this mindset, the death penalty makes perfect sense because it truly makes a criminal pay for his crime and prevents the criminal from committing it again. The punishment for murder is getting to be shorter...
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...his views against the death penalty because it reflects on the immorality and unjustness of capital punishment and its connection with mental illness and shows that one can be conditioned or born to criminality Capote shows that capital punishment is undeniably immoral and unjust through its high usage among mentally ill offenders. Capital punishment is immoral which is shown through the inequality of it and its inability to deter crime and its ability to diminish the value of human life. Most people facing capital charges and the death penalty are poor and do not have the resources to retain expert attorneys and witnesses for their trial. They often get a court appointed attorneys who never raise their mental...
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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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...Capital Punishment Capital punishment or the Death Penalty is the execution of a person by judicial process as a punishment for an offense. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The death penalty has been a staple in the justice system of America since its inception. In the United States Death Penalty is agreed by almost 78% of Republican with approximately 52% Democratic. Though very controversial, it has stood the test of time as the ultimate punishment. Many countries are currently abolishing their death penalty practice. America, on the other hand, has 38 of 50 states with laws regarding the death penalty. It seems the United States requires the death penalty more than ever due to the increased rate of violent crime. In modern time, it’s a high controversial topic due to the increase of crime rates in USA and in other countries in the world. Death Penalty is an undivided part of history of mankind ever since humans have started to live in society. From, the time of Vikings to the time of Saddam Hussein Death Penalty is something that follows the Death Penalty for one or another reason! However, the main intense among all those is to reduce the crime factor in society. Death Penalty is sentenced to someone when he/she does something that harms others or the community severely. Such as, to kill someone, to attack someone with an intense to kill them, to physically abuse in other...
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...Captial punishment results in death by execution. It is legal in many states as a punishment for serious crimes, but that does not make it right. Captial punishment should be stopped because it is morally wrong, expensive and such a slow process. First of all, there is no moral basis for it. When we use the death penalty, we are follwoing the criminals' example by doing something equally as bad ourselves. We are taking one life for another life. There is also a chance that a mistake will be made, and the wrong person will be put to death. Is this type of revenge worth such a risk? Another problem with captial punishment is the high cost. For example, the special prison housing is expensive to staff and keep up. States with the death penalty use taxes to pay these expenses. Over the past 13 years, Florida has spent $57 million to carry out 18 executions. If you divide this dollar amount by the number of executions, you come up with a cost of $3.2 million for each execution. that is a great deal of money. In addition, using the death penalty is a very slow process. At least 97 percent of all death-row prisoners are not executed on time. As a result, the waiting list for executions grows year after year. If the U.S. legal system executed one inmate every day, it would still take 30 years to empty all of fthe cells on death row. A process this slow does not make sense. In conclusion, capital punishment should be dropped from our legal system. People should see...
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...Arguments on Capital Punishment Length: 2 Pages 545 Words Printer Friendly Version Capital Punishment: Is It Right or Wrong? Capital Punishment is a controversial topic discussed in today's society. There is a heated debate on whether states should be able to kill other humans or not. People that are in favor of the death penalty say that it saves money by not paying for housing in a maximum prison. Those opposed say that it is against the constitution, and is cruel and unusual punishment for humans to be put to his or her death. I believe that the death penalty is against the constitution and is cruel and unusual punishment. The death penalty is cruel because you cannot punish anyone worse than by killing them. It is an unusual punishment because it does not happen very often an it should not happen at all. Therefore, I think that capital punishment should be abolished. Capital punishment is the death penalty, and has been legal in most states for many years. The death penalty did not begin reporting executions until 1930, although legal executions have been preformed before then. From 1930 to 1992, there have been 4,002 executions in the United States (Foster, Jacobs, Siegel 54). From around the 1930s to the 1960s there was a steep drop in the total numbers of executions in the US until the mid 1960s. The drop in executions is due to the lack of public support and legal challenges. Then a 10-year moratorium began in order to determine a constitutionally acceptable way...
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...Using capital punishment as a deterrence continues to plague the minds of criminologist. Understanding the how deterrence works when it comes to capital punishment is important to the future of criminal justice and criminology. Does capital punishment really deter crime or is it exacerbate crime? In previous research it has been assumed that the economic model, which states offenders weigh the expected costs and benefits of committing a crime. Earlier researcher claim that violent crimes happen during interpersonal disputes, therefore cannot be deterred (Glaser, 1977). The brutality of capital punishment only incites criminals and increases the rates of crimes (Bailey, 1997). Opponents for against the capital punishment believe that it deters both crimes of passion and murders by intimates and that stranger murders increase nor decrease after executions. Cases Marcel Wayne Williams v. STATE of Arkansas Williams v. State, 338 Ark. 97, 991 S.W.2d 565 Facts: On November 20, 1994 victim Stacy Errickson had gotten off work and stopped for gas at a local gas station at about 6:45 am. She was approached while in her vehicle by the Mr. Williams who brandished a firearm and forced his way into the driver’s seat of her vehicle. Mr. Williams drove to several ATM machines and...
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...Supporting a Position There are several problems with capital punishment used in this country. In addition there are several issues with the State of Florida's implementation of Lethal-Injection. Florida's procedure for the use of lethal injections is the principal issue in both the NPR Podcast (Which is incorrectly labeled as a podcast as it is streaming only and you can not download it.) and the St. Petersburg Times article. The State of Florida uses outdated and inhumane procedures when administering lethal injections. They do so without a doctor present to insure that the proper steps are taken to prevent what happened to Angel Diaz from happening again. The excuse that 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...
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...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 does nothing but more harm. Criminals should be punished...
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...Philosophy Why Capital Punishment Works: Concepts of An Ideal Model Throughout the history of capital punishment, there have always been many criticisms of the penalty questioning everything from racial motivations to give the penalty, to why or why not juveniles should be exempt from the penalty, to the economic efficiency of it. Economically, many believe that the death penalty is a too long and drawn out process, and that giving life in prison is a more efficient process, and saves tax-payer money. In terms of discrimination, there has always been a subliminal sense against certain groups; with those being minorities and juveniles. The death penalty is supposed to only be given as a punishment based on the nature of a crime. However, certain statutes such as the minimum age law for the death penalty attempt to prevent true justice. If a juvenile is deemed competent, and their crime is heinous enough to incur the death penalty, then there is no reason as to why they should not be given it. As for minorities, there have always been questions as to why the majority of inmates on death row are African American. Although racism seems to be the easy answer, it is clear that the true reason is because many African Americans live in higher poverty areas were crime is rampant, thus making them more susceptible to committing heinous crimes. The death penalty should defend certain peoples, and should be used more often against certain races. It should merely aim to prevent...
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...then, there has been over 1500 executions carried out. Capital punishment is just because it is reserved for the sinister criminals, provides justice for the family, and deters future criminals from committing felonies, and has a natural deterrent effect which pushes away future convicts from committing violent acts. however others fear innocent lives are being taken. One of the most popular counter arguments from the non-supporters of the death penalty is the notion that innocent lives through the use of capital punishment....
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