Should the Death Penalty Be Abolished?

However, many criminologists support that the death penalty is not a deterrent to capital crimes. As a result we can say that if it does not fulfill its basic functions how it could be effective. People believe that death penalty decrease crimes because people fear nothing more than death. They think by giving criminals death penalty we can save many lives and can make other criminals feel fear to prevent future crimes. Whil... ... middle of paper ... ...th penalty, society is also guilty of committing murder.

Some countries have legalized the death penalty as punishment for crimes committed, but how can it be effective? Killing is not justice! The justice system may call it capital punishment but how can one be punished if they are dead? Having the death penalty will not make the crime rates decrease. America as well as every other country will still experience murders, rape, robbery, kidnapping, etc.

"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.

The punishment of a criminal should be fit to the crime. The counterexample of this is that the death penalty is unethical, and non-effective for many reasons. The biggest issue with the death penalty is the expenses that go along with it. The death penalty is also hypocritical, and un-reversible. If someone who was given the death penalty was later found guilty, there would be no way to bring them back, whereas if they were in jail they could be taken out.

The debate over capital punishment continues to be pursed in both courts and the political arena (Capital Punishment, pg.3). The debate can be sorted out around several questions: ﻢ     Is it morally right to deliberately take the life of any person, even a person who has killed another? ﻢ     Is the death penalty actually effective in deterring crime? ﻢ     How often are innocent persons executed by mistakes? Is the execution of innocent a necessary price to pay for the security of society?

3 May 2001. Ornellaspaper. 6 Feb 2011. Web. “Facts about the Death Penalty.” Deathpenaltyinfo.org.

"The death penalty issue is obviously a divisive one. But whether one is for or against, you can not deny the basic illogic - if we know the system is flawed, if we know there are innocent people on Death Row, then until the system is reformed, should we not abandon the death penalty to protect those who are innocent?" --Richard LaGravenese In the United States the death penalty is used as a punishment for capital offenses. These specifically can vary from state to state, but commonly include first-degree murder, murder with special circumstances, rape with additional bodily harm, and the federal crime of treason. (Facts) The goal of the death penalty then, is to deter these crimes from even taking place, to be so feared that offenders think twice about committing such horrible crimes.

According to Death Penalty Information Center (2011), since 1976 the United States of America has executed 1,243 individuals who have been convicted of a serious crime. The death penalty has been used since the Eighteenth Century B.C. to present day as a deterrence to crime and a tool to deliver justice for the victims. Capital punishment is a controversial topic that draws in much debate from people who are pro death penalty and those who oppose capital punishment. In 2010 a poll was administered by Gallup covering a topic of, "Are you in favor of death penalty for a person convicted of murder?"

The kind of stats that are included on this part of the website is the number of executions before 1976, the population of death row, women on death row, the date the death penalty reenacted, and a number of people freed from death row; the other website that is of good use is oyez which lists all the current death penalty supreme court cases and their outcomes. In the case of Furman vs. Georgia the big question that was raised by carrying out the death penalty was it an act of cruel and unusual punishment with clear violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth amendment; the opinion of the court was that the death penalty in this case and the ones attached to it were in clear violation of the constitution. There were only two justices tha... ... middle of paper ... ...orporal Punishment in Judaism." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Nov. 2013.

Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/280643763?accountid=28518 Murder. (2012, August 20). FBI. Retrieved November 10, 2013, from http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/violent-crime/murder Reggio, M. H. (2012). History of the Death Penalty.