Death Penalty: Right or Wrong? For some time I have believed that the death penalty is a necessary part of our legal system, for the protection of society as a whole. In forming this opinion, I looked at Ted Bundy, who was convicted of monstrously killing four college sorority sisters and a 13-year-old girl he happened upon while she was walking home from school. He held the poor 13-year-old girl for several days in a deserted pigsty in the hot scrub woods of northern Florida before finally killing her. Some authorities think that he may be responsible for over 100 murders, and not the thirty or so he admitted to before his death. Ted Bundy tried to negotiate his way out of being put to death by hinting that the police could clear a lot more murders, but that he would only talk if his death sentence were reversed. Authorities decided that he had been less...
Then there was Jeffrey Dahmer, who preyed on young homosexual men. Now, more recently, we have the case of two small girls horribly murdered by two different men in southern California. David Westerfield has been tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. While he killed only one person, he killed a small child who hadn't had a chance to begin to live her life. It seems likely that if he had gotten away with it, he would have done it again, as scenes of violence against little girls were found on his computer.
Hanging, for example, can sometimes produce horrendous results: if the drop is too short, it results in slow and agonising strangulation; if it is too long, it may tear the head off. Electrocution too, at times, fails to kill instantly and the awful stench of burning flesh that follows the process is indicative of the excruciating pain suffered during the killing. Another reason why capital punishment is wrong is because
Studies consistently and generally show that, all factors held constant, the race of the accused is a critical variable in determining who will be sentenced to death. Black citizens are, thus, subjected to double discrimination. From initial charging decisions to plea bargaining to sentencing by the jury, Black defendants receive harsh treatment and, as victims, their lives are given less value than whites. Most juries still consist of all
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
Capital Punishment: Does it Reduce Crime? Capital Punishment is a social controversy that epitomizes the axiom "an eye for an eye." In the United States there are 38 states that utilize the death penalty, and usually for select crimes, including treason, and mass murder. In 2002, 71 inmates were executed, which was 5 more than 2001, and of these 71 inmates, 53 were Caucasian, and 69 were male (Capital Punishment Statistics, 2003). Capital
165). On page 166 Bannister points out that outside of China, the numbers show a decrease in individuals being put to death through capital punishment. In 2006, the number of reported executions dropped to 1591 from 2148 in 2005; also, since 1996 more than 30 nations have "put an end to this cruel and inhuman practice" (Bannister, 170). Conclusion The Chief Editor of Criminal Law Review, Chen Xingliang, writes that there
Death Penalty Is Wrong It is often suggested that morality comes from a venerated source - from reason, or from God (Wheatley & Haidt, 2005). Judgments on the basis of morals are important, complex, and intuitive. Moral judgments thus become particularly fertile foundations of motivated reasoning (Ditto, Pizarro, & Tannenbaum, 2009). In view of this respected observation, we chose to develop a broad-based questionnaire based on morality institutional regimens. This has
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