Capital Punishment : The Death Penalty

The capital punishment system is not perfect; it makes mistakes frequently. According to James S. Liebmans article, Error Pervades the U.S. Capital Punishment System, in 2004 he conducted a report that found 68% of all death verdicts were reversed by the courts due to serious errors. Some of these errors included; defense lawyers were incompetent, police and prosecutors committed

The United States of America’s capital punishment process is very flawed. Humans are imperfect and are always making mistakes, how do we justify being the group of people having the power to condemn someone to death when there have been times that our human judgments were flawed and immoral. This is probably the scariest part of our system and one of the most motiving causes for being against the death penalty. The death penalty alone imposes an irrevocable sentence. Once an inmate is executed, nothing can be done to make amends if a mistake

The justice system is filled with opposition. Those who support the use of Supermax, the death penalty and the execution of those who are mentally retarded and juveniles, and those who oppose the above mentioned. The following essay will discuss all mentioned topics.

The death penalty has been a controversy in the United States justice system since its commencement (Bakken & Morris, 2010). Although extremely controversial, it has stood the test of time as the definitive penalty. Numerous countries are at present bring an end their death penalty law. Contrary to that, the United States has thirty eight out of its fifty states with death penalty still operational. It seems the United States needs the death penalty more than ever before due to rising rate of sever violent crimes across the nation. Statistics shows that since the early nineties roughly around 355 people have been put to death through death penalty and approximately 3300 are still waiting on death row. Similarly since 1976 around 552 felons have been put to rest through death penalty across the United States (Bakken & Morris, 2010). If you break these deaths down according to the methods utilized about three hundred ninety-four by lethal injection, one hundred forty-one by electrocution, eleven by gas chamber, three by hanging, and two by firing squad. Almost half of the 1976 executions have taken place within the last five years, which includes 52 that took place this year. Even though the death penalty has brought countless gooey criminals to end, the course of death penalty that it is founded on is inconsistent one.

Putting people to death that have been judged by their peers to have committed certain extremely heinous crimes is a practice of ancient standing, but in the United States in the last part of the twentieth century, it has become a very controversial issue. Changing views on this difficult issue and the many legal challenges to capital punishment working their way through the courts resulted in halting all executions in the United States in 1967. Eventually, the Supreme Court placed a moratorium on capital punishment in 1972 but later upheld it in 1977. Restoring capital punishment is the will of the people, and yet many voices are raised against it. Heated public debate

The use of the death penalty in the United States has always been a controversial topic. The death penalty, also known as Capital Punishment, is a legal process where a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a heinous crime. The judicial decree that someone be punished in this manner is a death sentence, while the actual enforcement is an execution (Bishop 1). Over the years, most of the world has abolished the death penalty. But the United States government, and a majority of its citizens, defend and support its continued use. There is evidence, however, that some attitudes about the death penalty are changing.

The United States justice system uses many methods of punishment on lawbreakers and criminals. These include jail time, community service, paroles, fines, and the most shocking, the death penalty. The death penalty, also referred to as capital punishment, was first introduced in the form of hanging hundreds of years ago when America was first established. Now, the most common way of execution proves to be death by lethal injection. For hundreds of years, people have argued over whether or not the general idea of capital punishment stands morally correct. Many have also debated if anyone holds the right to end another’s life. The death penalty, morally wrong and faulty, does not save lives but unnecessarily ruins and ends them.

Many people would argue that in today’s society it is highly unlikely that someone would be wrongly convicted of a crime due to the scientific knowledge and DNA evidence that is around today. Furthermore, if there is any doubt in the judges mind as to whether the person actually committed the crime then they will not apply the death penalty. Unfortunately, there are still cases in which people are proven innocent; In the USA 87 people have been freed from death row after being proved innocent since the reinstatement of capital punishment. This statistic suggests an alarming error rate of 1 in 7.

Capital punishment, commonly referred to as the death penalty, is a very controversial topic around the world. The death penalty is the execution of an offender of the law, that is sentenced to death if the court of law is convinced of a criminal offense. Throughout society, there are debates from both sides, over the ethics and legality of capital punishment, especially in the US. The existence of the death penalty leads to several questions, but the most frequent question asked is, “ Has the government established our justice system out of a desire for rehabilitation, or out of a desire for retribution.” (death penalty justice system).

Since the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the death penalty in 1976, there have been 1,434 executions in the United States (Death Penalty Information Center). Today, a debate quickly erupts when discussing the death penalty as a form of punishment in America’s Criminal Justice system. Some perceive the Death Penalty as an act of justice, while others believe it is unconstitutional. There are currently 31 death penalty states and 19 non-death penalty states in the U.S. Although opponents view this type of punishment to be immoral, unconstitutional and ineffective, the death penalty has proven to be ethically correct, cost effective, and deterrent to murder.

When the death penalty happens they have already decided how the inmate will be executed, they have everything planned out and ensure that there is no error. However there are instances that the execution has gone horribly wrong. Between 1890 and 2010, approximately 3% of 8,700 executions were either has something wrong or seriously wrong, this includes 7% by lethal injections (Acker, J. R. (2014). This may seem like a small number but this still shows that even when everything is perfect there may be complications that are beyond our control. We seem to not care that the executions don’t go as planned which then makes it feel like it something we just need to forget. This is a life that still needs to be considered and make sure they do not

The death penalty is one of the nation’s most hotly debated topic. Most Americans are either heavily in favor of execution or heavily opposed to it. In America, there are multiple methods of execution, lethal injection, firing squad, hanging, electrocution, and the gas chamber. Imagine, being strapped to a chair in various areas; usually the chest, groin, arms, and legs. A metal skullcap attached to your head, and then you’re blind folded. What might be going through your head? Were you wrongly convicted, or did you deserve death? There are two sides to every issue. While some say the death penalty is a flawed punishment method because it is irreversible, and innocent people have undoubtedly been put to death, others say the death penalty

The death of a loved one is always traumatic, whether it is by natural causes or murder. In the case of execution, the majority of victims are deserving criminals. However, a disgustingly large percentage of victims of execution in the United States are later found innocent and exonerated from death row. For the state, this is a minute matter; for the families of the accused and the accused themselves, this realization is excruciatingly late. Although it may bring back their dignity, it will never bring back their heartbeat. The use of the death penalty for alleged criminals in the United States needs to change because there is an unacceptable number of posthumous exonerations, and a negative generational impact

According to the definition of Encyclopædia Britannica Online (2016), capital punishment, generally known as death penalty, is the ‘execution of an offender sentenced to death after conviction by a court of law of a criminal offense '. In short, it is a legally sanctioned and administered punishment for capital criminals by forfeiture of life. To this date, bounded by four influential international protocols that proclaim the abolition and forbid the reintroduction of death penalty, more than half of the nations in the world has prohibited, or at least limited, either de jure or de facto, the use of the particular punishment for all or simply ordinary crimes (Schabas, 2002; Amnesty International, 2016). The punishment is, however, still being practised in several countries (Amnesty International, 2016). Surprisingly, these include not only the underdeveloped or least developed countries, but also sovereign states with considerably dominant position in international relations that adopt strikingly dissimilar political system, for instance, the United States of America, the People 's Republic of China, the Republic of Singapore, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (ibid.). The death penalty debate, thus, continues to exist until today.

The United States justice system uses many methods of punishment on lawbreakers and criminals. These include jail time, community service, paroles, fines, and the most shocking, the death penalty. The death penalty, also referred to as capital punishment, first came about in the form of hanging hundreds of years ago when America was first established. Now in modern day, the most common way of execution proves to be death by lethal injection. For hundreds of years, people have argued over whether or not capital punishment stands morally correct. Many have also debated if anyone holds the right to end another’s life. The death penalty holds several faults, stands morally wrong, and leads to unnecessary deaths.