...Essay Andrea Counts Professor Lincoln Schreiber Critical Thinking May 3, 2015 Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is the punishment for a crime by death ("legal definition of capital punishment," n.d.). It is usually administered via the use of lethal injection for heinous crimes such as murder and other serial offenses. I am a defendant of capital punishment for several different reasons, which are detailed in this assignment. One of the main premises that support my position as a defendant of the death penalty is the separation of church and state ("Should the death penalty be allowed?" n.d.). Many opponents of the death penalty contend that it is an immoral act, as it essentially murder and that murder is inherently wrong. This viewpoint is flawed due to the fact that the United States is a country that believes in separation of church and state. Murder is a sin in many religions, but religion cannot play a role in how punishment for crime is carried out, nor is there anything in the constitution asserting that the death penalty as a form of punishment is against any civil liberties afforded to the citizens of this country. The death penalty is reserved for and carried out on the worst of the worst ("Should the death penalty be allowed?" n.d.). I agree with this premise and it goes back to my original statement in which I said the death penalty is used as punishment for those who have committed heinous crimes. There are those who commit crimes so unthinkable...
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...Corrections November 13, 2014 When I look at our justice system and how it works, I cannot help but perceive the death penalty’s main function is retribution. The punishment as a whole is flawed and there will always be a substantial risk of executing an innocent person. This negative aspect cannot be overlooked. Furthermore, the cost of this farce is completely appalling and we should not continue to irresponsibly waste crucial funding of the criminal justice system in this way. Capital punishment is hurting our government more than it is helping. Unless the research proves that it is an effective form of deterrence, we should abolish this form of punishment outright. I do not see how the death penalty would deter anyone from committing a heinous act. This is because someone in the commission of a crime is not thinking about sitting in a court room and being sentenced to death. Many people use the term “eye for an eye” but is this the right way to uphold justice? For the reasons of lack of substantial evidence of capital punishment being an effective deterrent, the wasteful spending of valuable funds, and the potential death of innocent people, I do not support the use of the death penalty. For centuries, governments have tried to utilize the death sentence for deterrence and to keep the crime rate lowered. We must ask ourselves, does executing wrongdoers actually lower the rates of crime punishable by death? In my research, I have come to the conclusion that this is...
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...being’s life justifiable for the severity of their crimes? Is it acceptable to take away someone’s life out of revenge or does it makes us as immoral as the criminal? As the reader learns more about all the different aspects that make up the murderers in In Cold Blood; Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, we are left with this very same question as to whether or not they deserved the death penalty. A person’s first reaction of what a murderer’s punishment should be is typically the death penalty for the purpose of finding closure/justice but in all reality, revoking someone’s life doesn’t solve anything at all in the long run. All things considered, various articles mention how even criminologists have noted that capital punishment does not effectively deter murder rates. For this reason, the death penalty should not be imposed on anyone for how barbaric and inhumane it is, as well as how there is no deterrent factor and...
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...Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is when a person is put to death by the state as a result of a crime. Crimes that can result in the death penalty are known as capital offences. The death penalty is a long debated topic across the world. The word capital comes from the Latin word capitalis, which translates to “of the head.” The word refers to the ancient time when beheading was used to as capital punishment for the crimes. Punishment by death is usually reserved for murder, treason, spying, or military justice. Only the mentally competent adults could receive the capital punishment. The process of capital punishment today is very costly. It takes millions of dollars and only a small amount of people are actually executed. The judicial system is not a hundred percent accurate either, therefore innocent lives could be taken. The increase in cost as well as inconsistent executions results in a flawed capital punishment system which should be abolished. The death penalty began in the ancient times when murder, treason, or killing the ruler of an enemy. In the western culture, death penalty laws were established as early as the Eighteenth Century. Britain had heavy influence on America’s use of the death penalty. Each colony’s laws regarding the death penalty differed. The abolitionist movement started during the colonial times. The northeast was soon influenced by the abolitionist movement in the early to mid Nineteenth Century. In 1846, Michigan was the first state in...
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...seems to be the main argument against the death penalty. However the death penalty, a huge 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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...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....
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...Timothy Patterson Criminal Justice 101 Professor Davis February 13, 2013 The Death Penalty Is Reasonable- A Life For A Life The death penalty is an increasingly hot and pressing issue in the United States because there are many strongly opinionated people and no one can seem to find a solution that will satisfy both sides of this issue. Looking at the death penalty system in action, it is fundamentally flawed in use and there is a serious risk of executing innocent people. Many unjust convictions such as lack of eyewitness identification, false confessions and the access to have DNA testing has caused our country’s criminal justice system to convict many innocent individuals, who have been sentenced to death. In the United States of America, there are 3,146 known death row inmates. There are 29 states with current death penalty statutes, as well as federal civilian and military legal systems, and 21 states without death penalty statutes. Since the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976, there have been a total of 1,307 executions (NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Quarterly Report, October 1, 2012). According to James Brockway (Guest Blogger, Death Penalty Focus), “Exoneration has been incredibly important for those who oppose capital punishment. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, 138 death row inmates have had their convictions overturned… While organizations like the Innocence Project put their tireless...
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...three subtopics. Write your thesis statement in the box below: The death penalty is one of the most flawed forms of punishment in the court systems today. It does not penalize a convicted person of 1st degree murder, it echoes ancient roman/ medieval spectacles. | Thesis Statement Grading Criteria: Consider the following questions when developing the thesis statement for your essay. These criteria will be applied when this assignment is graded. The answer to each of the five questions below should be yes if you have drafted a quality thesis statement. 1) Does the thesis statement respond to the writing prompt? Yes 2) Did you take a position that others may oppose? Yes 3) Is the thesis statement specific? Yes 4) Does the thesis pass the “So what?” test? 5) Does the thesis statement not leave the reader with questions? Part 2: Gathering Resources Assignment Directions: Use the GCU elibrary to find three sources to use in your persuasive essay. Fill out the requested information in the table below about your sources. | Article 1 | Article 2 | Article 3 | Title and Author(s) | Challenging the Death Penalty w/Statistics: Furman, McCleskey, and a Single County case study.Shats, S. and Dalton, T. | Religious Characteristics and the Death Penalty.Miller, M K., Hayward, R D. | Ending death by dangerousness: A path to the de facto abolition of the death penalty.Berry, William W. | Persistent GCU Library Link |...
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...ordinary life but says that he has found it in prison. Patrick’s relationship with Prejean becomes his source of strength and courage in the last hours of his life. The love between Patrick and Prejean allows Patrick to atone for his sins at the end of his life. The Linked Symptoms of Social Injustice Prejean’s fight to abolish the death penalty is not just a fight against one component of the penal system; it is a battle in the greater war for social justice. Prejean begins her career of social activism by working with the residents of the St. Thomas projects. From there, she becomes an anti-death penalty advocate. Her experiences in the projects and in prison are linked not only by violence, but also by poverty and by a flawed, arbitrary, and biased justice system. Capital punishment, poverty, and violence must be understood as three symptoms of the general injustice of society. Each struggle for the poor and disposed is a struggle for justice. The Importance of Personal Responsibility Prejean stresses the importance of personal responsibility by challenging the government officials responsible for capital punishment, as well as the men on death row, to hold themselves accountable for their actions. In her moral and philosophical perspective, every individual is responsible for his or her own actions, regardless of circumstances. For Robert Willie and Patrick...
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...United States Constitution and The State of the Death Penalty in the US As of April 1, 2008, the Death Penalty was authorized by 37 states, the Federal Government, and the U. S. Military. Those jurisdictions without the Death Penalty include 13 states and the District of Columbia. (Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin). Premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the state it violates the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the right to be free from cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. Over two-thirds of the countries in the world 141 have now abolished the death penalty in law or practice. In the U. S., 17 states have put an end to state-sanctioned killing. Dakota Territory established the death penalty in 1865. The penalty was carried into North Dakota law at statehood. In 1915, the penalty was restricted to persons convicted of committing a first-degree murder while already under a life sentence for first-degree murder. The death penalty was abolished when North Dakota's new criminal code became effective, July 1, 1975. According to historian Frank E. Vyzralek, only one legal execution took place in the northern half of Dakota Territory in Grand Forks in 1885. Seven legal executions took place after statehood. The last one John Rooney in 1905 was the first to take place inside the prison walls at Bismarck. Previous...
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.... Matthew was a murderer and he committed a cruel and heinous crime. Some people would argue that he deserved the death penalty and the victim’s family would most likely agree. A specific example for the movie was when one of the victim’s father says to Matthew “I’m going to watch you fry and sizzle” he clearly believes that Matthew deserves to be put to death. This relates to the “eye for an eye” and a “tooth for a tooth” theory. The victim’s father is definitely pro death penalty. Another argument presented in the movie was that he wasn’t a good person and he took a life therefore his life should be taken. 2. Sister Helen Prejean believed that there was a serious moral cost of state-sanctioned executions. She believed that it wasn’t the government’s place to decide who should live or die. She believed that it was up to god. Sister Prejean was also an anti-death penalty advocate and she believed that life in prison was a better alternative for people who committed serious crimes. She really tried to stress the fact that often times there are many mitigating factors that lead to someone committing a crime. For example, in the case of Matthew he had a really rough childhood....
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...tooth; just as he has injured a man, so it shall be inflicted on him..” a quote from the Bible, Leviticus 24:20. It is kind of ironic how people would argue that the death penalty is going against the the Bible’s moral code of “Thou Shalt Not Commit Murder,” one of the the Ten Commandments in the Bible, when the Bible also encourages justice for those who has been done wrong. The death penalty is a form of punishment against criminals who committed a crime so wrong, the only way of justice would be sentenced to death. Many would argue that this form of punishment is morally wrong. It is true that execution may be considered as a form of murder too, but the intentions of the execution is not as...
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...overarching idea that many different people throughout history have interpreted in various ways. While some people believed that a single person should run the government, others believe in a democratic system where everyone has an equal voice. Moreover, no one form of government is “right” or “good”, there is simply a successful and unsuccessful. In John Gardner’s Grendel, the government is structured in the form of a feudal monarchy meant...
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...THE DEATH PENALTY: MORALLY UNFAIR OR JUSTICE SERVED! Andrea Sturdivant ENG 325 Intermediate Composition Candace Henry Monday November 19, 2012 The Death penalty is it Justice? However it is not the Laws that cure’s the society. The death penalty is a subject that has become very big in the 21st century. However, many centuries ago the death penalty is something that was widely practiced in almost all cultures. Thirty-four states have the death penalty, not including the United States army and the United States navy where the death penalty is allowed. Sixteen states do not have the death penalty, not including Washington D.C. where the death penalty is also not allowed. The death penalty can be drawn back to the tenth century; however, in America the main reason why it is here is because of Britain’s influence. Laws regarding the death penalty traveled quickly into America and soon they were legal in every colony. The death penalty has been a part of history for a long period of time. The effectiveness of the death penalty in states where it is legal should encourage the sixteen states that do not have the death penalty re-instate it as a punishment. Innocent until proven guilty, as many people now realize that is the motto of the court systems in the United States. However, for those families that have family members being put through the process of death...An issue that has continually created tension in today’s society is whether the death penalty serves as a...
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...1. Philadelphia County ranks third among counties in the country in terms of the 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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