Many people have been taught from birth that killing, stealing, lying and cheating is wrong. Most of us have been taught since a young age right from wrong, but how can we follow that example when our own country does not? If killing is wrong, why do states still allow it in the United States? Capital Punishment is killing; it is taking a human life, and yet we act like it is the perfect punishment or the right thing to do. Just because someone has killed does not mean it is okay to take their life; that just means more murder and more murderers. We might as well call ourselves the murderers. No matter the reason or how bad the crime, taking a life should never be the conclusion, nor a decision even worth considering. Capital Punishment is a cruel and unnecessary punishment; it should be illegal in the United States for multiple reasons.
Capital Punishment is awful and inhumane. The Death Penalty is not only unconstitutional, but it is taking away a human life. It is not right to punish criminals by doing to them exactly what they did to their victim. “The penalty for rape cannot be rape. Those who steal are not punished by being stolen from. We should not, therefore, punish the murderer with death... Capital Punishment is a barbaric remainder of an uncivilized society." (Should the Death Penalty n. pag.) A society that respects life should not also be the one who is taking it. You can not kill a murderer to prove that killing is wrong; that is hypocrisy at its best. One can not believe two things at once; a person either believes killing is wrong or they don’t; there is no in between. It is horrible to be the one to decide whether a person lives or dies, so why do it? Not only is the Death Penalty wrong, but in the situation of...
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Works Cited
Citations
“Abolish the Death Penalty.” Amnesty International. 9 Apr. 2014. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
“About the Death Penalty.” National Coalition. European Commision, 9 Apr. 2014. Web. 9 Apr.
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“Case Against the Death Penalty.” ACLU. 11 Dec. 2012. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
“Reasons to Oppose the Death Penalty.” OADP. 8 Apr. 2014. Web. 8 Apr. 2014.
“Should the Death Penalty Be Allowed?” ProCon. 3 Mar. 2014. Web. 8 Apr. 2014
“10 Reasons to Oppose the Death Penalty.” Death Penalty Focus. 4 Apr. 2014. Web. 4 Apr.
2014
Murder, a common occurrence in American society, is thought of as a horrible, reprehensible atrocity. Why then, is it thought of differently when the state government arranges and executes a human being, the very definition of premeditated murder? Capital punishment has been reviewed and studied for many years, exposing several inequities and weaknesses, showing the need for the death penalty to be abolished.
Many positions can be defended when debating the issue of capital punishment. In Jonathan Glover's essay "Executions," he maintains that there are three views that a person may have in regard to capital punishment: the retributivist, the absolutist, and the utilitarian. Although Glover recognizes that both statistical and intuitive evidence cannot validate the benefits of capital punishment, he can be considered a utilitarian because he believes that social usefulness is the only way to justify it. Martin Perlmutter on the other hand, maintains the retributivist view of capital punishment, which states that a murderer deserves to be punished because of a conscious decision to break the law with knowledge of the consequences. He even goes as far to claim that just as a winner of a contest has a right to a prize, a murderer has a right to be executed. Despite the fact that retributivism is not a position that I maintain, I agree with Perlmutter in his claim that social utility cannot be used to settle the debate about capital punishment. At the same time, I do not believe that retributivism justifies the death penalty either.
This country is determined to prove that killing someone under certain circumstances is acceptable, when in all reality there can be no rationalization for the taking of another human life. Killing is murder. It is as simple as that. There have been so many different controversies surrounding this debate that often, the issues become clouded in false statistics and slewed arguments. The basic fact remains that killing is morally and ethically wrong. This fact does not disappear by simply changing the term "murder" to "capital punishment". The act is still the taking of a life. On these grounds, the death penalty should be abolished.
“This is not a nice man … innocent is not a word that suits him in any way,” says Brian Webster when speaking of Matthew Poncelet, the man on death row in the movie Dead Man Walking. Many people feel that the death penalty is immoral and it should not be used; however I feel completely opposite. I believe that capital punishment is a fair sentence for a murderer to receive. In the movie Dead Man Walking, the main character Matthew Poncelet, is on death row waiting for the lethal injection that will soon put him to death for good.
One of the most widely debated and criticized methods of punishment in the United States is the Death Penalty. The Death Penalty is an issue that has the United States quite divided. While there are many supporters of it, there is also a large amount of opposition. Currently, there are thirty-three states in which the death penalty is legal and seventeen states that have abolished it according to the Death Penalty Information Center. There is no question that killing another person is the most atrocious criminal act that one can commit. I am not sure why, but it seems that the United States government is being hypocritical when it says that capital punishment is acceptable because a criminal did murder an innocent victim, and therefore should be killed (Philips, 2013). This is rule is known as the "eye-for-an-eye, and tooth-for-a- tooth theory." Of course, if we used this system all the time, there would be no need for laws. A second argument that some people use to support capital punishment is that the fear of being given the death penalty is going to stop criminals from murdering. How many criminals would murder in the first place, even in a state where there is no capital punishment, if they thought there was a chance of getting caught? Most murderers feel that they have a plan to get away with murder (Philips, 2013). Unfortunately, most are right. In response to this I believe that the United States Bill of Rights in the Constitution prohibits cruel an unusual punishment. There is nothing more cruel or unusual than taking someone’s life.
Capital punishment is unconstitutional, and violates human rights; a point of view rarely seen when debating the topic. Everyone talks about deterrence, everyone talks about justice for the victim, but no one seems to remember that even though the person responsible for a crime, whatever the nature of this crime is, is still a human being with constitutional, and human rights just like all of us.
murder rates in given areas both before and after an execution. Clear and cole(2000) have
Recinella, Dale S. "No To The Death Penalty." America 191.13 (2004): 18-20. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Nov. 2013.
One of the most controversial topics that affects the United States and other nations in
At the began as we know the capital punishment is the most popular problem in our world in these days .Meaning of capital punishment is killing someone who killed another one Regardless of whatever reasons, moreover in our life there are several reasons which push killer to do this mistakes .Now in many countries and stasis use this the penalty for justice, on the other hand there are some countries do not use capital punishment for many reasons .For example , they said we have to respect human rights due to put the killer in jail forever ,in additionin some other parts in our world use this Punishment to get a justice as Saudi Arabia ,Iran ,China and USA. Some of the religions tell us to do this Punishment because God's law of the land as Islam, overtime some religion do not use this punishment as Buddhism."The death penalty has been part of human society for millennia, understood to be the ultimate punishment for the most serious crimes". At this point we understand the capital punishment is the biggest mistake and the most serious that cannot be forgiven. The death penalty represents a controversial issue in some cultures.The argument of the supporters of the death penalty in that it deters crime.
Secondly, society has a right to protect itself. If it is obvious, with extensive and substantial proof, that a person is guilty of voluntary first degree murder, then that person should be sentenced to death. Justice must be served. Placing murderers in prison is not a tough enough punishment. In jail they will have a relatively easy lifestyle, free food and housing, no responsibilities. Furthermore, some will have a possible chance for parole. If they happen to make it back out in the world, who is to say he or she would not kill again? This means additional people had to die before these murderers were sentenced to death. Capital punishment provides the greatest justice for the victim and helps alleviate the pain of the victim’s family and friends (Senna and Siegel 432). Those who are against capital punishment say that vengeance is not...
The death penalty has been around for centuries. It dates back to when Hammurabi had his laws codified; it was “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”. Capital punishment in America started when spies were caught, put on trial and hung. In the past and still today people argue that, the death penalty is cruel, unusual punishment and should be illegal. Yet many people argue that it is in fact justifiable and it is not cruel and unusual. Capital punishment is not cruel and unusual; the death penalty is fair and there is evidence that the death penalty deters crime.
Many who disagree with the death penalty believe it is immoral, discriminates, is very expensive, increases crime, and is only a way to carry out revenge. This, however, is not true. Capital punishment should be legal because it is moral, by not allowing criminals to roam the streets once again. It does not discriminate against those of color or the poor, and is actually less expensive than life imprisonment. The most important reason why the death penalty should be legal is because it deters crime.
The American Civil Liberties Union stated "It [capital punishment] is immoral in principle, and unfair and discriminatory in practice... No one deserves to die. When the government metes out vengeance disguised as justice, it becomes complicit with killers in devaluing human life and human dignity. In civilized society, we reject the principle of literally doing to criminals what they do to their victims: The penalty for rape cannot be rape, or for arson, the burning down of the arsonist's house. We should not, therefore, punish the murderer with death... Capital punishment is a barbaric remnant of uncivilized society." Two wrongs don’t make a right; human life is not a learning lesson.
Obviously, capital punishment is ethical and logical, despite what the opposing side may say, capital punishment is actually quite constitutional. The definition of constitutional, according to the Oxford Advanced Dictionary, means “allowed or limited by the laws and guidelines of