Capital Punishment is an Inevitable and Unavoidable Consequence of Every Civilized Society

Capital Punishment is an Inevitable and Unavoidable Consequence of Every Civilized Society

Putting to death people who have been judge to have committed certain

extremely heinous crimes is a practice of ancient standing. But in the United

States, in the latter half of the twentieth century, it has become a very

controversial issue. Changing views on this difficult issue led the Supreme

Court to abolish capital punishment in 1972 but later turned to uphold it again

in 1977, with certain conditions. Indeed, restoring capital punishment is the

will of the people, yet many voices have been raised against it. Heated public

debate have centered on questions of deterrence, public safety, sentencing

equality, and the execution of innocents, among others.

One argument states that the death penalty does not deter murder.

Dismissing capital punishment on that basis would require us to eliminate all

prisons as well because they do not seem to be any more effective in the

deterrence of crime. Others say that states which have the death penalty

have higher crime rates than those that do not. And that a more sever

punishment only inspires more sever crimes. But every state in the union is

different. These differences include population, the number of cities, and the

crime rate. Urbanized states are more likely to have higher crime rates than

states that are more rural. The state that have capital punishment have it

because of their high crime rate, not the other way around.

In 1985, a study was published by economist Stephen K. Layson, at the

University of North Carolina, that showed that every execution of a murderer

deters, on average of 18 murders. The study also showed that raising the

number of ...

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...ero. No executed murderer has ever killed again. You

can't say that about those sentenced to prison, even if you are an abolitionist.

Bibliography:

Bronwyn Calton, ed. "The Big Book of Death" New York: Paradox Press,

1996

Joel Rose, ed. "The Big Book of Thugs" New York: Paradox Press, 1996

JoAnn Brenn Gurensey, "Should We Have Capital Punishment?" Minnesota:

Lerner Publications Company,1993

Carol Wekesser, ed. "The Death Penalty (Opposing Viewpoints,)" California:

Greenhaven Press, Inc.,1991

Don Nardo, "Death Penalty" California: Lucent Books, 1992

Thurgood Marshall, "Social Ethics: Morality and Social Policy" United

States: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.,1997

"Capital Punishment", http://ethics.acusd.edu/mill.html

U.S. Department of Justice Press Release, Sunday December 13, 1998

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/cp.97.pr