Supporters and Oppostion to The Death Penalty

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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 you get a different perspective of what is going on around the world is that we are seeing internationally that the decline of the use of executions as a means of getting rid of crimina...

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... without parole and let them sit in jail for the rest of their lives regretting their decision rather than providing them with a way out. In response, I believe that the Bill of Rights, specifically the Eighth Amendment, prohibits cruel and unusual punishment (Sangiorgio, 2011). If there is any punishment much crueler than death, please let me know. In addition, it is time to face the fact that our judicial system is prejudiced. For instance; in southern states, 8 percent of the black criminals who murder get the death penalty. Only 1 percent of white murderers get capital punishment. Also, murderers are seven times more likely to get the death penalty for murdering a white person, as they are if they murdered a black person. This strikes me as blatant prejudice (Siennick, 2012). The death penalty needs to removed and abolished through a constitutional amendment.

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