Families of victims often become bitter and angry about the outcome of a crime, the loss of their loved one, and feel as if the death penalty is perhaps the only fair punishment for the violators of the law. These revengeful desires are natural and may be nothing short of expected from the average person in their loss. The death penalty outcome is one that is decided by a jury, and is not handled lightly it is only used under the most extreme conditions previously mentioned. Opponents of the death penality site the eighth amendment to the constitution which prohibits cruel and unusual punishments.You may ask, should one guilty of such a violent crime as pre mediated murder be afforded such mercy? Where was the mercy for the victim of their crime?
There are several reasons it should be in effect including: proof that capital punishment does deter crime that would warrant this sentence, retribution for heinous crimes, and the morality of punishing someone who has committed a crime so horrendous. The use of capital punishment greatly deters citizens from committing nefarious crimes, such as murder (“Justice Is Served with the Death Penalty”). In general, one of the things people fear the most is death; therefore they are less likely to perform heinous actions if they know that death is a punishment for it. Ernest van den Haag, professor at Fordham University, stated, “ …capital punishment is likely to deter more than other punishments because people fear death more than anything else. They fear most, death deliberately inflicted by law and scheduled by the courts….Hence, the threat of the death penalty may deter some murderers who otherwise might not have been deterred.
If a murderer was given a different punishment other than the death penalty, the human live(s) that perished would become less and less important. The death penalty is justified because in the Pledge of Allegiance we state “Liberty and Justice for all”. What better way to show this than to give deserving criminals the right punishment? (Phil 2) The Death Penalty has positive effects on murder victim’s families. Losing a loved one from old age, or sickness is a time of suffering that almost everyone will experience, but losing a loved one because they were brutally murdered is unexpected and much harder to overcome.
Supporters of this form of this sanction believe that capital punishment does more to protect and benefit society than to harm it, in that it could provide closure to a community or deter that community from future crimes (Kay). Some people would associate the death penalty with the saying “an eye for and eye” in that it provides closure to the affected families (Dobbs). Late Professor of Jurisprudence at Fordham University, Ernest Van Den Haag claims, “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” (ProCon.org). Naturally, people fear death, therefore people use this logic to claim that the threat of the death penalty daunts criminals who otherwise might not have been.
It allows us to continue to blame one another, to turn against one another, to learn to hate better" . Many people think that by executing some criminals, we will deter others. The cost to send a murderer to a death penalty is about 3 million dollars. The cost is dramatically lower to keep a criminal in for life imprisonment without the possibility for parole. The death penalty is just " cruel and unusual punishment."
Fear is defined as an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. Fear is used in the death penalty as a way to deter people from murder and provide justice for the victims. The death penalty can be executed in many different ways: lethal injection, electrocution, hanging, firing squad, and gas chamber. Due to economic issues, we believe that death penalty should be carried out by hanging. The death penalty is very controversial nationwide.
The death penalty has also been imposed for such crimes as armed robbery, kidnapping, rape and treason. Some people believe that capital punishment is necessary for punishing people that have committed any type of crime, much of the time because these people want justice; others think that capital punishment is only necessary in extreme cases, such as murder, while others believe that it is wrong and shouldn't be aloud to take place. Amnesty International's thoughts on the death penalty is that it is 'cruel, inhumane and degrading punishment and a violation of the right to life'[3]. In extreme cases, I believe that people should be punished. People who commit crimes such as murder (mass or only an individual killing), rape and kidnapping should all be punished for what they have done.
Still anti-death penalty advocates believe that the death penalty is irreversible and that some people who really weren’t guilty are sentenced to death. Yes the death penalty is irreversible but the chance that an innocent person gets sentenced to death is extremely low. The judicial system goes threw extreme measures to insure this doesn’t happened! They do this by making sure that only when guilt is determined by clear and convincing evidenced be punished.
Capital punishment is feared by potential murderers because once it is ordered on them they are not coming back. When those potential murderers are deterred away form murder, those are innocent lives that are saved. Further, if we get rid of capital punishment we will just be showing criminals that they can get away with murder, and be punished that severely.
Proponents believe that killing these criminals will reduce crime and make sure that the criminals will never commit a monstrous crime again. Many prisoners who are out on parole can take advantage of their release and actually cause more crimes and danger. But if the criminals are put on death row, it also sets an example for others and may prevent petty criminals from moving on to more serious crimes. The death pen... ... middle of paper ... ...ices, instead of being used for the death penalty. The better alternative is life without parole, not the death penalty.