Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Is the capital punishment ethical
Debates on the death penalty
Is the capital punishment ethical
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Is the capital punishment ethical
All throughout the media, one hears of murders and homicides. It is a crime to kill someone, but the government "murders" people all the time without thinking twice. There is a risk when pulling the trigger that this horrible fate will happen. If it is not right to kill someone, why does the government kill people all the time?
In The Bible, there is a statement that says "Thou shalt not kill," and yet the government believes it can punish for what it already does. It is a crime within a crime and the government should "Practice what they preach." This has been going on for so long that most nations have created a numbness to death.
One may believe he is a law abiding citizen and follows the law to every word. This same innocent idividual could very well be put to death by the gas chamber. People are framed for crimes every day and noone notices. Naturally, people in court or in prison will go on and on about their innocence when they know well that they did it. This causes the innocent people's claims of innocence to be discarded. One may then spend half of his life in prison or be put to death. No normal people ever take the time to think that they may be next. If the death sentence was discarded, a few lives could be saved. Technology is advancing everyday and with DNA samples and other high-tech equipment, people could be proven innocent. Most people believe that the "bad guy" kills illegally and the "good guy", or the gas chamber, kills legally.
Children in some neighborhoods are exposed to death and murder everyday. They think nothing of it after a while. The children grow up into gun-bearing citizens with the idea that killing the "bad guy" makes him the "good guy". This is often known as "taking the law into his own hands." So, if the government can kill legally, why can't a teenager take revenge for the death of his father?
Capital punishment is not an effective punishment or deterrent for murder or any crime for various reasons. To many prisoners, being detained in a prison is much more of a punishment than death as is it a constant, conscious deprivation of liberty and rights. This idea is represented though US Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh who claimed after dropping his appeals against his death sentence that he would rather die than...
For example, Ted Bundy and terrorists like Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh who have committed serious crimes. Furthermore, during the first decade of the 21st century there were 26 percent more executions in the U.S. than in the 20th century. For instance, during the same time period, the U.S. murder rate decreased by 24 percent (Marquis, 22). However, how would you know if someone was innocent or not? What if they had been framed by the actual killer? That’s why it would take a long and complex process to find out whether that person had not committed such crime. Therefore, innocent people could be put to death for doing no such crimes.
Additionally, the problem with legal killing is that it doesn't actually lower the murder rate. Not only that, capital punishments are costly and ineffective. The death penalty actually correlates with making people more violent and accepting of violence. Many countries have now outlawed the execution of human beings but the United States still keeps it around. Carter even talked about how China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United States account for more than ninety percent of executions worldwide.
Dieter, Richard C. "Innocence and the Death Penalty: The Increasing Danger of Executing the Innocent." DPIC. Death Penalty Information Center, 1 July 1997. Web. 12 Dec. 2014. .
Are there really innocent people on death row? At least twenty-three people have been executed who did not commit the crime they were accused of (JAICLC). And that 's only those that we know. And here lies a natural danger of capital punishment...when we execute an innocent person; the real killer is still on the streets, ready to victimize someone else. But when an innocent person is arrested, he is often the motivating reason behind further investigation, and if he is executed, than the case remains closed forever or until someone else gets killed by the real perpetrator. Often the only people who know what really happened are the accused and the dead. It then comes down to the skill of the examination and the defense lawyers as to whether there will be a conviction for accidental murder or for manslaughter. At times, a detective could naturally make an error and possibly lead to the conclusion that the innocent committed the crime. Whether it be multiple years in prison or even capital punishment there is no possible way of revenging or forgiving the judge and jury for this miscarriage of justice. There must always be the concern that the state can order the death penalty justly. In America, a prisoner can be on death row for many years awaiting the outcome of numerous appeals (Short). In simpler terms killing another being with or without evidence is not fair, decent, or ethically
Many prisoners in the past have been known to be killed before they were proven innocent. Many documented cases where DNA testing showed that innocent people were put to death by the government. This sometimes happens because there are defendants who are given minimal legal attention by often minor qualified individuals. The government has made many mistakes which are being wrong about convicting someone for something they didn’t do, and killing this person for the wrong reason. Putting the wrong person to death is the biggest mistake that can be made and the government cannot afford to make this mistake.
Attention Graber: Everyone knows that in the United States killing is wrong and if you do kill you get punish for it. Holly Near an activist tells us “Why do we kill people who are killing people to show that killing people is wrong?”
...et our society on the rightful track. Our government needs to lead by example and stop. There is just no real justification for killing any person.
The death penalty is against humanity. In the Ten Commandments, the sin of murder is
One of the most widely debated and criticized methods of punishment in the United States is the Death Penalty. The Death Penalty is an issue that has the United States quite divided. While there are many supporters of it, there is also a large amount of opposition. Currently, there are thirty-three states in which the death penalty is legal and seventeen states that have abolished it according to the Death Penalty Information Center. There is no question that killing another person is the most atrocious criminal act that one can commit. I am not sure why, but it seems that the United States government is being hypocritical when it says that capital punishment is acceptable because a criminal did murder an innocent victim, and therefore should be killed (Philips, 2013). This is rule is known as the "eye-for-an-eye, and tooth-for-a- tooth theory." Of course, if we used this system all the time, there would be no need for laws. A second argument that some people use to support capital punishment is that the fear of being given the death penalty is going to stop criminals from murdering. How many criminals would murder in the first place, even in a state where there is no capital punishment, if they thought there was a chance of getting caught? Most murderers feel that they have a plan to get away with murder (Philips, 2013). Unfortunately, most are right. In response to this I believe that the United States Bill of Rights in the Constitution prohibits cruel an unusual punishment. There is nothing more cruel or unusual than taking someone’s life.
If an error occurs in the procedure, the criminal will face a painful and cruel death. Even more horrifying, an innocent person can be placed on death row. “The reality is that there are few innocent people on death row; the vast majority of these inmates did, in fact, commit the crimes for which they were found guilty. These killers brutally took the lives of innocent victims. By not recognizing the lives of their victims as sacred, they cannot claim their own lives are sacred. In the end, the death penalty is an individual punishment for an individual crime” (Bowman and DiLascio). Although this quote tries to offer a counterpoint to the argument that the death penalty should be abolished, it still admits that there are innocent people on death row. An innocent man placed on death row results in two casualties of innocent men while the brutal murderer sleeps peacefully each night. Errors in the death penalty can destroy families, terminate friendships, and disintegrate love and companionship. Since there is no guarantee that every person on death row is guilty, it is too dangerous to risk more innocent
Growing up, things were right or they were wrong. They were black or they were white. Bu this straight forward, no thinking mentality is setting up our students for failure. In McBrayer’s article for The New York Times, it made me question whether I found the examples he provided as opinion or facts. I assumed statements like “Copying homework assignments is wrong” and “It is wrong for people under the age of 21 to drink alcohol” to be opinions, but in our society these are held as facts. They are statements that govern our society; if you are caught cheating or caught drinking under the age of 21, you will be punished. But how can you morally punish someone for breaking your beliefs? Murder is illegal, therefore murdering someone is wrong and that is a fact because it is a law, but it is also an opinion.
I believe that under certain circumstances that capital punishment should be allowed because if someone is going to commit mass murder they should pay with the ultimate human right which is of their life. This topic has been widely thought of in the world with a few philosophers really encompassing my views. Those are the views of Ernest Van Den Haag and Bruce Fein. Philosophers who oppose our views are such like Justice William Brennan and Hugo Adam Bedau. I will prove my point using the ideas of deterrence and morality of the issue of capital punishment. If the government would show that if you kill someone there will be a consequence for their actions and that the consequence would be equal to what they have done. The population will see that it isn’t worth taking another humans life. If we were to kill people that are committing these mass killings of innocent people there would not be as many criminals around. Therefore the streets would be a place people wouldn’t be afraid of anymore.
Capital punishment is the punishment of death for a crime given by the state. It is used for a variety of crimes such as murder, drug trafficking and treason. Many countries also have the death penalty for sexual crimes such as rape, incest and adultery. The lethal injection, the electric chair, hanging and stoning are all methods of execution used throughout the world. Capital punishment has been around since ancient times; it was used in ancient Rome, and one of the most famous people to be crucified was Jesus Christ. Capital punishment is now illegal in many countries, like the United Kingdom, France and Germany, but it is also legal in many other countries such as China and the USA. There is a large debate on whether or not capital punishment should be illegal all over the world as everyone has a different opinion on it. In this essay, I will state arguments for and against the death penalty, as well as my own opinion: capital punishment should be illegal everywhere.
Many countries including the United States have a law to maintain the rule and justice of the society. These laws exist to prevent people from committing a crime, or sin, and there is punishment for those who defy it. Logically, the worst sin shall be punished the most, and murder is a crime that is punished the harshest all around the world. Federal law in the United States punishes first-degree murder with death penalty and second-degree murder with life imprisonment without parole at maximum. Only treason, espionage, and large-scale drug trafficking are the crimes that don’t involve murder but result death penalty. Comparing to the laws of United States, in a sense that murder is most severely punished, the