Given the prevalence of the death penalty in the modern world, it is fair to assume that there are perhaps justifications for it, though there are plenty of people who categorically oppose it. Without going into the details of any given judicial system accounting case studies examples, there are number of reasons to support both sides of the argument. The Death Penalty: Con It is arguable that countries still using the death penalty do so purely in response to criminality and try to deter future criminals with it. Ironically, many of the countries that have the death penalty suffer from higher crime rates. The death penalty does not cause the problem but it is merely a response to it. And while the death penalty is usually implemented by autocracy or religious doctrine, it is almost never used in response to actual modern societal values. The question is whether or not execution of an innocent person is strong enough to abolish the death penalty. Remember, the death penalty saves lives. Repeat murders are eliminated and foreseeable murders are deterred. You must consider the victim as well as the defendant. In my opinion, I am in favor of the death penalty, because we can save innocent lives. Life to me is scared as Professor Haag stated. My innocent nephew, Sean Burgado, who was brutally murdered by a shot gun to the chest, did not have a choice to make a last statement or make a will before he died. The people on death row can watch T.V. and enjoy their lives for another 20 years before they are executed. They can prepare their death by making a will and a last statement. Sean’s murder is still unsolved, and the killer is enjoying his life somewhere. The murderer(s) will probably murder another person some day. of potential victims to murder (p. 129) The states that have the death penalty should be free of murder, but those states have the most murders, and the states that abolished the death penalty has less. Conviction of the innocent does occur and death makes a miscarriage of justice irrevocable. Two states Maine and Rhode Island abolished the death penalty because of public shame and remorse after they discovered they executed some innocent men. the possible death of innocent lives that might be saved What is Capital punishment? Capital punishment is the death penalty. It is used today and was used in ancient times to punish a variety of offenses. Even the bible advocates death for murder and other crimes like kidnapping and witchcraft. An Eye for an Eye not to mention wars and revolutions, cause death of The execution of the innocent believed guilty is a It is noted that we need extreme penalty as a deterrent to crime. This could be a strong argument if it could be proved that the death penalty discourages murderers and kidnappers. There is strong evidence that the death penalty does not discourage crime at all (McClellan, G. 1961). Some criminologist claim they have statistically proven that when an execution is publicized, more murders occur in the day and weeks that follow. A good example is in the Linberg kidnapping. A number of states adopted the death penalty for crime like this, but figures showed kidnapping increased. Publicity may encourage crime instead of preventing it (McClellan, G. 1961). We should weigh the death of the convicted murders Crime growth has been going up in the past because of too much leniency going hand in hand with the increased rate of people being victimized. There are many loop holes devised for offenders essay or personal statement college, and because of that crime rate has increased drastically. Between l960 to 1968 crime rate increased 11 times. More and more people are being murdered, raped, assaulted, kidnapped, and robbed, etc. (Isenberg, I. 1997). punishment, and yet, the victims never have a chance to do that? Are crime victims in the United States today the forgotten people of our time? Do they receive full measure of justice (as cited in Isenberg, 1977, p. 129)? Could the same effect be achieved by putting the criminal in prison for life? “Life in prison” means in six months the parole board can release the man to 12 years in some states. “But even if it were real life imprisonment law copyright essay, it’s deterrent effect will never be as great as that of the death penalty. The death penalty is the only actually irrevocable penalty. Because of that, it is the one that people fear the most (Isenberg, I. 1977). these 10 states had abolished the death penalty. Death Penalty Fails to Rehabilitate J. Edgar Hoover, late director of Federal Bureau of Investigations, asks the suffering by works or order primarily to forestall for hire, where the possible penalty of death may well enter by it, the activity is warranted. Most human activities like The 10 states, which had the most murderers from eight to than two a year per 100,000 population -were New Hampshire Wesley Lowe states, “As for the penal system, accidentally executing an innocent person already written essays, I must point out that in this imperfect world, citizens are required to take certain risks in exchange for safety.” He says we risk dying in an accident when we drive a car, and it is acceptable. Therefore, risking that someone might be wrongfully executed is worth saving thousand’s of innocent people who may be the next victim of murder (Internet). In a foot note Bedau (1982) cites, “Actually being dead is no different from not being born, a (non) experience we all had before being born. But death is not realized. The process of dying which is a different matter is usually confused with it. In turn, dying is feared because death is expected, even though death is feared because it is confused with dying (p. 338)”. death has little or no deterrent effect. But for many others, Some people argue that the capital punishment tends to brutalize and disregards society. Do you agree? Some people say the that penalty is legalized murder because it is like “an eye for an eye”. The difference between punishment and the crime is that one is legalized and the other is not! People are more brutalized by what they see on T.V. daily. People are not brutalized by punishments they are brutalized by our failure to serious punish help with your homework, the brutal acts. executions were public and brutal. Some criminals were even crushed to death slowly under heavy weight. Crime was more common at that time than it is now. Evidence shows execution does not act as a deterrent to capital punishment. Hugo Bedau (1982) claims: the disadvantages, human activities including the penal detected. But such miscarriage of justice do not death penalty has never served to reduce the crime rate (p. 40). empirical evidence supporting or refuting this view. Opponents claim lots of innocent man are wrongly executed. There has never been any proof of an innocent man being executed. A study by Bedau-Radlet claimed there were 22 cases where the defendant have been wrongly executed. However, this study is very controversial. Studies like Markman and Cassell find that the methodology was flawed in l2 cases. There was no substantial evidence of guilt, and no evidence of innocence. Moreover, our judicial system takes extra precautions to be sure the innocent and their rights are protected. Most likely an innocent person would not be executed (Internet). Deterrent in 27 States Millions are being killed and will be killed because our justice system is not working. Millions have already been killed and will be killed every year. According to Time Magazine , there are 2,000,000 people beaten in the United States. Some are knifed essay about economics, shot, or assaulted (Internet). In the article of the ACLU Evolution Watch, the American Bar Association said the quality of the legal representation is substantial. Ninety-nine percent of criminal defendants end up penniless by the time their case is up for appeal. They claim they are treated unfairly. Most murderers who do not have any money, receive the death penalty. Those who live in counties pro-death penalty are more likely to receive the death penalty. (Internet). DEATH PENALTY ARGUMENTS: All religions believe having life is sacred. If we deprive someone else life, he only suffers minor inconvenience; hence, we cheapen human life—this is where we are at today. Does the death penalty give increased protection against being murdered? This argument for continuation of the death penalty is most likely a deterrent, but it has failed as a deterrent. There is no clear evidence because empirical studies done in the 50’s by Professor Thorsten Sellin cv cover letter examples uk, (sociologist) did not give support to deterrence (McClellan, G. 1961). Capital punishment, which some also call the death penalty, has been around in society for hundreds of years. Ever since it began, there have been discussions as to whether it is morally right, and as to whether it actually deters criminals. Some believe that the prospect of being put to death often stops criminals from committing violent acts. Others believe exactly the opposite, stating that those that commit violent crimes are driven to do so for various reasons, and whether they have the chance of being put to death or not will not stop them from doing what they feel they must do. the death penalty has disproportionately been applied in cases in which the defendant is nonwhite or the victim is white. Mainly, Opponents of the death penalty argue that (Policy, 2003): Crime, including violent crime, has been with society virtually since the beginning, and it will remain with society until it ends. Nothing will stop some people from committing violent acts, and the death penalty does not appear to be the answer. Sometimes, innocent lives are lost to this process good film dissertation ideas, and many times the families of the victims do not experience the kind of closure that one would hope for simply because the offender has been executed. Since it would appear that even law enforcement does not see the death penalty as an answer to the problems of crime in society, one wonders why it is allowed to continue. Both sides of the argument will be addressed here, so that conclusions can be drawn from the information presented that will hopefully shed some light on the debate and determine which side is correct. There is, however, seemingly much more information available that is against the death penalty than for it. It is also possible that a determination will not be able to be made due to the fact that there are so many issues and beliefs that surround each side, and statistics can be made to show many things, depending on who is utilizing them and how the numbers are manipulated. It is for this reason that statistics will not play a large role in the scope of this paper, as numbers often vary. It is possible, however, that the death penalty would be a deterrent if it were used more swiftly and more often. Many people who are sentenced to death spend years in prison appealing their conviction and appealing their sentence, and this is a large waste of taxpayer money, as well as a huge burden on the court system. Those that are guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt often wait a long time for their sentence to be carried out. Even when DNA evidence shows that they were the guilty party, the execution is still not swiftly carried out, and this allows many criminals to find some way to avoid it. Another concern over the death penalty and violent crime is the issue of the mentally handicapped (Banner, 2003). They, along with juveniles, also commit violent crimes on occasion. These mentally handicapped individuals, not to be confused with mentally disturbed or insane individuals, often have low IQs and do not realize what they have done. The death penalty in their cases is not any deterrent. They do not even realize what they have done. One mentally handicapped man actually asked the jailers to save his dessert for him so that he could eat it after his execution. It was clear that he did not understand what the execution was about, no more than he understood the crime that he had committed. Executing individuals like this does nothing for society. Many people find it cruel, and even if it is not, it is certainly senseless. There are no important lessons about not committing crimes that are learned by executing someone who is mentally handicapped (Reforms, 2002). There are also those that will maintain the opinion that killing is wrong, no matter who does it. Every individual is certainly entitled to their opinion, and it would appear that those who feel the death penalty is wrong are winning their battle, at least in some states, because executions do not take place very often. Even when they do occur, it is usually after a lengthy appeals process lasting many years and costing much money. To summarize, the main point of the argument for the death penalty is that crime will go down because of the fear of punishment. This is the belief of those that advocate the death penalty for all violent crimes, and all of the information to the contrary does not appear to change this opinion. Life in prison doesn’t ever seem to last either. Murderers end up getting out because of law changes, parole board changes, and because people forget the past. Get involved in supporting capital punishment by contacting My first reason for supporting capital punishment is that it is less expensive than life without parole. Abolitionists claim that it’s more expensive, but, the annual cost of incarceration is $40,000 to $50,000 a year for each prisoner or more pay someone write a paper, and life without parole prisoners spend on average 30 or 40 years in prison. The up front costs of the death penalty are a lot higher than equivalent life without parole cases, but JFA: Justice For All, a criminal justice reform organization, says that life without parole costs over time are from $1.2 to $3.6 million more expensive than death penalty cases. TIME Magazine found that, nationwide, the average cell cost is $24,000 a year, and the maximum security cell costs $75,000 a year (as of 1995). Cost comparisons are only valid if you compare the costs of death penalty to life without parole cases. People claim it’s more expensive because they improperly compare the cost of all life without parole cases to death penalty cases, when only the death penalty equivalent life without parole cases are relevant. People are comparing death penalty cases to life without parole cases that aren’t about murder.
I think that it shouldn’t be so expensive to execute a murderer. If we only allowed appeals that are relevant in proving someone’s innocence and eliminated the others that are pretty much just delaying tactics, we’d save taxpayers millions of dollars.
Many people believe that costs to appeal a death penalty case are high. It’s over estimated that death penalty cases will cost twenty times more, on average, or $1.5 million. This exaggerated estimate says that the death penalty will have twenty times more investigation costs, defense and prosecution cost, including court time, guilt/innocence stage, sentencing stage and appellate review time and cost than death penalty equivalent life without parole cases. Even though abolitionists have greatly exaggerated the cost of death penalty cases, death penalty cases still prove to be a lot less expensive over time than death penalty equivalent life without parole cases. Death penalty costs are mainly appeals costs, and life without parole prisoners get the same appeals and should be considered to bear the same costs.
I had to write this for my English class. I got a 98% on it :) Melissa Northrup disappeared on March 1, 1992, a little more than two months later, from the Waco convenience store where she worked. McDuff’s Thunderbird was found broken down a block from the store, and a fisherman found her body floating in a gravel pit in Dallas County fifty seven days later. McDuff was the target of a nationwide manhunt. Days after Melissa Northrup’s funeral, Kenneth McDuff was on America’s Most Wanted. He was arrested May 4th in Kansas City, Imagine you’re sitting in the courtroom. You are watching her killer, you’re trying to figure out, why, why my baby? Why did you pick my family to ruin? You watch him day after day. His eyes are cold, steely blue and lifeless. What is going on behind them? What is he thinking? How could a human being do something like this to another human being? You keep thinking about life in prison vs. the death penalty. You keep thinking about your daughter and how she didn’t get to choose. She didn’t get a chance to do anything she planned for her future. You think about how you may feel as you watch him being executed. You wonder about the families of the other victims. You wonder if he had an accomplice who will continue to kill after he’s locked up or dead. Every once in a while he turns and looks at you. While the medical examiner is giving his testimony and describing what he found, the killer turns and looks at you. He smiles. He’s proud of what he’s done. He’s thinking, ‘look at me, look what I did. You won’t ever forget me.’ He’s right. You will never forget him. But you may get peace knowing that he’s gone. Knowing that another parent will not have to go through what you are going through because of him. Knowing that another young girl will not know unspeakable horror at his hands. Knowing that he can’t tell people the horrible things he did to your baby, or write a book about it or gain the fame that he so desperately craves or have your baby’s horrible demise turn into a made-for-tv movie. His story, his actions, his sickness can die with him. And that makes you grateful. Imagine you’re at work. You know your daughter is getting off the bus just about this time. The thought of something bad happening to her never even crosses your mind--this is the same routine every day. Habert, H. (1996). Capital punishment: The Anti-Death Penalty Movement in America. New York: Oxford University press. If you are the original writer of this essay and no longer wish to have the essay published on the LawTeacher website then please click on the link below to request removal: White, D. (2009). Pros & Cons of the Death Penalty. Retrieved February 4, 2010, from http://usliberals.about.com/od/deathpenalty/i/DeathPenalty.htm. Death penalty is a great burden to taxpayers financially because the actual cost of carrying out capital punishment is approximated to be 2-5 times higher than leaving the offender in prison for as many years as possible. The process of reaching the final ruling as to whether to hang the criminal is too long because it entails numerous appeals, detailed procedures as well as legal wrangling which drags the entire process as the accused can be tried for a period longer than 20 years. All this detailed process requires substantial funding to facilitate various court officials ranging from attorney general, judges, court clerks and other vital facilities required in court. Death Penalty Curricula for High School. “The Death Penalty Prevents Future Murders: Agree.” Michigan State University Comm Tech Lab & Death Penalty Information Center. Web. 30 March 2013. <http://deathpenaltycurriculum.org/node/6?> “…No system of justice can produce results which are 100% certain all the time. Mistakes will be made in any system which relies upon human testimony for proof. We should be vigilant to uncover and avoid such mistakes. Our system of justice rightfully demands a higher standard for death penalty cases. However, the risk of making a mistake with the extraordinary due process applied in death penalty cases is very small, and there is no credible evidence to show that any innocent persons have been executed at least since the death penalty was reactivated in 1976…The inevitability of a mistake should not serve as grounds to eliminate the death penalty any more than the risk of having a fatal wreck should make automobiles illegal…” (ProCon.org) It is true that there is disproportionality when it comes to the races and classes that most frequently receive the death penalty. It has been proven that minorities and those with lower income levels are overrepresented on death row. This is not due to discrimination; this is due to the higher rate at which these groups commit crime (ProCon.org). It has been argued that poverty breeds criminality; if this is true then it makes sense that those at a lower income level would more frequently be sentenced to execution than those at higher income levels (ProCon.org). It has also been proven that minorities are disproportionately poor, and therefore they would also be more likely to receive the death penalty. Ernest van den Haag said it best: Stewart points out that death penalty cases are held to a much higher standard. Due process in these cases takes much longer so that the court can be absolutely sure that the person is guilty before sentencing him to execution. This helps to eliminate any errors that could lead to executing the wrong person. He also points out that although there is a small possibility for mistakes to be made, this does not mean capital punishment should be abolished. If everything that had the potential for harmful mistakes were outlawed, society would be extremely crippled. “Punishments are imposed on persons, not on…economic groups. Guilt is personal. The only relevant question is: does the person to be executed deserve the punishment? Whether or not others deserved the same punishment, whatever the economic or racial group designer baby essay, have avoided execution is irrelevant.” (ProCon.org) The death penalty is an issue that has the United States quite divided. While there are many supporters of it, there is also a large amount of opposition. Currently, there are thirty-three states in which the death penalty is legal and seventeen states that have abolished it (Death Penalty Information Center). I believe the death penalty should be legal throughout the nation. There are many reasons as to why I believe the death penalty should be legalized in all states, including deterrence, retribution, and morality; and because opposing arguments do not hold up how to check for plagiarism, I will refute the ideas that the death penalty is unconstitutional, irrevocable mistakes are made, and that there is a disproportionality of race and income level. The death penalty also carries out retribution justly. “Deserved punishment protects society morally by restoring this just order, making the wrongdoer pay a price equivalent to the harm he has done.” (Budziszewski). When someone commits a crime it disturbs the order of society; these crimes take away lives, peace, and liberties from society. Giving the death penalty as a punishment simply restores order to society and adequately punishes the criminal for his wrongdoing. Retribution also serves justice for murder victims and their families. Some may see this as revenge, but this retribution is not motivated by malice, rather it is motivated by the need for justice and the principle of lex talionis (“an eye for an eye”) (Green). This lack of malice is proven in the simple definition of retribution: “retribution is a state sponsored, rational response to criminality that is justified given that the state is the victim when a crime occurs” (“Justifications for Capital Punishment). The death penalty puts the scales of justice back in balance after they were unfairly tipped towards the criminal. The use of capital punishment greatly deters citizens from committing crimes such as murder. Many people’s greatest fear is death; therefore if they know that death is a possible consequence for their actions, they are less likely to perform such actions. Ernest van den Haag, a professor at Fordham University, wrote about the issue of deterrence:
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