Debate on the Death Penalty in America

A study by Professor Michael Radelet and Traci Lacock of the University of Colorado recently made, found that 88% of the nation’s leading criminologists do not believe the death penalty is an effective way to stop crime. The study by Lacock

The death penalty is still in use in the united states. The state with the most executions is Texas with a total of 545 from 2017 to the year 1976 (Number of Executions, 2017). The death penalty is a very big debate. There are many reasons why and why people do and don’t like the death penalty.

As it states later on in the test after surveying thirteen years of evidence, the deterrence aspect of the death penalty did not seem to be apparent. The police were not protected from being a homicide victim even though capital punishment was on their side supposedly protecting them. (Bailey, Peterson) According to statistics gathered from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the areas of the country that had a lower enforcement of capital punishment was actually a place where they police force was safer than in the regions where the capital punishment was heavily enforced.(Death Penalty In Focus) For instance, the number of murders of an official officer in the southern states between the years of 1989 and 1998 was an alarming two hundred and ninety-two total. On average that means that 29.2 police officers were killed each year, and this is in a region where the death penalty is heavily enforced. (Death Penalty in Focus, Table 1.1) On the other side of the pole, the states in the Northeast region were as little as eighty murders in the same time span. These statistics definitely contradict the stated reason for even having the death penalty.

The Death Penalty in America has been a talked about issue for some time now. Americans have their own opinions on the death penalty. Some people feel it is too harsh of a punishment, some believe if you take a life you should lose your life. I myself do not believe in the death penalty. To me it goes totally against what Americas was built on God. Even though over the last fifteen years or so we have slowly drifted away from “In God We Trust”. Looking at the death penalty in a whole it was never something that the United States came up with. It was adopted from Britain. (Bohm, 1999)The first ever recorded death penalty in United States history was that of Captain George Kendall in 1608. He was executed for being a spy. The death of Captain Kendall started a chain of other colonies jumping on board for the death penalty. In some colonies they were sentencing people to death for petty crimes, such as steeling, or trading with Indians. Over the years after the death penalty would be reformed and revamped numerous of times. Until it was only used when murder or treason occurred. Matter of fact Pennsylvania was the first state

Currently there is not an active death penalty in New York state. New York's history of capital punishment goes back to colonial times, with the second most executions of any state from 1608 to 1972. The last record of its use was in 1963. Mr. Eddie Mays was executed by means of electrocution at Sing Sing state prison. He was convicted of first degree murder and robbery in 1962. Mays was 34 years old at the time of execution. Currently there is a zero population on death row in the state of New York.

Death Penalty should be allowed under circumstances also known as capital punishment, where congress or any state legislature recommend the death penalty for murder and other capital crimes. Majority of the states are favor in death penalty, roughly around 32 states are favor and 18 states are against death penalty. In most cases, many argue that death penalty has violated the 8th amendment, where it bans cruel and unusual punishment. Therefore, they would go against death penalty. However, without the sentence to death, the chances of prisoner escaping prison are really high. If they are able to escape prison and get away with it, then they can continue committing crimes. Although some may argue that death penalty is harsh because if you kill someone; and then you take another person’s life, then why should yours be freed? I personally do not agree with death penalty because taking away another person’s life is not going to regain the victim’s life back. However, the victim’s family would want the person to be sentence to death, so the victim can rest in peace. I think that death penalty should be only allowed under circumstances, but then how can you really determined if the case should be ruled with death penalty? And how would the justice system know that they have made the correct decision? Did the decision of sentence to death turn out to be wrong, where the person is later found innocent? There are multiple of questions that people will be more concern about. The

In the article "The Case Against the Death Penalty," which shows up in Crime and Criminals: Opposing Viewpoints, Eric Freedman contends that capital punishment does not discourage fierce crime as well as conflicts with decreasing the crime rate. This essay will analyse Freedman 's article from the perspectives of a working man, a needy individual, and a government official.

Have you ever had the conversation, is it right to kill someone for punishment? Even though espionage, murder, and assault are all ruinous acts, the death penalty is necessary for us to keep law and order. Some major points on this are the history of death penalty, the facts of death penalty, and people's view on death penalty. Other countries have different methods of carrying out capital punishment than the United States of America. When the beheading of guillotine was introduced in France it was a way of executing traitors or using it as capital punishment (Issues and Controversies in American History).

“One argument for the death penalty is that it is a strong deterrent to murder and other violent crimes. In fact, evidence shows just the opposite. The homicide rate is at least five times greater in the United States than in any Western European country, all without the death penalty.” (Does the Death Penalty Deter Crime?, 2012.)

The death penalty, which can also be referred as capital punishment, has been around for centuries and can even be traced back to the eighteenth century B.C. There is still many complications regarding the death penalty. Some religious beliefs interfere with it and this is why the death penalty is a big issue. The death penalty was first used in America by colonists in Jamestown, Virginia, when they killed Captain George Kendall for being a spy. Ever since then, the death penalty has continued to cause conflict in the judicial system. There are many types of executions used around the world, some can be described as harsh. Many countries have used the death penalty but now some countries are against it. Everyone has a different way of viewing something, the death penalty included.

The controversy over the legal process widely applied in ancient times— the death penalty— has always intrigued me because of the reasonable stances from both sides on whether it should be legal or illegal. The dispute goes between the biggest issues of immorality behind the act, if it gives the best suffering over jail time, and human rights. Personally, I side with illegalization of the capital punishment, yet can resonate with some of the common legal sided thoughts.

A rarity exists in a single topic that can cause a degree of controversy so large that it attracts politicians, judges, community organizers, economists and even religious officials to discuss it. This issue is one that some support and others oppose; that is, the issue of capital punishment. Capital punishment is loosely defined as the execution of an offender who is sentenced to death after conviction by a court of law for a criminal offense (Encyclopedia Britannica). This execution of an offender model exists in many nations and also in many forms. For instance, in the country of Zimbabwe, executions are carried out for individuals convicted of treason and drug trafficking, and is exclusively in the form of hanging (Death Penalty Worldwide 2015). Although capital punishment exists around the world, the focus of this paper will be centered on the United States, on the state level. Capital punishment is legal in some states, but the legality does not imply that it is free of problems. There have been growing concerns and strong evidence of the problem of capital punishment. However, the two issues featured in this paper will be issues on racial bias, questions of innocence. These concerns will be analyzed in the following sections: definition of the problem, unit of analysis, analysis of political coalitions, analysis of policy

People believe that states that have allowed the death penalty have lower crime and violence rates. That is no true. Over the past years the death penalty has been dropped off in North Carolina, and according to the Department of Justice, the murder rates for North Carolina have dropped increasingly since the state had decided to stop pushing for the death penalty (nccadp.org). People often do a crime when they are under the influence of items like dugs, or alcohol. When people are under drugs or alcohol they do not fear or understand the consequences that will follow once the crime is finished. Therefore the death penalty is not a warning to criminals and the death penalty does not give the people

The issue of the death penalty is widely disputed. So disputed that maybe I shouldn’t have picked this topic. But nevertheless, the death penalty is an issue that needs to be addressed. Should the death penalty be abolished from our criminal justice system? Well, that depends on whom you ask. If you ask me… no. I personally don’t see anything wrong with the death penalty because there are a lot of criminals that are just too dangerous to society and death is the only punishment they deserve.

I found a chart on the website http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/murder-rates-nationally-and-state. The chart on the site shows that murder rates were actually higher in states with the death penalty than in states that did not have the death penalty (Death Penalty Information Center, 2010). If the death penalty is a deterrent, wouldn’t these rates be reversed? In an article published in the New York Times entitled ABSENCE OF EXECUTIONS: A special report.; States With No Death Penalty Share Lower Homicide Rates, states that states who do have the death penalty actually have higher murder rates than the national average and in the past twenty years the rates have been found to be 48 to 101 percent higher than the states who do not have the death penalty (Bonner, Raymond and Fessenden, Ford, 2000). The article also states that as of 1998 Hawaii had the fifth lowest homicide rate in the nation and Hawaii is one of the states in which no death penalty is enforced (Bonner, Raymond and Fessenden, Ford, 2000). This illustrates to me that the death penalty in fact does not act as a deterrent for one to not commit violent crime. If it were a deterrent it would show that states with the death penalty had lower homicide rates than those states without the death penalty. There is also a statement in the article from John O’Hair, a Detroit District Attorney, that basically stated that