The Death Penalty: Our Criminal Justice System

Many people have questioned whether or not the death penalty should be allowed in the criminal justice system in the United States. Many states have already abolished the death penalty because of the problems it is causing. The first problem is that innocent lives are being put at risk. Another problem is the amount of money that is being wasted on housing a criminal on death row and later executing them. Lastly, capital punishment does not help with deterring crime. In fact, there have been numerous cases where victims were held on death row for countless years waiting for their execution, but due to technological advancements like DNA evidence, they were later proven innocent. It is important to realize that pursuing, obtaining, and carrying out a capitol conviction is more expensive than housing and feeding a criminal with a life sentence. Again, the death penalty doesn't deter crime any more than a life sentence because putting a criminal in jail for life removes them from society just the same as a death sentence. As a result, the death penalty needs to be outlawed and more life without parole sentences need to be instated.

An examination of death penalty sentencing procedures within the American criminal justice system suggests that the legal and moral authority to execute condemned criminals granted to a government has been tested time and time again, only to be reaffirmed by the Supreme Court. While the 1960's saw a series of failed attempts to ban the practice, launched by death penalty abolitionist groups firm in their belief that murder can never be justified, it was not until 1972 that a majority of Supreme Court justices ruled to prohibit state-mandated executions. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, a national non-profit organization dedicated to providing a forum for informed discussion regarding capital punishment, "the issue of arbitrariness of the death penalty was brought before the Supreme Court in 1972 in Furman v. Georgia, Jackson v. Georgia, and Branch v. Texas (known collectively as the landmark case Furman v. Georgia (408 U.S. 238))" (DPIC, 2013). While the court previously ruled in Crampton v. Ohio and McGautha v. California that the application of capital punishment did not result in arbitrary and capricious sentencing, the 1972 Furman case challenged the Eight Amendment, whereas the McGautha case cited the Fourteenth Amendment's due process provision.

“Lets do it!” these were the famous last words of convicted murderer Gary Gilmore. It was the winter of 1976 and the whole country was abuzz about Gilmore. He had shot and killed two people in just a span of two days in Utah. Not only did the jury convict him of two counts of murder but they unanimously proposed the death penalty for Gilmore who was even requesting his own death. At the time the U.S has just reinstated the death penalty and Gilmore was to be the first executed after the law was reinstated. Gilmore had two options for his execution because Utah had the firing squad or hanging as the two ways of execution. Gilmore chose to be shot and once strapped to the chair behind the Utah prison he said those famous last words before being shot to death for his crimes. The famous last words were said to have been the influence on the Nike footwear tagline “Just do it” by the popular advertising executive Dan Wieden.

The death penalty is sometimes known as capital punishment. This where a person can be put to death legally by the state for a crime he/she is accused of committing. The sentence to execute the person is called the death sentence and carry out the act to punish the violation is the execution. The death penalty is not a new practice and is not limited to the United States. Literally death penalty refers to a person being tortured in public. About 90% of all execution occur in Asia. Many nations now prohibit the use of the death penalty as punishment.

The death penalty is an issue that has the United States divided. The death penalty is a controversial problem in law that has become a popular debate among politicians due to its economical and ethical issues. While there are many who encourage it, there is also a huge amount of those who are against it, including myself. I believe the death penalty should be illegal throughout the country.

When examining more closely, the details about how capital punishment is practiced can also be puzzling. Because there are no perfect beings in this world, the justice system is inalterably flawed; even with the advancing technology, there will never a guarantee on not executing the innocent if capital punishment is not abolished. For instance, even though the Court had prohibited the sentencing of an offender to death such that race and class dominate an important part to the consideration of the verdict, racial discrimination still occurs frequently in the capital punishment system. Black jurors, black defendants, and black victims are significantly deprived. It is much more probable for a black defendant to be executed over a white defendant;

The death penalty has been in the justice system of America tracing all the way back to the days of its founding fathers. Though it is a highly controversial legal and moral matter, it still stands today as the most ultimate punishment in the United States. Many countries have been or are currently abolishing their death penalty under the notion that it is unjust and morally wrong. The United States, on the other hand, has 38 out of its 50 states with laws that state the death penalty as its ultimate punishment. Since 1990, more than 350 people have been put to death with another 3,300 waiting in death row. Another statistic that is an eye opener is since 1976, 552 executions have occurred in the United States, with 394 by lethal injection, 141 by electrocution, 11 by gas chamber, three by hanging, and two by firing squads. Half of the executions that have taken place after 1976 have happened within the last five years, 52 happening so far this year (Death Penalty). The Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment violates the 8th Amendment, which protects the right from “cruel and unusual punishment, on June 29th, 1972. The respective states halted executions in 1967, awaiting the ruling of the case. However in July, of 1976, the Supreme Court, as a just punishment for certain crimes, upheld the death penalty (Fagan, n.d.). For the nine years that the death penalty was suspended, the United States did not have a substantial amount of crime increase, which is somewhat

The purpose of punishment is to keep an incident from reoccurring. While punishment doesn’t keep it from happening again, it helps. Execution and the death penalty have been used in most societies since the beginning of history. Penalties back then included boiling to death, flaying, slow slicing, crucification, impalement, crushing, stoning, decapitation, etc. The death penalty was used for reasons today that would go under cruel and unusual punishment. Today in the United States, execution is used mainly for murder, espionage, and treason. In some states in the US, death by firing squad is still used. (“Criminal Justice: Capital Punishment Focus”). 35 states, the U.S military, and the U.S government today use lethal injection as the main method of execution. (“Methods of Execution”) I believe that the death penalty is not the right way to punish people who have been convicted of murder. Topics that show that capital punishment is wrong are: people see the death penalty as eye for an eye. This means that we’re going to do onto you what you did to others and to get revenge. Other topics are how the system fails and its flaws, also the cost of the death penalty.

Capital punishment is the death penalty. It is used today and was used in ancient times to punish a variety of offenses. Today, one of the most debated issues in the Criminal Justice System is the issue of capital punishment or the death penalty. Capital punishment was legal until 1972, when the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in Furman v. Georgia stating that it violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments citing cruel and unusual punishment. In 1976, the Supreme Court reversed itself with Gregg v. Georgia and reinstated the death penalty but not all states have the death penalty. Since 1973, 140 people have been released from death

Capital punishment and the death penalty are government authorized retributions by death. The rulings are known as death sentences, and crimes that can lead to death penalties are referred to as capital offences or crimes for example first degree murder or treason. The most used technique of death penalty is hanging. The performances are carried out in public places, and the people who carry it out combined it with a process of torture. In this paper, I will focus on the issues against death penalties, its role in the criminal justice system, and the differing side of the issue.

As of April 1, 2008, there were 3,320 convicted murderers on death row, and of those 3,320 people, 65% of the murderers had a prior felony conviction (“The Death” 1). At the time that the 3,320 murderers on death row committed their crime, 26.7% of the murderers were on probation or parole (“The Death” 1). Therefore, it is obvious that convicted murderers pose a colossal threat to our society because the murders may not only commit murder once. When the death penalty is enforced, repeat criminals and murderers are no longer a threat; furthermore, the death penalty acts as a deterrent (Ornellas 6). Additionally, the death penalty provides swift justice for the victims

The debate on whether or not the death penalty should be abolished has been ongoing for quite a long period of time. While there are those who believe that the death penalty does not serve its intended purpose, proponents of the same are convinced that the relevance of the same cannot be overstated and hence it should not be abolished. In this text, I examine the arguments for and against the death penalty.

This research paper focuses on capital punishment (also known as the death penalty) and the issues surrounding it. It involves death that is the termination of an individual’s existence. The paper portrays death penalty as a significant yet divisive issue in the United States, especially in a deliberate exercise of it. Various arguments concerning the subject are also precisely evaluated. Comparing both sides of the argument, I don’t tacitly agree with the practicing capital punishment and that justice is not upheld while exercising it. Only citizens are mandated to decide how to punish criminals so as to preserve the security of the community. The decision comes with the responsibility for determination of factors and

Capital punishment, where it’s practiced in fifty-eight countries, is currently being utilized to get rid of convicted felons. Certain issues brought into politics have been judged based on religion which bumps heads with the non-religious. In the United States church and state are separate based on the First Amendment. Religion, in some issues that politicians have to face to make a decision, is often put into perspective; in order to prevent future complications. Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is a political issue where religion plays a significant role when it comes to those who oppose capital punishment. According to Peggy Parks, capital punishment, which has been around for thousands of years, is in favor of “64 percent of citizens since 2011 (1)”. According to The Principles of Government, many executions in the 1700s were performed because of forgery, robbery, or illegally cutting down trees (92). Fortunately, these United States only execute those who commit murder. Nevertheless, people argue that it is immoral for the United States to perform such heinous acts.

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.