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The injustice of the American judicial system
History behind capital punishment
Justice of the death penalty
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Capital punishment is, by definition, punishing a crime with death. The death penalty has been used periodically throughout American history since 1608, when the first recorded death sentence was imposed. According to "Executions in the U.S.: The Espy File," by M. Walt Espy and John Ortiz Smylka, there was a gradual incline in the number of executions from that time and throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, peaking at 200 executions per year in the mid-1930s. There was a subsequent decline in imposition, followed by a moratorium, which ended in 1976 (1). The moratorium was initiated in the 1972 case Furman v. Georgia, when the Supreme Court declared that the death penalty had been applied arbitrarily and used unfairly against the poor and African American. Capital punishment was called, "excessive, unnecessary, offensive to contemporary values" by Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (3). The death penalty was reinstated in 1976 when guided discretion statutes in Georgia, Texas, and Florida were deemed constitutional by the Supreme Court. The Court also deemed the death penalty constitutional under the Eighth Amendment, which states, "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted." The question, then, is whether or not capital punishment can really be cleared of the identification as being cruel and unusual. The basis of the American judicial system has long been said to be the need to find fair forms of retribution for crimes. The worst of those crimes is generally considered to be the intentional mur...
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...dollars since the moratorium ended in 1976 (1). The death penalty is one instance in which the costs definitely outweigh the benefits.
As it stands, the death penalty should no longer be used in America because it is riddled with imperfections in so many ways. Capital punishment does not serve as an effective incapacitator or deterrent to criminal behavior. It is an inhumane and costly procedure that dehumanizes American culture. As a nation that practices this flawed form of discipline we are isolated from our Western culture counterparts, and the fact that we continue this practice reduces America's credibility as a global leader. In order to place the American judicial system - and culture as a whole - where it belongs on all levels, the system of capital punishment must be abolished.
Many people are led to believe that the death penalty doesn’t occur very often and that very few people are actually killed, but in reality, it’s quite the opposite. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1,359 people have been executed as a result of being on death row since 1977 to 2013. Even though this form of punishment is extremely controversial, due to the fact that someone’s life is at stake, it somehow still stands to this very day as our ultimate form of punishment. Although capital punishment puts murderers to death, it should be abolished because killing someone who murdered another, does not and will not make the situation any better in addition to costing tax payers millions of dollars.
In 1972, the Furman v. Georgia case temporarily caused capital punishment in the United States to cease until distinct guidelines about the crimes that required the death penalty were written. Until states revised their laws, capital punishment was ruled cruel and unusual punishment. Before Furman, there were no clearly defined laws about what constituted capital punishment, so the process to sentence a capital criminal was much faster and easier. By adding an appeal system, most states permitted capital punishment once again, but the prisoner’s time spent on death row drastically increased. Adding an appeal system did not make killing a human being any less cruel and unusual; in fact, ordering a person to live in fear, uncertainty, and agony for an even longer period of time is crueler than quickly ending the
Capital Punishment Essays - For the Common Good. Putting to death people judged to have committed certain extreme Terrible crimes are a practice of ancient standing, but in the United States. in the second 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 upheld it in 1977. The 'Standard' of the 'Standard' Although capital punishment is what the people want, there are many.
Since 1967, a total of 1392 executions have occurred in the United States ("Executions by Year"). What a shocking amount! This staggering number creates questioning on the topic of capital punishment. Is the death penalty really constitutional? Research and study over the topic leads to the conclusion that capital punishment should not be instituted in the United States for various reasons. The death penalty is immoral, unconstitutional, and inaccurate due to human errors.
Many call capital punishment unconstitutional and point to the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution for support. The amendment states that, "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines be imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment be inflicted." Those who oppose the death penalty target the 'cruel and unusual' phrase as an explanation of why it is unconstitutional. Since the Framers of the Constitution are no longer with us and we base our nation on the words in which that document contains, the legality of the death penalty is subject to interpretation. Since there is some ambiguity or lack of preciseness in the Constitution, heated debate surrounding this issue has risen in the last ten years.
There was a study in Maryland that took a closer look of murder cases between 1978 and 1999. The estimated lifetime costs that taxpayers will have to pay for these capitally-prosecuted cases will be $186 million (Roman et al.). The study also
Costs vary ranging from an additional twenty-five thousand dollars to as high as One million dollars. This is astronomical coming from a nation in debt. We either need to figure out a way that allows the people save money on putting people to death who break society 's rules then leech money away or we need to stop it all together. This would be the only logical reason to prevent the death penalty from being implemented, but as shown above there are lackluster aspects to the system. Even when a decision is made our government doesn’t take the best coarse of action when trying to follow through on the
The death penalty has been around since the time of Jesus Christ. Executions have been recorded from the 1600s to present times. From about 1620, the executions by year increased in the US. It has been a steady increase up until the 1930s; later the death penalty dropped to zero in the 1970s and then again rose steadily. US citizens said that the death penalty was unconstitutional because it was believed that it was "cruel and unusual" punishment (Amnesty International). In the 1970s, the executions by year dropped between zero and one then started to rise again in the 1980s. In the year 2000, there were nearly one hundred executions in the US (News Batch). On June 29, 1972, the death penalty was suspended because the existing laws were no longer convincing. However, four years after this occurred, several cases came about in Georgia, Florida, and Texas where lawyers wanted the death penalty. This set new laws in these states and later the Supreme Court decided that the death penalty was constitutional under the Eighth Amendment (Amnesty International).
Almost all nations in the world either have the death sentence or have had it at one time. It was used in most cases to punish those who broke the laws or standards that were expected of them. Since the death penalty wastes tax money, is inhumane, and is largely unnecessary it should be abolished in every state across the United States. The use of the death penalty puts the United States in the same category as countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia which are two of the world’s worst human rights violators (Friedman 34). Lauri Friedman quotes, “Executions simply inject more violence into an already hostile American society.”
Americans have argued over the death penalty since the early days of our country. In the United States only 38 states have capital punishment statutes. As of year ended in 1999, in Texas, the state had executed 496 prisoners since 1930. The laws in the United States have change drastically in regards to capital punishment. An example of this would be the years from 1968 to 1977 due to the nearly 10 year moratorium. During those years, the Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment violated the Eight Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. However, this ended in 1976, when the Supreme Court reversed the ruling. They stated that the punishment of sentencing one to death does not perpetually infringe the Constitution. Richard Nixon said, “Contrary to the views of some social theorists, I am convinced that the death penalty can be an effective deterrent against specific crimes.”1 Whether the case be morally, monetarily, or just pure disagreement, citizens have argued the benefits of capital punishment. While we may all want murders off the street, the problem we come to face is that is capital punishment being used for vengeance or as a deterrent.
Through Apple’s innovative enterprise approach, we seek to generate personal computing products which have higher quality at lower unit costs than the previously available one. In order to manage projects effectively in the program,
Microsoft was able in the OS segment to double their revenue per PC when Windows 3.x emerged which still needed MS-DOS to run. Most of the sales Microsoft made were to OEMs who would take the additional step of installing Windows on a computer’s hard drive. This strategy was effective in that the cost of production was relatively low, as an OEM may only need a single master copy to do the installation. The costs to Microsoft would largely be bore in R&D expense rather than production. As part of the Microsoft business model for this segment, Microsoft designed their OS to need periodic upgrades. The upgrades did come at a cost, and in essence, Microsoft was able to create an “annuity” stream for the Microsoft OS segment. In this segment, Microsoft had a monopolistic structure that allowed them to realize huge returns, especially during such a period of technological growth and rapid obsol...
Wi-Fi (Wireless Network) or 802.11 networking is a phenomenal way of providing Internet wirelessly at a low cost. Using radio waves, a wireless network connects a PC, mobile phone or just about anything that connects to the internet wirelessly by a router. By transmitting signals at 2.4 or 5 GHz it allows the waves to transmit more data at a faster rate. Typical Wi-Fi standards are 802.11a, b, g, n, or ac and they can switch up the frequency depending on the model (Brain). Families can create their own wireless network that can be shared between family members without the use of hooking all their devices up to the modem and can also protect their home network from potential hackers with the use of a TKIP or AES encryption. Businesses can also create a “hotspot” which is an area that has wireless networks for free or at a set fee. This is extremely convenient for commuters that need internet access while they are at work, waiting on a plane, or just sitting at a coffee spot without the need for wires(Cox).
However, on the other hand, to execute death penalty is also costly. In the article, “Death Penalty Is Too Expensive for States, Study Find”, Warren Richey mentioned about the cost of death penalty. For example, in the article, he said “New York spent $170 million over nine years on capital cases before repealing the death penalty. No executions were carried out there. New Jersey spent $253 million over 25 years with no executions.” He also menti...
The death penalty is an economically wasteful method of punishment. It has been calculated that “if the death penalty was extinguished…we could save $11 million a year” (Locke). While this may not seem a significant sum, ...