Pros And Cons Of Capital Punishment

Debate over capital punishment is nothing new, but it reaches a whole new level when the accused is mentally ill. The question then becomes… was the perpetrator aware of his heinous actions by knowing right from wrong at the time of the crime or was the mental illness controlling his actions? While being sympathetic to the grief and heart break of the victim’s loved ones, I believe that execution for the mentally ill should not be allowed, because often their illness makes them incapable of knowing right and wrong of their actions. Many of those with mental illnesses often go undiagnosed and untreated, either by choice or by financial circumstances, because of the stigma and general lack of understanding associated with this type of diagnosis in our society.

Death penalty is also known as capital punishment or execution. Societies from all over the world have used this sentence at one point in history, in order to avenge criminals. Most common reasons for being sentenced to death were war crimes, war treason, murder and espionage. Back then, the capital punishment was almost always accompanied by torture, and executions were public. The most used execution method was by hanging. If an inmate chooses the electric chair it takes anywhere between 2 min and 15 minutes. The criminal receives a jolt between 500 and 2000 volts for every 30 seconds, attending doctor waits for body to cool after each bolt and check if the heart is still breathing. While in some societies, violent death penalties are still being employed – like shooting, hanging, electric chair and gas chamber – in most countries, these have been replaced with a painless method – the lethal injection. When the person is put to death for the death penalty they use a lethal injection execution, in most cases. Sodium thipal makes the person go deeply unconscious but unable to feel himself being paralyzed from the “pancuronium bromide”. On death row an inmate waited an average of 15 years between sentencing and execution but a quarter of inmates die on death row from natural cases. The time has come to make punishment fit the crime, too oppose lethal injection, but not because these untried new drugs might obituary cause pain, but cause confusion, lethal injection conflates

The death penalty is quickly becoming one of the more controversial topics in the United States. Currently, there are 31 states where capital punishment is legal. As of April 2016, there have been 1,431 executions in the United States, but the number of executions in recent years has been steadily decreasing (Timmons 2017). The death penalty can be put up for moral debate, and one can ask oneself whether the death penalty is ever morally permissible. There are some pros and cons to having capital punishment. For example, deterrence and prevention are good reasons to have the death penalty, but, in reality, the cons far outweigh the possible benefits that may come from capital punishment. The cost of imposing capital punishment is

Capital punishment is one of the most controversial ethical issues that our country faces these days. Capital punishment is the legal penalty of death for a person that has performed heinous acts in the eyes of the judicial system. Discussion on whether capital punishment is humane or considered cruel and unusual punishment has been the main issue this of debate for years. Recent discussion goes far beyond the act itself but now brings into question whether medical personal should aid in this practice.

PRO: "The crimes of rape, torture, treason, kidnapping, murder, larceny, and perjury pivot on a moral code that escapes apodictic [indisputably true] proof by expert testimony or otherwise. But communities would plunge into anarchy if they could not act on moral assumptions less certain than that the sun will rise in the east and set in the west. Abolitionists may contend that the death penalty is inherently immoral because governments should never take human life, no matter what the provocation. But that is an article of faith, not of fact. The death penalty honors human dignity by treating the defendant as a free moral actor able to control his own destiny for good or for ill; it does not treat him as an animal with no moral

What in the world would be the punishment for the most brutal killers beside the death penalty? Historically, people have been murdering people mostly because of either how popular they are or how wealthy they are. Such as In In Cold Blood, the author stated that the two killers killed the entire family in one night intentionally just because of hatred or thievery. The judges of the court must give Dick and Perry Smith the death penalty because the most brutal killers should be eliminated in order to assure that one day these killers cannot come out of prison and commit another crime.

A long, notorious trial, where the ultimate crime is committed, is taking place. Hard work and long hours contribute to the trial. Countless evidence and testimony is reviewed allowing the jury to settle on a verdict. As the jury reaches its verdict convicting the defendant guilty, the judge begins sentencing giving the man a chance of life in prison without parole or a sentence to death. But what is the greatest punishment given to those convicted of capital punishment, is it life in prison or the death penalty? The death penalty dates back to ancient times and has been around since then. Today it is still practice but has been debated whether it is constitutional and if it should still be used today and in the future.”We should construct our punishments more nearly to fit their crimes -- neither much more nor much less than what they deserve”(Blecker). Those who commit grisly acts of capital offenses should be made to pay the ultimate price and sentenced to the death penalty.

There are around 3,000 people that are sent to jail/prison every day, and costs $24,000 a year to incarcerate them. There are lots of morbid ways to execute someone who has allegedly committed a crime: lethal injection, hanging, electrocution, gas chamber, and firing squad. Though it’s a major controversial topic in America, some believe that anyone who commits a crime should have their life confiscated from them. Prisoners shouldn’t be executed no matter how cruel, wicked, and sinful the crime was. Most people can say that prisoners are supposed to have their life confiscated from them because they violated the law which leads them to being punished, and won’t make the same mistake as they did. But isn’t life sacred? Capital punishment is debated as either a justice or an inhumane act. The debate whether the individual should die or not is either an inhumane act or it brings justice. Does the U.S. entirely know if they’re executing the prisoner who was waiting on death row be innocent or not? Can we be a civilized society, even when we kill our own citizens? Capital punishment jeopardizes innocent people’s lives, violates the eight amendment of the Bill of Rights and the fifth and the third article of the Declaration of Human Rights (DHR).

America is one of the few western nations still using the death penalty to this day as a method of punishment for capital crime. Over 2,000 prisoners are on death row with their fates already determined (Andre, Velazquez) What makes the death penalty so complex, and that is noticed but sometimes disregarded, is the way prisoners are executed, the fact that some of these prisoners may be innocent and the racial disparities that can determine the reason for sentencing people to death. As prisoners wait to be executed, civil rights activists aim to get rid of the penalty by arguing against it for being unjust and immoral. The arguments for and against the penalty are compelling: capital punishment is regarded as unconstitutional as it goes against the 8th amendment of our nation’s constitution, it saves people by getting rid of a murderer or person who is just as bad as a killer, and it is in the best interest of the people for these convicts to not walk the streets we live in. Both groups, left and right, have a say in what they think about the issue, but so far no change has been done to fix it.

There has always been a question about whether capital punishment deters crime. The laws of the United states are founded upon Christian beliefs. Most people who believes that capital punishment is constitutional, are individuals that is for capital punishment out of vengeance “justice”. It does not matter if the individual who believes in capital punishment is Republican or Democrat (believers of this punishment are on both sides).

Capital punishment, also known to as the death penalty, has a long history in human society. It has been applied to the United State for decades. Since 1976, there are 1,446 executions have been taken place in the United State. Under the United State constitution law, states reserve the right to apply their own criminal laws, which means there are states have abolished capital punishment while others have enforced the death penalty. In states that retain capital punishment, the majority of execution method is lethal injection. But there are few states still authorize a range of other methods such as gas inhalation, firing squad, or electrocution. Clearly, capital punishment is lawfully and is accepted by many legislators. However, this idea of a legalized murder is illogical, immoral and inhumane. First, even though many people support the death penalty, but a very few of them actually witness an execution or understand the feeling of everyone who involves in the execution. An execution usually is hidden from citizens due to its reality of cruel and inhumane. A designated prisoner was brought into a room with a fulfillment of deathly equipment and people who were going to execute him, but he had never met before. These executors are usually nonmedical-trainer volunteers but will ultimately and shortly be involved in a complicated medical situation. As a matter of fact, our society has spent a lot of efforts making sure that criminals are in as least pain as possible. Thus,

Capital punishment has been around since the beginning of times-literally. As stated in the Bible, people were often sentenced to death for crimes such as evil sorcery, adultery, homosexual behaviors, doing work on a Saturday, women (and women only) who were non-virgins at marriage, murder, theft, prostitution, almost anything you can think of, you name it and they were put to death for it. Looking back now, people would say that is an outrageous list, which can also be seen as an outrageous practice. While the bible states “an eye for an eye” (Matthew (5:38-42)) is how things should be settled, I would like to believe that we as a human race have come to a more civilized nature agreeing that “an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind” as stated by many influential speakers such as Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr who worked towards a more progressive society. In this paper, the many flaws of the death penalty will be highlighted: Why it is wrong, the racism behind it, and why the arguments in favor of it do not add up.

Capital punishment is "the legally authorized killing of someone as punishment for a crime" (Webster). Capital punishment is called to action when someone commits an explicit degree of a crime. The act has not been proven to be effective, violates the 8th amendment of the United States constitution, and is unnecessarily costly in its execution. Based on these claims, it is clear that capital punishment is destructive to America and its citizens.

Is it ever morally acceptable to take the life of another person? On the surface, this question seems relatively self explanatory. Many people would say that murder is not acceptable. This is a basic idea that almost everyone is taught through our laws, religions, upbringings, etc. However, there are some situations that make people question this basic moral principle. One very important example is the concept of capital punishment, which is the legal killing of a person as a punishment of a crime he or she committed. It is important to look at the cons and pros of capital punishment in order to form and educated opinion on whether it is a morally correct system or not. Capital punishment demands more money from our law abiding citizens, and uses money as a factor when valuing life. It also has a hard time giving moral reasoning to take away someone’s right to live. However, it makes sure these murders will never have the chance to harm any more innocent people, making it, in my opinion, morally acceptable.

Proponents of capital punishment argue that implementing the death penalty deters crime because in theory, a person who knows they could face the death penalty will not take the risk of commiting a capital crime. However, historically, these claims have continuously been proved inaccurate by data displaying no correlation between the death penalty and crime rates. In fact, many states have seen a decrease in crime after abolishing the death penalty, completely disproving the deterrence theory. According to data from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting system, “Illinois has seen a decrease in murders and nonnegligent manslaughter since abolishing the death penalty.” However, the decrease started well before that. The FBI data shows 986 murders and nonnegligent manslaughters in Illinois during 2001, a number that gradually dropped to 721 in 2011. One study by Thorsten Sellin, criminology expert and professor at UPenn, found that between 1989 and 2002, California (one execution), Texas (239 executions) and New York (no executions) all had almost identical patterns of murder rates from year to year. For decades, murder has been more common in states with capital punishment than in those where it is not used. Data from 1973 to 1984 showed that murder rates in the states without the death penalty were consistently lower and averaged only 63% of the corresponding rates in the states retaining it. The gap has persisted since that time, and in 2008 the average murder rate in states with