Both positions have merit and generally, the most appropriate perspective is an intermediate position that recognizes the relevance of both considerations. That perspective influences modern sentencing policies and decisions by incorporating both the nature of offenses and the criminal history of the offender on a case by case basis.
Capital Punishment Issues:
Capital punishment generates intense philosophical conflict of moral issues. One position holds that the death penalty is an appropriate sentence for certain crimes; the other holds that capital punishment is inhumane and uncivilized. The U.S. Supreme Court has established that the death penalty is not inherently cruel, but evidence does exist suggesting that it is often applied unequally by virtue of race, ethnicity, and
Other valid objections include evidence that the most common form (lethal injection) amounts to cruelty when administered improperly and that mistakes may be frequent enough to reconsider the issue (Schmalleger, 2007). Finally, the fact that individuals sentenced to death have subsequently been exonerated by modern evidence analysis techniques (i.e. DNA science) echoes that view.
Those concerns influence modern sentencing policies in state laws that prohibit capital punishment despite its constitutionality at law. Ultimately, those criticisms are valid reasons to reexamine the appropriateness of procedural and implementation issues much more than the question of whether or not capital punishment is inherently moral or immoral.
References
Dershowitz, A. (2002). Shouting Fire: Civil Liberties in a Turbulent Age. New York:
Bantam Books.
Schmalleger, F. (2007). Criminal Justice Today: An Introductory Text for the 21st
Century. Hoboken, NJ: Prentice Hall
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