...1998 that Canada had fully eradicated the death penalty for all crimes. After examining the facts of both the J. Kindle and G. Burns & A. Rafay cases, I have capital punishment will not return to Canada in the future. Joseph J. Kindler is found guilty of first degree murder, kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder. The jury on this case had recommended the death penalty as his punishment. While awaiting his sentencing he escaped prison and fled to Canada. After being found once again the U.S had asked for his extradition back to America. This was approved by the Minister of Justice but the Minister of Justice had failed to insure that...
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...number of people on death row. However, capital convictions there are frequently reversed on appeal and later reduced to life sentences because the county did not provide adequate representation to many defendants. According to a 2011 study by the Philadelphia Inquirer, 69 Philadelphia death penalty cases have been reversed or sent back by state or federal courts after findings that the defense attorney’s inadequate performance deprived the defendant of a fair trial. When these cases were retried, almost all of the defendants received a sentence less than death, and some were acquitted altogether. Maricopa County in Arizona ranks fourth among counties in the country...
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...Andre Thomas case, I was first horrified by how critical Thomas' mental illness had become. The Texas tribune has listed a timeline of Thomas' life. It is clear that he had severe mental health issues and for whatever reason was allowed to be without care. The Pros and the Cons of the Death Penalty Morality is often at the center of the debate of the Death Penalty. Many believe that the death penalty is morally wrong due to the government's decision to take another life (Top). But, it's also morally wrong to commit the crimes that those on death row have committed. For example, Andre Thomas, although mentally ill, murdered his wife and family. It's also morally wrong to take innocent lives. The costs could also be a factor. While keeping a person in prison for life can be costly, the death penalty will keep control of the costs of tax payers (Top). Tax payers have to pay for the cost of living for the incarcerated, and with rising numbers, their are rising costs. The death penalty allows for...
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...A Case for the Death Penalty The death penalty was employed for centuries but within the past 50 years it has come under attack by the ACLU and other right to life organizations. Although it can be a difficult way to die, a person on death row doesn’t arrive there without extreme evidence or circumstances, including prior convictions and a trial by a jury of their peers. The purpose of this paper is to rebut the Article “The case against the Death Penalty” written by Hugo Bedau. Hugo Bedau is a Philosophy Professor at Tufts University and author of two books on the subject of the death penalty. With his ties to many Anti-Death Penalty groups his views on the subject would be skewed. In Bedau’s (1992) article he writes, “If, however, severe punishment can deter crime, then long term imprisonment is severe enough to cause any rational person not to commit violent crimes.” This argument is absurd because how can people who commit homicides be thought of as rational after murdering innocent people instead of fist fighting, talking over the situation, or other nonlethal tack. There are no studies that state how many murders the death penalty prevents by having it available to the prosecution, however; as seen in the graph below, murders committed and the amount of those executed are inversely affected. A case in point would be found in December 1991 when Collen Reed was kidnapped, raped, tortured, and killed by Kenneth McDuff. Sentenced to death in 1966, he beat...
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...regarding the death penalty has been prevalent in the United States for centuries. Those in favor of capital punishment, a term synonymous with the death penalty, argue that its practice provides a “fair” punishment for certain crimes and serves as a deterrent for heinous acts. However, there has been growing opposition in America. The death penalty, implemented in thirty-two states, should be prohibited in the United States due to the financial cost of death penalty trials and executions, the possibility that those sentenced are innocent, and the inhumanity of failed executions. The implementation of the death penalty in America dates back to the colonial era and is largely attributed to British influences. The first recorded...
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...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...
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...The rights of death penalty is a major problem in the world. Many people have very different views on death penalty. This even includes Judicial, Executive and Legislative branch. Death penalty still appears to be a common punishment for years to come, but will it last? This here are opinions and certain rules that have been established on thoughts of death penalty by the three branches. The U.S Supreme court has issued many changes of rulings when related to the death penalty. One rule that has been established by Supreme Court in Texas was stopping the act of evaluating intellectual disability in death penalty cases. In Texas, Supreme Court in the Miller-EL v. Dretke case has also shown the Supreme Court to be racially fair when it comes to death penalty cases. They have redone trials before based off their thoughts of racial bias being used in trial. This is one reason why Judicial Branch gets a lot of respect among people. President Obama is a man of the executive branch. His opinion on death penalty by his own words, is a “very difficult and troublesome” matter. Barack Obama does not see death penalty being...
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...for crimes they committed before they reach adulthood. The United States Supreme Court prohibits execution for crimes committed at the age of fifteen or younger. Nineteen states have laws permitting the execution of persons who committed crimes at sixteen or seventeen. Since 1973, 226 juvenile death sentences have been imposed. Twenty-two juvenile offenders have been executed and 82 remain on death row (Juveniles and the Death Penalty). On January 27, 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to review whether executing sixteen and seventeen year-olds violates the Constitution’s ban on 'cruel and unusual...
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...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...
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...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”...
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...Vagueness, Ambiguity, and Clarity in Writing CRT/205: Critical Thinking December 7, 2012 Gecobie Davis When I looked further into Capital punishment laws I found a very interested story about when it first started. The first established death penalty laws date as far back as the Eighteenth Century B.C. in the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon, which codified the death penalty for 25 different crimes. The death penalty was also part of the Fourteenth Century B.C.'s Hittite Code; in the Seventh Century B.C.'s Draconian Code of Athens, which made death the only punishment for all crimes, and in the Fifth Century B.C.'s Roman Law of the Twelve Tablets. Death sentences were carried out by such means as crucifixion, drowning, beating to death, burning alive, and impalement. I think the United States should ban using capital punishment because many of them don’t do serious crimes then others. Look at the case of Brian Dugan is one of the people that the United States reconsider to use the capital punishment. I think if a person breaks the law any type of form of fashion they are responsible for their own actions. Brain Dugan execution took more than twice as normal time to do and appeared to some families member that was in a suffering process at the time of crime happen(Chicago tribune, 2011). I feel like the government is doing what they can to put these criminals in jail for killing, murdering, raping, and kidnapping another human being. I think by giving them life in...
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...prisoners for heinous crimes through state-regulated execution often cite the term “an eye for an eye.” Their argument also naturally gravitates towards saving money, as cost of housing prisoners is a burden of taxpayers. Denouncers of capital punishment generally refer to the legality of the statute through the Eighth Amendment, which protects against cruel and unusual punishment. The main points of the speech were not meant to sway the audience one way or the other, but to give informative, unbiased facts about the death penalty through the speaker’s firsthand...
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...PiG Task 1- Death Penalty James Chen The American Justice System was meant to build for keeping the society structured. Anyone who committed a crime would face corresponding punishments. And the death penalty is one of them. This kind of penalty has been around for decades. But there are still a lot of controversies around it. Many people are against the death penalty because of many reasons. For example, everyone should have the right to live, sometimes juries are racially biased and wrongful executions could happen. And some people want the death penalty. They say some felony criminals need retribution and the court needs to show deterrence. This conversation has been brought up again recently because of the case Foster V. Chatman. ABA (American...
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...The death penalty was established on January 17th, 1977. There are currently 32 states in the United States in which the death penalty is legal and 18 where it is not. The death penalty is often referred to as capital punishment as well because it can only be used as a conviction to capital offenses that are seen as extreme cases. Examples of this include espionage, treason, death resulting from aircraft hijacking, and various forms of murder; such as murder committed during drug-related drive by shootings, murder during a kidnapping, murder for hire, and genocide. Death penalty was seen as a constitutional punishment in the case Furman v. Georgia that took place in 1972. In this case a man named Troy Gregg had been found guilty of murder and armed robbery and sentenced to death. He then asked the court to go further into the case and rule the death penalty itself unconstitutional. The case then got carried to the supreme court in which they ruled that the death penalty does not violate any part of the constitution, including the 8th amendment. The eighth amendment bans cruel and unusual punishment under the constitution. In the Furman v. Georgia case it stated that the death penalty does not violate the constitution because under the eighth amendment it shapes how certain procedural aspects regarding when a jury may use the death penalty and how it must be carried out. In modern days the death penalty is carried out by lethal injection unless the inmates choose an alternative...
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...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...
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