Capital Punishment
The issue of whether capital punishment is justified in a civilized world that is progressively concerned with achieving human rights and dignity for all its citizens is a subject that challenges the very scales of justice. On the one hand, the imposition of the death penalty prematurely terminates a human life and precludes any chance of rehabilitating criminals as productive members of society. On the other hand, abolishing the death penalty implies endangering society with the presence of known, dangerous anti-social elements who may one day become eligible for parole or worse escape from prison. Thus, the scales need to be weighed taking into consideration that society's primary responsibility is to ensure that its honest and upright citizens are able to lead a secure and safe life. Indeed, it is the purpose of this paper to demonstrate that the scales of justice need to necessarily be tipped in favor of capital punishment in order that civilized societies are able to uphold the values of justice, human life, and the rights of the innocent.
First and foremost, it would be important to discuss capital punishment from the point-of-view of whether it constitutes a form of injustice especially since this is a principle argument of abolitionists who contend that capital punishment only serves as a form of retributive justice for the families of homicide victims (Kane, 2003). While, no doubt, there may be many such families who do wish for some form of retribution, the fact is that capital punishment has a very different objective, which is to ensure that social justice is served: "The execution of a murderer sends a powerful moral message that the innocent life...was so precious, and the crime...committed so horrific, that...forfeits...own right to remain alive." (Jacoby, 2003) The other argument against capital punishment is that it runs the risk of executing criminals whose innocence is later established. This argument is a tenacious one given statistics, which show that out of the 875 prisoners executed in the United States in modern times, not one has been proved innocent. In any case, it is utopian to expect any system to be cent percent fool proof. In fact, it is tantamount to saying that as a deterrent to crime. This is evident given statistics, which show that the number of murders has correspondingly declined as the number of executions increased between 1990 and 2000 in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas (Sneider, 2001). Such statistics are proof positive that capital punishment benefits society by preventing crime. Chances are that a system of justice, which only allowed for a maximum punishment of life imprisonment, would see no similar benefit especially in the light of the possibility of parole or even escape from prison. Indeed, such a justice system could end up actually endangering the life of innocent citizens as evidenced by several cases of paroled prisoners who only went on to commit more crimes. A good case in point is Arthur Shawcross who was paroled after a 15-year prison term, which he served as punishment for the brutal rape and murder of two children. Obviously, 15 years in prison did not prove to be sufficient punishment for Arthur since he went on to take eleven more lives before he was apprehended again (Pataki, 1997). Such incidences then lead to questioning just how much importance a society that merely imprisons its worst criminals, places on the lives of its innocent citizens. Whereas a society that imposed the death penalty ensures that, it does not place the life of its honest, productive citizens at risk.
Paroled…
" This article puts forward the notion that when analyzing the "...relationships between minority groups and mainstream populations," the issue of whether the use of "formal control is applied fairly and consistently between these different groups" is a pivotal place to begin (Ruddell, et al., 2004). It is pivotal because "injustice" not only can have "a corrosive effect" on the perception of the fairness (or unfairness) of the criminal justice system;
The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution states that people convicted of crimes should not be subject to excessive bail or fines, and that authorities may not inflict 'cruel and unusual punishments' (Eighth Pp). Ratified in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights, this amendment has been cited as an argument against capital punishment (Eighth Pp). In the 1972 United States Supreme Court case 'Furman vs. Georgia, three
In contrast, other data, compiled by state and federal agencies within the last twenty years, failed "to demonstrate any deterrent value to the death penalty" and according to data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, "when states with the death penalty (were) compared to those without the death penalty," it was shown that "a majority of death penalty states have homicide rates higher than non-death penalty states" (Espejo 58). The death
Death Penalty The debate surrounding capital punishment is not as clear as one might think -- in fact, there is a great deal of gray within this debate. The actual definition is State controlled taking of a human life in response to some crime committed by a person who was legally convicted of that crime (Lacayo, 2009). Capital punishment has been part of human history, and currently 58 global nations actively
life imprisonment, we must follow common sense and assume that if one punishment is more fearful than another, it will deter some potential criminals not deterred by the less fearful punishment" (p. 282). In an effort to deconstruct the tenability of van den Haag's assertions, Reiman takes the deterrent analogy to an extreme and suggests that the death penalty is insufficient and that death by torture would serve as
Capital Punishment Solitary confinement represents one among the best means of keeping modern-day prisoners from communication and conflict, but has the most injurious effects on their health. Individuals imprisoned in conditions of solitary confinement demonstrate more psychotic behavior compared to normal prisoners; this includes higher rate of suicides (Thesis Statement). After a prisoner loses his/her mental capacity of understanding the reason for his/her imprisonment or punishment, subjecting him/her to solitary confinement
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