Capital Punishment and its Effects on Society

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Capital Punishment and its Effects on Society
“Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother 40 whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41.” While the infamous jump roping children’s rhyme is exaggerated from the 18 and 11 blows her stepmother and father received, respectively, the rhyme does give a sense of America’s horrendous history of violent crimes. In fact, the United States’ murder rate is about four times higher than the rate in the European Union (Turow 42). Keeping that drastic difference in mind, it would certainly make sense that capital punishment is more prevalent in the United States than in the EU. The majority of the world’s population lives in countries where the death penalty is legal (Kronenwetter 88). Does that statistic coincide with the higher murder rates? It definitely seems plausible, however there is no way to be certain. In all 38 states where capital punishment is legal, murder must be committed in the 1st degree in order to be eligible for the death penalty, meaning it is a capital crime (Kronenwetten 18). It is said that the death penalty is meant to serve two principle social purposes: retribution and deterrence of further capital crimes (Brenner 62). So, if that is capital punishment in its theoretical sense, how well does it work carried out in the real world? The current justice system, though effective the majority of the time, leaves plenty of room for error that could cause society real danger once a dangerous, convicted felon is released and, therefore, call for the need of the death penalty. This point is demonstrated in the words of Judge Alfred J. Talley from New York, “ If I, as an individual, have the right to kill in self-defense, why has not the State, which is nothi...

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... Stuart. The Death Penalty: An American History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2002. Print.
Bedau, Hugo Adam., and Paul G. Cassell. Debating the Death Penalty: Should America Have Capital Punishment?: The Experts on Both Sides Make Their Best Case. New York: Oxford UP, 2004. Print.
Brenner, Samuel. The Death Penalty. Detroit, MI: Greenhaven/Thomson Gale, 2006. Print.
Henderson, Harry, and Stephen A. Flanders. Capital Punishment. New York: Facts on File, 2000. Print.
Kronenwetter, Michael. Capital Punishment: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1993. Print.
Robinson, Martin. "Revealed: The Five Murderers Freed from Life Sentences to Kill AGAIN." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 16 Sept. 2013. Web. 08 Apr. 2014.
Turow, Scott. Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer's Reflections on Dealing with the Death Penalty. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2003. Print.

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