Additionally, although Uniform Crime Reports states that women are responsible for approximately 15% of all criminal homicides, the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that they only comprise 1% of all death row inmates. According to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, more than 33% of these women were sentenced to death for killing their abusers. Equally disturbing is the fact that, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, only 10% of those convicted in capital cases were could afford to hire their own attorneys. Because of the disparities with which the death penalty is applied, the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association, in a vote of 280 to 117, issued a request for a suspension on all executions because they believed the system in place was "a haphazard maze of unfair practices" (The New York Times, 1997, A 20).
Perhaps the most popular argument in favor of the death penalty is that it is cheaper to execute prisoners than to sustain them throughout their natural lives. However, surprisingly, this goes against the evidence as well. According to Spangenber and Walsh, "the death penalty is not now, nor has it ever been, a more economical alternative to life imprisonment." When the cost of all litigation is considered, including repeated appeals, capital punishment actually becomes significantly less cost efficient than life in prison. In fact, a recent study placed the total cost of executing a criminal to be 3.6 million dollars. This figure is six times higher than the amount needed to support a sentence of life without parole (Cook and Lawson, 1993, 97-98).
However, the very best argument against the death penalty is not the negation of the arguments in favor of it; it is the simple fact that the justice system is comprised of human beings and is therefore inherently fallible. There are many examples of innocent men and women being convicted in capital cases. For example, Kirk Bloodsworth's rape...
Death Penalty One is most deterred by what one fears most. From which it follows that whatever statistics fail, or do not fail, to show, the death penalty is likely to be more deterrent than any other. FACTS: If it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to prove statistically, and just as hard to disprove, that the death penalty deters more from capital crimes than available alternative punishments do (such as life imprisonment), why
It would seem that many criminals would find this more amusing than frightening. They do not take their chances of being caught and subjected to capital punishment seriously enough to be frightened by the penalty like many assume they will be (van den Haag, 2001). According to some who believe in God and feel that capital punishment is acceptable under the scriptures, there is one main point, which is that
An interesting and similar development in juvenile justice is the issue of life imprisonment as a cruel and unusual sentence for juvenile offenders. This issue is addressed by Mark Sherman (2009). Sherman states that Joe Sullivan was 13 years old when he attacked and raped an elderly woman. The court judged him as incorrigible and therefore sentenced him to life without parole. Another example is that of Terrance Graham, who
As such, it is unlikely to change in light of knowledge or information about the death penalty and its administration" (Vollum & Buffington-Vollum, p. 30). Furthermore, "those who scored higher on value-expressive attitudes were less accepting of information critical of the death penalty and, in turn, less likely to change their views in light of the information presented." Thus, the widespread support of the death penalty in the face
Capital Punishment In more than half the countries of the world, there is no death penalty as was the case in Australia for a long time. As many as 76 countries do not have death penalty for any crime. In Australia, Queensland was the first among the states to abolish death penalty in 1922 and the last death penalty was carried out in 1913. (Capital Punishment) In many countries, punishment is very
[DPIC] Similarly, many other researches were conducted but failed to offer any conclusive evidence as to the effectiveness of capital punishment in deterring crimes. The lack of consistency in these results presents a complex problem before us in evaluating the utilitarian value of death penalty. One more aspect to be considered under the utilitarian thought is the cost of executions. It is well-known that the legal cost of executions in
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