DISCUSSION/ANALYSIS
Introduction: Throughout this discussion I will debate and analyse the ideas I have collected from my research. My discussion is separated under sub headings which will allow me to form a better understanding of how capital punishment is viewed which will help me in reaching a possible answer to my question. Firstly I am going to be discussing two very well known case studies.
Case studies: The two case studies I have picked to focus my research on are; Derek Bentley who was the last man executed in Britain along with Ruth Ellis who was the last woman executed in Britain. Both of these executions were carried out by a man called Albert Pierrepoint. These two case studies both carry an interesting story with them which I am going to share with you using the sources I have gathered.
Ruth Ellis Case Study:
I have gathered some research from a book called A VERY ENGLISH HANGMAN. Firstly I am going to provide some background information. The whole of Ruth's case moved very swiftly as she was executed thirteen weeks after she shot her lover four times. Ellis’ case centres on some interesting words which were said by Ruth after committing her crime “When I put the gun in my bag I intended to find David and shoot him”. She was put to death for this because at the time the law dictated the premeditated murder as a capital offense and no leniency was allowed. Ellis was a victim of domestic abuse which led to the tragic miscarriage of her unborn child; this is what leads Ellis to retaliate and to shoot her lover.
Derek Bentley Case Study:
Secondly, I am going to present some background information on Derek Bentley’s case. Derek Bentley’s case consists of a very ambiguous four words “Let him have it” which were excla...
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...ent life imprisonment really is compared to the use of the death penalty. Jack Vain has admitted to feeling a great deal of remorse and he knows that his victims did not deserve the things that unfortunately happened to them.
During the TW&E: Life in prison podcast Marvin Olasky interviews another prisoner who is currently serving a life-term in prison. This case study which I briefly researched was a man called Jesus Suttles who is 66 years old. He was convicted of killing his common law wife back in 2002. He claims that prison has saved his life as he hasn’t been able to drink since being put in prison. He claims to be a miserable person but he looks at his terrible situation in a positive way by saying to himself that at least he is still alive. This makes me realise that life imprisonment should replace the use of the death penalty permanently in all countries.
Your honor, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, thank you for your attention today. [Slide #2] I would like to assert that separation is not the end of a relationship. Divorce is not the end of a relationship. Even an arrest is not the end of a relationship. Only death is the end of a relationship. In the case of defendant Donna Osborn, her insistence that ‘“one way or another I’ll be free,”’ as told in the testimony of her friend Jack Mathews and repeated in many others’, indicates that despite the lack of planning, the defendant had the full intent to kill her husband, Clinton Osborn.
``In criminal law, confession evidence is a prosecutor’s most potent weapon’’ (Kassin, 1997)—“the ‘queen of proofs’ in the law” (Brooks, 2000). Regardless of when in the legal process they occur, statements of confession often provide the most incriminating form of evidence and have been shown to significantly increase the rate of conviction. Legal scholars even argue that a defendant’s confession may be the sole piece of evidence considered during a trial and often guides jurors’ perception of the case (McCormick, 1972). The admission of a false confession can be the deciding point between a suspect’s freedom and their death sentence. To this end, research and analysis of the false confessions-filled Norfolk Four case reveals the drastic and controversial measures that the prosecuting team will take to provoke a confession, be it true or false.
Radelet, Michael L. and Borg, Marian J. “The Changing Nature of Death Penalty Debates.” Annual Sociology Review. 2000: 43-57. Academic Search Complete. Web. 17 November 2013.
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...
Syme, D. (1997). Martin Bryant's Sentence- What the judge said, Retrieved 5 July, 2003, from http://www.geniac.net/portarthur/sentence.htm. 7. The Australian Encyclopaedia.
The article begins with an overall theme threw out O’Sullivan’s piece: does the death penalty appropriately punish certain crimes or increases murder and crime (O’Sullivan 1). Kidnapping and murder cases in California as well as Britain are examined this question then later used as a reason why the death penalty is necessary. The author states in both cases, the overwhelming majority of the general public votes for the death penalty to be impose (O’Sullivan 2). The method of death penalty opposition by the political elites in both countries is soon compared. Great Britain had a more open opposition and California had a more subtle method by adding a dragged out appeal process to the sentence. Next, five reasons that opponents of capital punishments most often used are listed, followed by a rebuttal. The author addresses them as formidable and needed due to an “undemocratic contempt for majority opinion” (O’Sullivan 9). The predominate reference used to rebut the previous reasons, cited the penalty given to the Nazis and the Communists.
While it may seem that keeping someone in prison for life would cost more than putting someone on the death penalty, howev...
The capital punishment has been cited as a reasonable sentence by those who advocate for retribution. This is essentially when it comes to justice so that people take full responsibility for their individual actions. Studies have proved that the decision to take away life of a person because they committed a certain crime serves to perpetuate the crime in question. It also serves to enhance the progress of organized and violent crime. It has been noted that various flaws in the justice system has led to the wrong conviction of innocent people. On the other hand, the guilty have also been set free, and a plethora of several cases has come up when a critical look at the capital punishment has been undertaken. Killers hardly kill their victims deliberately, but they probably act on anger, passion, or impulsively. In this regard, it is not proper to convict them exclusively without
...already in there for life, there is nothing to stop him or her from killing other prisoners on a spree. The death penalty ensures more safety in that sense, because the prisoner will most likely consider his punishment of life sentence as bad enough and not want anything worse.
The death penalty continues to be an issue of controversy and is an issue that will be debated in the United States for many years to come. According to Hugo A. Bedau, the writer of “The Death Penalty in America”, capital punishment is the lawful infliction of the death penalty. The death penalty has been used since ancient times for a variety of offenses. The Bible says that death should be done to anyone who commits murder, larceny, rapes, and burglary. It appears that public debate on the death penalty has changed over the years and is still changing, but there are still some out there who are for the death penalty and will continue to believe that it’s a good punishment. I always hear a lot of people say “an eye for an eye.” Most people feel strongly that if a criminal took the life of another, their’s should be taken away as well, and I don’t see how the death penalty could deter anyone from committing crimes if your going to do the crime then at that moment your not thinking about being on death role. I don’t think they should be put to death they should just sit in a cell for the rest of their life and think about how they destroy other families. A change in views and attitudes about the death penalty are likely attributed to results from social science research. The changes suggest a gradual movement toward the eventual abolition of capital punishment in America (Radelet and Borg, 2000).
Which punishment is crueler, life in prison or the death penalty? This is an issue that many politicians and the average individual debate regularly. The death penalty is the more controversial of the two because the end result is the death of an individual; to many, no one deserves that even when considering their crimes, but to others those individuals got what they “deserved”. Robert Glen Jones Jr., a Caucasian male at the age of 43, was executed about a month ago on October 23, 2013 after being convicted on six counts of first–degree murder, which resulted in the death of seven individuals. Jones is one of 36 inmates in Arizona to have been executed sine 1992, but also another interesting piece to the provocative death penalty subject (Kiefer).
On Bloodsworth’s appeal he argued several points. First he argued that there was not sufficient evidence to tie Bloodsworth to the crime. The courts ruled that the ruling stand on the grounds that the witness evidence was enough for reasonable doubt that the c...
"Common sense, lately bolstered by statistics, tells us that the death penalty will deter murder... People fear nothing more than death. Therefore, nothing will deter a criminal more than the fear of death... life in prison is less feared. Murderers clearly prefer it to execution -- otherwise, they would not try to be sentenced to life in prison instead of death... Therefore, a life sent...
I will accomplish this by first providing you with a brief history of the death penalty, then I will discuss grounds for justifying the death penalty, and finally I will dispute some of the popular arguments against the death penalty. To start off, I will discuss the history of the death penalty. The first established death penalty laws date as far back as the Eighteenth Century B.C. in the code of King Hammaurabi of Babylon, which codified the death penalty for 25 different crimes. Death sentences were carried out by such means as crucifixion, boiling, beheading, drowning, beating to death, burning alive, and impalement. In the Tenth Century A.D., hanging became the usual method of execution in Britain.
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. Firstly, many believe capital punishment should be reinstated in the United Kingdom because of the financial cost of prisoners. Annually, it costs about £26,978 per prisoner when they are in jail.