Death Penalty
Whether or not the death penalty should be utilized as a punishment for serious crimes is a contentious issue, one that is hotly debated throughout the world. In the past few decades the number of nations that sentence criminals to the death penalty has dramatically decreased, as more than two thirds of countries in the world have abolished the use of the death penalty in practice or law (Amnesty International, 2010). The increase in countries choosing to abolish the death penalty is for good reason, as the arguments against its use are numerous and are based in reliable research and logic. The following discussion will highlight three facets of the powerful argument against the use of the death penalty. These three key points include: the fact that the death penalty is ineffective in efforts of crime prevention; the death penalty is immoral; and the majority of Americans do not think the death penalty should be used, and feel instead that it should be abolished.
First of all, one of the key points in the argument against the use of the death penalty is that it is actually highly ineffective in preventing crime. Many studies conducted since the 1970s that claimed the death penalty results in a reduced number of murders were found to be invalid by a panel established by the National Academy of Sciences (Imanbekova, 2007). In fact, a non-profit organization that dispenses neutral information regarding the death penalty called the Death Penalty Information Center stated that a survey conducted in 2000 demonstrated that in the 20 years prior to the survey, murder rates in states that utilized the death penalty...
However, this difficulty can be avoided by examining van den Haag's distinction between justice and equality. The physical reality of administering justice can never match its theoretical guidelines. Justice is a necessary tool in the aim of producing a functional society. Accordingly, inequities that arise in its practice must be tolerated -- although fought against. State sanctioned killing, on the other hand, is not a logistic necessity for any
And such an event, unfortunately, is all too possible, as evidenced by a review done by Bedau and Radelet in 1987. The authors used a variety of published and unpublished sources to locate information on potential capital cases in the United States during the twentieth century. Of the cases identified, Bedau and Radelet found 350 persons who had been wrongfully convicted of potentially capital offenses between 1900 and 1985.
Justice Kennedy, writing for the majority, warned about broader problems with the capital punishment. "When the law punishes by death, it risks its own sudden descent into brutality, transgressing the constitutional commitment to decency and restraint." He took into account the many dangers of the death penalty and concluded it should be restricted to homicides (Death Penalty Information Center, 2008). The main question regarding the research for or against capital
public to scholars, the death penalty has come under severe criticism in contemporary epoch. The debate between the supporters and criticizers of capital punishment has been going on for decades. Is death penalty constitutional? What are the factors that may render it unconstitutional? Is racial discrimination one of such factors? The paper uses a set of law review articles and highlights racial discrimination in death penalty in United States, discusses
Death Penalty+ Annotated Bibliography It has been theorized and even proven that many laws that are in place in America are the product of JudeoChristian religious beliefs, practices and writings, that have over the years been toned down to better meet the needs and standards of the U.S. society. There is a clear sense that some penalties for breaking the law have little if any effect on crime committed in the
A good example is the 1985 murder of convenience store clerk Cynthia Barlieb, whose murder was prosecuted by a district attorney bent on securing execution for Barlieb's killer (Pompeilo 2005). The original trial and all the subsequent appeals forced Barlieb's family, including four young daughters, to spend 17 years in the legal process - her oldest daughter was 8 years old when Cynthia was first shot, and 25 when
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