Capital Punishment Essays - Benefits of the Death Penalty

The ONLY punishment from which one cannot escape is the death penalty. Opponents of the death penalty believe capital punishment is unnecessary and inappropriate in our modern society. In their minds, such an act by the government serves no positive social purpose and only denigrates life (Death Penalty Focus, 2015). On the other hand, those in favor of capital punishment, including the US Supreme Court, see the death penalty as the proper punishment for certain criminals who have committed specific crimes. Supporters also argue that the death penalty is a necessary deterrent to saving innocent lives (Pro-Death Penalty, 2014).

The death penalty also serves as retribution because in a just society, if someone takes a life, then they should give up their life. Abolitionist against the death penalty feel it is immoral, applied unfairly, and serves to sanction revenge instead of retribution. Many people believe that the death penalty is immoral because it is not right to kill someone. According to Thurgood Marshall, capital punishment violates the Eight Amendment because it is morally unacceptable to people of the United States. In judging whether or not a given penalty is morally acceptable, most courts have said that the punishment is valid unless it shocks the conscience and sense of justice of the people.

"Maldistribution inheres no more in capital punishment than in any other punishment." (Haag 274) Fear of the death penalty can be a good deterrent. Many people also try to abolish the death penalty by talking about the suffering a convicted murderer has to go through, but what about what the victim had to go through. Further, if we get rid of the death penalty it will show that we are not willing to impose our punishments on people who brake our laws. Some maldistribution of the death penalty is unavoidable, but that does not mean we should throw out the death penalty.

In some respects, capital punishment is no better than the actions of a serial killer; it is killing for the sake of killing. I feel that if a person is deemed to be a threat to society then he should be removed from society and not... ... middle of paper ... ...east that way, if he is innocent, he would have the opportunity to prove his innocence. Upon researching this subject, I was extremely disturbed to find that the United States is one of the few countries that still has the death penalty. We really need to take another look at our justice system and try to bring about changes. The answer to society’s problems is not to just get rid of those people we believe are a threat to our security, but try to get to the root of the problem.

Opponents of the death penalty view execution as cruel and/or unusual which in their eyes violates the Eighth Amendment in their eyes. In conclusion, the issue of the death penalty is of fatal importance because it deals with the morality of certain human beings. From this argument, it is clear that the death penalty is a valuable tool in our criminal justice system whose legitimacy cannot be downplayed by any amount of opposing views.

It is morally wrong, individually or through government action, to seek revenge on a murderer by means of execution. The death penalty violates our right to life. Capital Punishment is Not an Effective Deterrent As justification for capital punishment, deterrence is used to suggest that executing murderers will decrease the homicide rate by causing other potential murderers not to commit murder from fear of being executed themselves and obviously the murderer who is executed will not kill again. This position may seem initially correct, and indeed, in a USA Today Poll, 68% of respondents agreed that the death penalty is an effective deterrence for crimes. However, some research suggests that rather than deterring homicide, state executions actually may cause an increase in the number of homicides (Stack, 1990).

Capital Punishment Capital Punishment is regarded by most as a successful deterrent to murder, but that is because these people don’t look at it as it is applied. According to retributivists such as Kant and Van Den Haag the guilty deserves to be punished. On the other hand, people against the death penalty like Bedau think that the death penalty is just as much an effective deterrent as life in prison. The most famous retributivist Kant, states that the guilty ought to get punished because they chose to act wrongly, and by punishing them, we are respecting them as a moral agents. This occurs because humans are given the ability to reason and act morally and thus if we don’t punish them we are not treating them as moral agents.

So the argument that the criminal could be innocent is becoming invalid but there still is a small chance. Some people may not want to take the chance, however, the majority still votes for it. I believe that the death penalty is a humane form of punishment, reason being is that the people who commit unthinkable crimes are not the people we need to make this world. I believe people that commit murder and people who sexually assault children should definitely be executed. The reason why is because they assault people who are defenseless and abuse people just for the thrill of it.

But if, in fact, the death penalty does not deter, and we continue to impose it, we have only sacrificed the lives of convicted murderers. Surely it is better for society to take a gamble that the death penalty deters in order to protect the lives of innocent people than to take a gamble that it doesn't deter and thereby protect the lives of murderers, while risking the lives of the innocents. Finally, defenders of capital punishment argue that justice demands that

One major objection is the morality of capital punishment. Multiple people believe that this sentence is cruel and unusual. In the article “Should we put the Death Penalty on the Chopping Block,” it is stated that “it is not a justification to kill offenders to show to the public that killing people is wrong.” Other objections are religious, and are established by people’s spiritual beliefs. Another objection that has made a tremendous impact on people’s opinions is the cost of the death penalty. When dealing with capital punishment, there are more trials and more attorneys that are needed.