Starting with selecting the trial jury, murder trials take far longer when the ultimate penalty is involved, capital punishment essay against. Carol Castenada, "Death Penalty Centers Losing Support Funds," USA Today, Oct. But this sentiment is by no means universal. People who strictly oppose capital punishment believe that everyone has a human right to life, regardless of crimes they may have committed and that sentencing them to death is an infringement of their basic human rights. The capital punishment essay against sign of capital punishment dates back to the eighteenth century BCE. The argument most often cited in support of capital punishment is that the threat of execution influences criminal behavior more effectively than imprisonment does.
INTRODUCTION TO THE “MODERN ERA” OF THE DEATH PENALTY IN THE UNITED STATES
We use cookies to enhance our website for you. Proceed if you agree to this policy or learn more about it. Type of paper: Argumentative Essay. Topic: FinancePunishmentLifeCrimeCapital PunishmentDeath PenaltyCriminal JusticeDeath. However, in and in a leading civilised nation such as the U. it is arguable that there can be no circumstances in which sentencing a person to death is acceptable, capital punishment essay against. America is known around the world as being a well-respected, leading democracy. The act of punishing people by death is an ancient one; it is also one that no longer has place in society.
One of the leading arguments against capital punishment is based on the value of human life. Most people believe human life to be valuable and some abolitionists think it so valuable that even the most brutal murderers should not have their lives taken from them BBC. Some abolitionists are less certain about this. They believe that life should be preserved unless there is significant reason not to, and that the burden is on supporters of capital punishment to validate their opinions. People who strictly oppose capital punishment believe that everyone has a human right to life, regardless of crimes they may have committed and that sentencing them to death is an infringement of their basic human rights.
The opposing argument, therefore, is that an individual who commits murder is aware of their wrong doing and is forfeiting their right to life. An capital punishment essay against common case against capital punishment is that there will inevitably be errors within the justice system that result in innocent people being put to death. Jurors, prosecutors and witnesses can and do make mistakes. There are many cases of verdicts that have been appealed and the accused eventually released. If the death penalty has been implicated there is no chance of correcting the mistakes.
There is a significant body capital punishment essay against evidence supporting the notion that mistakes such as these are likely. In America sinceone hundred and sixteen people on death row have been discovered as innocent and released Amnesty. Many people consider the notion and the practice of retribution to be morally unsound. They take on the view that teaching that murder is wrong by murder is unethical, capital punishment essay against. On the other hand, capital punishment supporters maintain that in order for justice to work, criminal individuals need to suffer in a way that is proportionate to their crime.
Following capital punishment essay against rule it makes sense that a murderer should be punished with death, capital punishment essay against. Many people who are unsure of their position on capital punishment do find that this idea corresponds with their inherent sense of justice. However, using this quote from the Old Testament actually demonstrates a misunderstanding of the text. For example, convicts of rape are not chastised with rape and burglars do not have their possessions taken away from them. Other abolitionists argue that the death penalty is not, in fact, proportionate to the crime of murder.
They claim that this punishment delivers two punishments; both the execution and the wait leading up to it. They see this, therefore, as a mismatch. Many offenders spend a long time on death row before finally being put to death. In the U. the average is ten years. It is arguable that life in prison causes a much higher degree of suffering than a short prison capital punishment essay against and then a pain free death. Another question when assessing the ethical appropriateness of the death sentence is whether it actually works as a crime deterrent.
In a survey was carried out to establish the connection between the death penalty and rates of murder. Irrespective of the moral and ethical position of capital punishment, it is arguable that to cause so much suffering to the individual is bordering on torture, and is wrong. Some means of execution are clearly probable to cause suffering. Examples of this are execution by strangulation, lethal gas and electrocution, to name just a few. Other methods, such as firing squads and beheading have been banned because they were considered too brutal, or because the executioner had to be too closely involved.
Many countries now opt for the lethal injection method of execution as it is thought to be less severe for both the offender and the executioner. However, there are known flaws capital punishment essay against this method, including the necessity for a medical professional to be involved in the actual killing; this is a contradiction to medical ethics. The Penry v. Lynaugh case provides a sound example of the issues surrounding this matter. Inin the state of Texas, Pamela Capital punishment essay against was raped and stabbed to death in her home Capital punishment essay against. Before Carpenter died in hospital she was able to give the police a description of her attacker.
The description led the police to Johnny Paul Penry. Penry confessed to the crime and he was charged with capital murder. However, the conviction was the most simple part of what was to be a very long and complicated case. Penry was assessed by a clinical psychologist who testified capital punishment essay against Penry had an IQ of fifty-four and, although he was twenty-two at the time of the trial, he was reported to have the learning age of a six-year-old and the social maturity level of a nine or ten-year old. What proceeded was a long trial in which there was a distinct lack of consensus among the Justices. Eventually the court ruled that it is not cruel and unusual punishment to sentence a mentally retarded person to death under the eighth amendment.
This position could be argued as wrong as, by definition, every mentally retarded individual is handicapped in his mental abilities and, therefore, his culpability. The death penalty for mentally retarded individuals is not banned by common law or by national consensus. However, it almost definitely violates the matter of proportionality; mentally retarded criminals do not possess the levels of culpability worthy of the death sentence. Another example levels of culpability coming into capital punishment essay against is when sentencing juveniles. A study investigated the eighth amendment of societal consensus and proportionality with reference to juvenile death penalties Crosby. A selection of individuals who had previously worked as jurors were asked to vote on whether to execute a defendant in an hypothetical case.
The majority of the participants chose to execute the defendant in all of the situations. A high rate of death sentences for the 15, 16, and year-old defendants may not be quite so startling; the finding that a majority of our sample of former jurors, specifically Supreme Court sustained the structure of the death penalty. Sixteen years later the Court finally addressed this structure regarding juvenile offenders. Inin the Thomson v. Oklahoma case, a majority of the Court decided that giving the death penalty to a fifteen-year-old defendant constituted cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth amendment.
Nevertheless, just two years later in the Stanford v. Kentucky case, a ruling percentage of the Court ruled that the death penalty was not unconstitutional when sentencing a sixteen or seventeen-year-old defendant Crosby. This seems an unethical decision. seventeen-year-olds are not yet even legally allowed to drink alcohol. Imposing the death sentence onto a defendant of such a young age could be argued to be barbaric. Further to implementing capital punishment, the nation goes one step further and decides that it is appropriate to televise the executions. Robert Bryan Bedau speaks about his time defending individuals facing the death penalty.
Bryan views the U. He claims that executions bring out the worst in people, and have done throughout history. Most people have seen movies featuring scenes of capital punishment; the on screen audience are shouting and throwing objects at the person about to be killed, and then at the moment of death the crowd erupts into excitement and cheering. As Bryan rightly points out, these scenes are historically accurate. William Bailey investigated the validly of the argument for murder and capital punishment as being a deterrent Bailey, capital punishment essay against. In order to do this he examined the monthly homicidal rates alongside the amount of television exposure of executions from through to Bailey found no evidence that the amount of television exposure of executions had a significant effect of deterrent on the homicides during the period studied.
He claims that as television has become the most depended on news medium then any deterrent to murder would be displaying the punishment capital punishment essay against this means. He concludes that the current numbers of executions or broadcasts of such neither dissuade nor encourage murder Bailey. Capital punishment provokes debate in the U. and all over the world. However, a government who would allow and promote the implementation of the death penalty cannot really be upholding either principle, capital punishment essay against. The ethical arguments against capital punishment are vast, ranging from philosophies on the value of life to basic human rights. Furthermore, the degree of disagreement within the Courts is a concern. The case of John Penry illustrates the point that a courtroom is made up of many people who will capital punishment essay against always unanimously agree.
If a decision cannot be made unanimously over an issue as fundamental as this one, then there should be no opportunity for someone to be sentenced to death despite it. It is an embarrassment that America, one of the leading and most respected nations in the world, can still be using this out-dated tradition. Bailey, W. American Sociological Association. American Sociological Review, Vol, capital punishment essay against. May Bedau, H. OUP USA. Chan, P, capital punishment essay against. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. Northwestern University. Crosby, Catherine, Preston Britner, Kathleen Jodi and Sharon Porwtood, capital punishment essay against. Law and Human Behavior, Vol.
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Despite the efforts made over the past two decades since Gregg to protect the administration of the death penalty from abuses, the actual "constitutional errors committed in state courts have gravely undermined the legitimacy of the death penalty as a punishment for crime. In , the American Law Institute ALI , the leading independent organization in the U. producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize and improve the law, removed capital punishment from its Model Penal Code. The ALI, which created the modern legal framework for the death penalty in , indicated that the punishment is so arbitrary, fraught with racial and economic disparities, and unable to assure quality legal representation for indigent capital defendants, that it can never be administered fairly.
Thoughtful citizens, who might possibly support the abstract notion of capital punishment, are obliged to condemn it in actual practice. Unlike any other criminal punishments, the death penalty is irrevocable. Speaking to the French Chamber of Deputies in , years after having witnessed the excesses of the French Revolution, the Marquis de Lafayette said, "I shall ask for the abolition of the punishment of death until I have the infallibility of human judgment demonstrated to me. Since , in this country, there have been on the average more than four cases each year in which an entirely innocent person was convicted of murder. Scores of these individuals were sentenced to death. In many cases, a reprieve or commutation arrived just hours, or even minutes, before the scheduled execution.
These erroneous convictions have occurred in virtually every jurisdiction from one end of the nation to the other. Nor have they declined in recent years, despite the new death penalty statutes approved by the Supreme Court. Disturbingly, and increasingly, a large body of evidence from the modern era shows that innocent people are often convicted of crimes — including capital crimes — and that some have been executed. He was convicted largely based on eyewitness testimony made from the back of a police car in a dimly lit lot near the crime scene. This sample of freakish and arbitrary innocence determinations also speaks directly to the unceasing concern that there are many more innocent people on death rows across the country — as well as who have been executed.
Several factors seen in the above sample of cases help explain why the judicial system cannot guarantee that justice will never miscarry: overzealous prosecution, mistaken or perjured testimony, race, faulty police work, coerced confessions, the defendant's previous criminal record, inept and under-resourced defense counsel, seemingly conclusive circumstantial evidence, and community pressure for a conviction, among others. And when the system does go wrong, it is often volunteers from outside the criminal justice system — journalists, for example — who rectify the errors, not the police or prosecutors.
To retain the death penalty in the face of the demonstrable failures of the system is unacceptable, especially since there are no strong overriding reasons to favor the death penalty. Prisoners are executed in the United States by any one of five methods; in a few jurisdictions the prisoner is allowed to choose which one he or she prefers:. The traditional mode of execution, hanging , is an option still available in Delaware, New Hampshire and Washington. Death on the gallows is easily bungled: If the drop is too short, there will be a slow and agonizing death by strangulation. If the drop is too long, the head will be torn off.
Two states, Idaho and Utah, still authorize the firing squad. The prisoner is strapped into a chair and hooded. A target is pinned to the chest. Five marksmen, one with blanks, take aim and fire. Throughout the twentieth century, electrocution has been the most widely used form of execution in this country, and is still utilized in eleven states, although lethal injection is the primary method of execution. The condemned prisoner is led — or dragged — into the death chamber, strapped into the chair, and electrodes are fastened to head and legs.
When the switch is thrown the body strains, jolting as the voltage is raised and lowered. Often smoke rises from the head. There is the awful odor of burning flesh. No one knows how long electrocuted individuals retain consciousness. In , the electrocution of John Evans in Alabama was described by an eyewitness as follows:. the first jolt of volts of electricity passed through Mr. Evans' body. It lasted thirty seconds. Sparks and flames erupted … from the electrode tied to Mr. Evans' left leg. His body slammed against the straps holding him in the electric chair and his fist clenched permanently. The electrode apparently burst from the strap holding it in place.
A large puff of grayish smoke and sparks poured out from under the hood that covered Mr. Evans' face. An overpowering stench of burnt flesh and clothing began pervading the witness room. Two doctors examined Mr. Evans and declared that he was not dead. Evans was administered a second thirty second jolt of electricity. The stench of burning flesh was nauseating. More smoke emanated from his leg and head. Again, the doctors examined Mr. At that time, I asked the prison commissioner, who was communicating on an open telephone line to Governor George Wallace, to grant clemency on the grounds that Mr.
Evans was being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment. The request …was denied. At , the doctors pronounced him dead. The execution of John Evans took fourteen minutes. The introduction of the gas chamber was an attempt to improve on electrocution. In this method of execution the prisoner is strapped into a chair with a container of sulfuric acid underneath. The chamber is sealed, and cyanide is dropped into the acid to form a lethal gas. Execution by suffocation in the lethal gas chamber has not been abolished but lethal injection serves as the primary method in states which still authorize it. In a panel of judges on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California where the gas chamber has been used since ruled that this method is a "cruel and unusual punishment.
Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens:. A few seconds later he again looked in my direction. His face was red and contorted as if he were attempting to fight through tremendous pain. His mouth was pursed shut and his jaw was clenched tight. Don then took several more quick gulps of the fumes. His face and body turned a deep red and the veins in his temple and neck began to bulge until I thought they might explode. After about a minute Don's face leaned partially forward, but he was still conscious. Every few seconds he continued to gulp in. He was shuddering uncontrollably and his body was racked with spasms. His head continued to snap back. His hands were clenched. At this time the muscles along Don's left arm and back began twitching in a wavelike motion under his skin.
Spittle drooled from his mouth. Approximately two minutes later, we were told by a prison official that the execution was complete. District Court , S. The latest mode of inflicting the death penalty, enacted into law by more than 30 states, is lethal injection , first used in in Texas. It is easy to overstate the humaneness and efficacy of this method; one cannot know whether lethal injection is really painless and there is evidence that it is not. As the U. Court of Appeals observed, there is "substantial and uncontroverted evidence… that execution by lethal injection poses a serious risk of cruel, protracted death….
Even a slight error in dosage or administration can leave a prisoner conscious but paralyzed while dying, a sentient witness of his or her own asphyxiation. Heckler , F. Its veneer of decency and subtle analogy with life-saving medical practice no doubt makes killing by lethal injection more acceptable to the public. Journalist Susan Blaustein, reacting to having witnessed an execution in Texas, comments:. Nor does execution by lethal injection always proceed smoothly as planned. In "the authorities repeatedly jabbed needles into … Stephen Morin, when they had trouble finding a usable vein because he had been a drug abuser. Although the U. Supreme Court has held that the current method of lethal injection used is constitutional, several people have suffered because of this form of execution.
In Ohio, Rommel Broom was subjected to 18 attempts at finding a vein so that he could be killed by lethal injection. The process to try to execute him took over two hours. Finally, the governor had to stop the execution and grant the inmate a one week reprieve. Nor was he the only Ohio inmate so maltreated. The state had amended its injection protocol to use a single drug, propofol, which advocates say causes severe pain upon injection. Although similar suits are pending in other states, [15] not all protocol-based challenges have succeeded; in Texas and Oklahoma, executions have continued despite questions about the potential cruelty of lethal injection and the type or number of chemicals used.
Food and Drug Administration FDA —are now the subject of federal litigation that could impact the legitimacy of the American death penalty system. Most people who have observed an execution are horrified and disgusted. In my face he could see the horror of his own death. Revulsion at the duty to supervise and witness executions is one reason why so many prison wardens — however unsentimental they are about crime and criminals — are opponents of capital punishment. Don Cabana, who supervised several executions in Missouri and Mississippi reflects on his mood just prior to witnessing an execution in the gas chamber:. It has been said that men on death row are inhuman, cold-blooded killers. But as I stood and watched a grieving mother leave her son for the last time, I questioned how the sordid business of executions was supposed to be the great equalizer….
The 'last mile' seemed an eternity, every step a painful reminder of what waited at the end of the walk. Where was the cold-blooded murderer, I wondered, as we approached the door to the last-night cell. I had looked for that man before… and I still had not found him — I saw, in my grasp, only a frightened child. I don't want to do this anymore. They do their best to perform the impossible and inhumane job with which the state has charged them. Those of us who have participated in executions often suffer something very much like posttraumatic stress. Many turn to alcohol and drugs. For some individuals, however, executions seem to appeal to strange, aberrant impulses and provide an outlet for sadistic urges.
Warden Lewis Lawes of Sing Sing Prison in New York wrote of the many requests he received to watch electrocutions, and told that when the job of executioner became vacant. Public executions were common in this country during the 19th and early 20th centuries. One of the last ones occurred in in Kentucky, when 20, people gathered to watch the hanging of a young African American male. Teeters, in Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society Delight in brutality, pain, violence and death may always be with us. But surely we must conclude that it is best for the law not to encourage such impulses.
When the government sanctions, commands, and ceremoniously carries out the execution of a prisoner, it lends support to this destructive side of human nature. More than two centuries ago the Italian jurist Cesare Beccaria, in his highly influential treatise On Crimes and Punishment , asserted: "The death penalty cannot be useful, because of the example of barbarity it gives men. Such methods are inherently cruel and will always mock the attempt to cloak them in justice. As Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Goldberg wrote, "The deliberate institutionalized taking of human life by the state is the greatest conceivable degradation to the dignity of the human personality. Capital appeals are not only costly; they are also time-consuming. The average death row inmate waits 12 years between sentencing and execution, and some sit in anticipation of their executions on death row for up to 30 years.
In solitary confinement, inmates are often isolated for 23 hours each day without access to training or educational programs, recreational activities, or regular visits. Such conditions have been demonstrated to provoke agitation, psychosis, delusions, paranoia, and self-destructive behavior. When death row inmates successfully appeal their sentences, they are transferred into the general inmate population, and when death row inmates are exonerated, they are promptly released into the community. Neither Death Row Syndrome nor Death Row Phenomenon has received formal recognition from the American Psychiatric Association or the American Psychological Association. Death Row Syndrome gained international recognition during the extradition proceedings of Jens Soering, a German citizen arrested in England and charged with committing murder on American soil.
Justice, it is often insisted, requires the death penalty as the only suitable retribution for heinous crimes. This claim does not bear scrutiny, however. By its nature, all punishment is retributive. Therefore, whatever legitimacy is to be found in punishment as just retribution can, in principle, be satisfied without recourse to executions. Moreover, the death penalty could be defended on narrowly retributive grounds only for the crime of murder, and not for any of the many other crimes that have frequently been made subject to this mode of punishment rape, kidnapping, espionage, treason, drug trafficking.
Few defenders of the death penalty are willing to confine themselves consistently to the narrow scope afforded by retribution. In any case, execution is more than a punishment exacted in retribution for the taking of a life. As Nobel Laureate Albert Camus wrote, "For there to be equivalence, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date at which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not encountered in private life. It is also often argued that death is what murderers deserve, and that those who oppose the death penalty violate the fundamental principle that criminals should be punished according to their just desserts — "making the punishment fit the crime.
It would require us to betray traitors and kill multiple murderers again and again — punishments that are, of course, impossible to inflict. Since we cannot reasonably aim to punish all crimes according to this principle, it is arbitrary to invoke it as a requirement of justice in the punishment of murder. If, however, the principle of just deserts means the severity of punishments must be proportional to the gravity of the crime — and since murder is the gravest crime, it deserves the severest punishment — then the principle is no doubt sound. Nevertheless, this premise does not compel support for the death penalty; what it does require is that other crimes be punished with terms of imprisonment or other deprivations less severe than those used in the punishment of murder.
Criminals no doubt deserve to be punished, and the severity of the punishment should be appropriate to their culpability and the harm they have caused the innocent. Surveys demonstrate that crime is the main concern of most citizens of the United States and the people support capital punishment. President Bush made the war on crime a major priority years ago and placed capital punishment change the most important item in the fight against crime Hansen, Many individuals feel like capital punishment serves as a marvelous advertiser of criminals that may decide to perform disturbing crimes. Contenders of the death penalty state there is no obstruction impact on crime, wrongly enables the government to take human life, and sustains social treacheries by excessively focusing on certain individuals and people who cannot afford the price of good lawyers.
Capital punishment has no impediment impact on criminality, individuals fells this enables the government to take the life of humans. Capital punishment is a weight to citizens economically because the genuine price of operating an execution is said to be times greater than separating the criminal in the penitentiary for as many years as possible. The practice of accomplishing a decision to hang the criminal is an extensive amount of time since it involves various petitions, thorough events which strain the whole procedure as the suspect can be on trial for many years.
The procedure requires a considerable amount of money to assist numerous officers extending from lawyers, judges, clerks, and other officials in court. The general routine of chastisement is worth holding to preserve criminal law even though the practice as a whole may be administered unfairly. The use of capital punishment should be dismissed as it is disseminated unethically, keeping other requirements of criminal law unblemished Brooks, The criminal justice system ought to mirror the ethical opinions of humanity. Thus, causing the punishment of death on its community entirely disrupts religious lessons on the holiness of life. It can be determined that there are many pros and cons connected with capital punishment however persuasively it very well may be pleased that the cons exceed the pros for example it is consistently satisfactory that life is given by God and no person should make that type of decision.
Don't know where to start? Give me your paper requirements and I connect you to an academic expert. Plagiarism checker Do the check. Writing Help Ask for help. Paraphrasing Tool Paraphrase my essay. Essay examples. Essay topics. The Death Penalty is not Worth the Cost The death penalty is a government practice, used as a punishment for capital crimes such as treason, murder, and genocide to name a few. Why Capital Punishment should be Abolished Capital punishment has been used in the United States for vicious criminals since its inception. Why the Death Penalty is Unjust Capital punishment being either a justifiable law, or a horrendous, unjust act can be determined based on the perspective of different worldviews.
The Use of Capital Punishment Capital Punishment is when a person is legally punished for a crime by death. The Abolishment of Capital Punishment Dating back to the 18th century, the death penalty was a punishment used by many across the world. Does the Death Penalty Effectively Deter Crime? Should Capital Punishment be Allow in Modern Society America faces an ethically instilled dilemma on whether or not a convicted criminal of a serious crime should face the ending of his or her life as punishment. Abolishment of the Death Penalty Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to relate many different criminological theories in regard to capital punishment. Cost of the Death Penalty The death penalty costs more than life in prison.
Should the Death Penalty be Legal in all Fifty States? Why Capital Punishment is Cruel and Regressive Capital Punishment is the legally authorized killing someone for committing a heinous crime. Simpson Case Trial The O. Religious Values and Death Penalty Religious and moral values tell us that killing is wrong. The Problematics of Capital Punishment Capital punishment is a universal problematic ideology under constant debate. George Walker Bush and Death Penalty George Walker Bush, a former U. Capital Punishment Crime Deterrence Chapter 1: Introduction 1. Costs: Death Penalty Versus Prison Costs The Conservatives Concerned Organization challenges the notion that the death penalty is more cost effective compared to prison housing and feeding costs.
The Death Penalty: Right or Wrong? Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King Jr. Supreme Court Decision Analysis In , a female by the name of Shirley Crook was found dead in her home. Why Capital Punishment is Cruel: Argumenatation Death penalty, or capital punishment, are means of legal punishment that have been continuously analyzed and argued. Death Penalty as a Source of Constant Controversy The death penalty has been a source of almost constant controversy for hundreds of years, splitting the population down the middle with people supporting the death penalty and people that think it is unnecessary. Capital Punishment in the State of California Along with costly trials and imprisonments comes the possibility of wrongfully executing an innocent human being — something of which has unfortunately occurred after past death sentence trials.
The History of the Death Penalty The History of the death penalty goes as far back as ancient China and Babylon. Related topics Crime Justice Social Issues Criminal Justice Morality Death Penalty Criminal Law Punishment Virtue Death Prison Murder. Essay About Capital Punishment Capital punishment is a death penalty that is put into impact for significant wrongdoings. For Capital Punishment Advocates of capital punishment state it is a vital instrument for protecting lawfulness, preventing crime, and not cost as much life detainment. Against Capital Punishment Contenders of the death penalty state there is no obstruction impact on crime, wrongly enables the government to take human life, and sustains social treacheries by excessively focusing on certain individuals and people who cannot afford the price of good lawyers.
Conclusion It can be determined that there are many pros and cons connected with capital punishment however persuasively it very well may be pleased that the cons exceed the pros for example it is consistently satisfactory that life is given by God and no person should make that type of decision. how it works. Tell Us Your Requirements Specify your topic, deadline, number of pages and other requirements. seventeen-year-olds are not yet even legally allowed to drink alcohol. Imposing the death sentence onto a defendant of such a young age could be argued to be barbaric. Further to implementing capital punishment, the nation goes one step further and decides that it is appropriate to televise the executions.
Robert Bryan Bedau speaks about his time defending individuals facing the death penalty. Bryan views the U. He claims that executions bring out the worst in people, and have done throughout history. Most people have seen movies featuring scenes of capital punishment; the on screen audience are shouting and throwing objects at the person about to be killed, and then at the moment of death the crowd erupts into excitement and cheering. As Bryan rightly points out, these scenes are historically accurate. William Bailey investigated the validly of the argument for murder and capital punishment as being a deterrent Bailey.
In order to do this he examined the monthly homicidal rates alongside the amount of television exposure of executions from through to Bailey found no evidence that the amount of television exposure of executions had a significant effect of deterrent on the homicides during the period studied. He claims that as television has become the most depended on news medium then any deterrent to murder would be displaying the punishment via this means. He concludes that the current numbers of executions or broadcasts of such neither dissuade nor encourage murder Bailey. Capital punishment provokes debate in the U. and all over the world. However, a government who would allow and promote the implementation of the death penalty cannot really be upholding either principle.
The ethical arguments against capital punishment are vast, ranging from philosophies on the value of life to basic human rights. Furthermore, the degree of disagreement within the Courts is a concern. The case of John Penry illustrates the point that a courtroom is made up of many people who will not always unanimously agree. If a decision cannot be made unanimously over an issue as fundamental as this one, then there should be no opportunity for someone to be sentenced to death despite it. It is an embarrassment that America, one of the leading and most respected nations in the world, can still be using this out-dated tradition.
Bailey, W. American Sociological Association. American Sociological Review, Vol. May Bedau, H. OUP USA. Chan, P. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. Northwestern University. Crosby, Catherine, Preston Britner, Kathleen Jodi and Sharon Porwtood. Law and Human Behavior, Vol. We accept sample papers from students via the submission form. If this essay belongs to you and you no longer want us to display it, you can put a claim on it and we will remove it. Just fill out the removal request form with all necessary details, such as page location and some verification of you being a true owner. Please note that we cannot guarantee that unsubstantiated claims will be satisfied. Note: this sample is kindly provided by a student like you, use it only as a guidance.
ID Subscribe to WowEssays Premium and get access to over 1 MILLION high-quality downloadable samples. GET ACCESS NOW. Password recovery email has been sent to email email. HIRE WRITER PREMIUM DATABASE Sign in. HIRE WRITER PREMIUM DATABASE. Type of Paper. Essay Topics. Educational Tools. Who We Are Contact Us Our Writers Honor Code WowEssays Reviews Blog Our Services. ORDER PAPER LIKE THIS. Premium samples database Get access to over 1 MILLION samples with WowEssays Premium! LEARN MORE. A particularly contested area of capital punishment regards the sentencing of individuals with learning disabilities. Works Cited Bailey, W. shtml Bedau, H. Amnesty International.
The Free Dictionary. United States. Social Issues. Mentally Retarded. Eighth Amendment. Cite this page Choose cite format: APA MLA Harvard Vancouver Chicago ASA IEEE AMA. Accessed 07 January Against Capital Punishment Argumentative Essay Examples. December Accessed January 07, Retrieved January 07, com, Dec
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