The Pros And Cons Of Capital Punishment

The death penalty has been a firmly established institution in the United States since its inception. Executions were halted briefly between 1967 and 1977 as the U.S. Supreme Court considered and then ruled on the constitutionality of the death penalty. But states quickly revised their statutes, and some of these new laws met the Court's

To begin, believe it or not, death penalties have been dated all the way back from as far as the Eighteenth Century B.C. Death penalty is the punishment of execution, administered to someone legally convicted of a capital crime. In 1622, the first legal execution of a criminal, Daniel Frank, occurred in Virginia for the crime of theft and was hung for his penalty. There are many forms of death penalties such as lethal injection, electrocution, hanging, and many more! Even though the death penalty is still around, it is getting less popular than it was before. As support for the death penalty has fallen dramatically since hitting 80 percent in 1994, to 60 percent in 2013.

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

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, eighteen states have abolished the death penalty since its implementation (Facts About the Death Penalty). But what are the reasons behind doing so? Historically, public policy concerning capital punishment has shifted dramatically, from required capital punishment to jury nullification to a rise in the abolition of the practice. Public opinion has shifted alongside policy, with more and more Americans disapproving of the death penalty and the morality behind it, citing it as an inhumane and hypocritical approach to justice and punishment. I am with the the more progressive Americans that do not believe in administering the death penalty under any circumstances. Rather, I support life imprisonment or the insanity defense for capital offenses whenever appropriate. Capital punishment is ineffective because it lowers the state down to the level of the defendant, frequently discriminates against racial minorities and those of lower socioeconomic status, and it has been abolished in nearly every other modern democratic country.

The origination of the death penalty in America stems mainly from the influence of Britain. Capital punishment was a common exercise

The use of the death penalty has brought peace of mind to our citizens. Though through the mid nineteen sixties until the early nineteen eighties only about six death penalties actually took effect. When the number of executions dropped, the murder rate rose from 5.6 per 100,000 people to 10.2 which is almost double the murder rate. A society cannot live in fear but needs to live in reassurance and protection. As of nineteen ninety-nine, the murder rate dropped dramatically to 5.7 because the execution rate increased to 47 executions. Pearce, Matt. "Counterpoint: Defending The Death Penalty." Points Of View: Death Penalty (2014): 6. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 23 Sept. 2014. This demonstrates the deterrent effect capital punishment has on society. The result is deterrence shows if one kills then one will be punished for their actions and crime.

The Death Penalty, or capital punishment is nothing new in the world. SInce the dawn of civilization people were sentenced to death for sometimes even the most minor of crimes, such a theft. As the world has changed in the last few thousand years, so have attitudes toward the Death Penalty,yet it is still a punishment that is carried out throughout the world today. In the United States, as of July of 2015, 31 states in the Union actively carry out the death penalty. Only 19 states have abolished the death penalty and replaced it with life in prison without the possibility of parole as the maximum sentence. However, with the declining popularity of the death penalty in the United States and throughout the world, the question that needs to be

The death penalty, as we know it today, didn’t exist in the United States until 1976. However, the American penal system has incorporated capital punishment since the earliest settlements were founded in the early 1600’s. The first recorded execution in the United States occurred in 1608 in Jamestown, Virginia when Captain George Kendall was executed just one year after the Jamestown settlement had been established after he had been convicted of being a spy for Spain (Part I: History of the Death Penalty). Over the next 250 years, several states moved toward abolishing capital punishment altogether. While there has been serious push towards ending capital punishment, more than half of state governments within the United States cling onto their right to execute criminals who perform truly heinous crimes.

(“History of Death Penalty Laws” n. pag.). There were close to 72,000 people executed in the sixteenth century and various capital offences which included marrying a Jew, not confessing to a crime, and treason. (“History of the Death Penalty” n. pag.). The number of crimes in Britain increased due to the crimes people committed. From 1823 to 1837, the death sentence was eliminated for over half of the crimes previously punishable by death (“History of the Death Penalty” n. pag.). There was a court case that used the death penalty in 1972 when a young girl was murdered while attending college (“Do Families of Victims Feel Justice with the Death Penalty?” Page 1-2). The Stambaugh brothers found out about their sisters death and demanded something to happen to the killer, Allen Walunga. They pushed the death penalty in the many court cases they attended. A probation officer stated, “if we had a death penalty in this state, I would recommend whatever the death penalty might be. This is a heinous crime and I agree that the chances of rehabilitation are poor” (“Death Penalty Would End Punishment of Victim’s Family” n. pag.). This case went on for thirty- seven years, and this family still did not get the justice they felt they deserved. Walunga was not sentenced to the death penalty at any time during any time while requesting for parole. This young girl lost her life, while the one who committed the crime continued to live.

It was used more often for fact of it was viewed as a less painful method for executing the states’ criminals. By the 1950’s, the death penalty in America was hardly used because the Supreme Court believed it violated the eighth amendment and was a cruel and unusual punishment. Therefore, the terms of seeking the death penalty were changed. Even though the terms of the death penalty were changed, there are still beneficial factors that are associated with the death penalty that is

States were reducing their execution numbers as well as closed down their execution facilities. “In 1834, Pennsylvania became the first state to move executions away from the public eye and carrying them out in correctional facilities,” (“Death penalty information center”, 2018). Shortly following this, Michigan was the first state to abolish the death penalty for all crimes except treason, and eventually, Wisconsin and Rhode Island abolished the death penalty completely, “(“Death penalty information center”, 2018). In regard to the constitution, prior to the 1960s, the fifth and eighth amendments were interpreted as permitting the death penalty, but abolitionist argued that under the eighth amendment it was “cruel and unusual punishment,” (“Death penalty information”, 2018). An example of this ruling is in Furman v. Georgia, 1972, where William Furman was caught stealing from a home and when attempting to escape he accidentally killed a resident of the house with his gun. Georgia state’s supreme court ruling stated that the death penalty was unconstitutional under the eighth and fourteenth amendment. Because of this case, “the death penalty was ruled illegal within the United States in 1976,” (Bedau,

The first attempted changes of the death penalty in the U.S. happened when Thomas Jefferson introduced a bill to revise Virginia's death penalty laws. The bill suggested that capital punishment was to be used only for the crimes of murder and treason. In the early 1800’s, states started to reduce the crimes punishable by capital punishment and started building jails and penitentiaries. Pennsylvania became the first state to move executions away from the public and

Some states has repeatedly abused the death penalty punishing people not only for murder . Capital punishment was widely accepted until the people got out of hand with it . It was to many deaths coming from the jail and because they was getting the chair or getting injected with some type of shot. Supreme court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional with a 5-4 decision . 5-4 decision that the three drug cocktail procedure most prevalently used in executions . The death penalty includes discussion of the sanctity of the human

The death penalty has been around since the time of Jesus Christ. Executions have been recorded from the 1600s to present times. From about 1620, the executions by year increased in the US. It has been a steady increase up until the 1930s; later the death penalty dropped to zero in the 1970s and then again rose steadily. US citizens said that the death penalty was unconstitutional because it was believed that it was "cruel and unusual" punishment (Kurtis 67). In the 1970s, the executions by year dropped between zero and one then started to rise again in the 1980s. In the year 2000, there were nearly one hundred executions in the US (Biskupic 34). On June 29, 1972, the death penalty was suspended because the existing laws were no longer convincing. However, four years after this occurred, several cases came about in Georgia, Florida, and Texas where lawyers wanted the death penalty. This set new laws in these states and later the Supreme Court decided that the death penalty was constitutional under the Eighth Amendment (Biskupic 34).

The reason for a decline in the death penalty is because of many factors. Such as any doubts that the chemicals used in the process will fail causing pain