Imagine a man sitting in a room blindfolded with his legs and arms tied. Suddenly about 2,000 volts of electricity causes his body to convulse uncontrollably. Five seconds later it’s over and this man is dead. He wasn’t a victim of a random crime nor is he being tortured. What was just described is perfectly legal in America. It was the harshest penalty the American justice system can administer. Capital punishment does not seem to when described in this manner; it sounds like a scene described from a horror movie. Many nations have replaced this primeval system of punishment with life imprisonment. The death penalty is not a solution to heinous crimes, and humanity should abdicate its use as a form of punishment.
The death penalty
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In truth, though, it does not seem to deter crime at all. The death penalty does not act as a deterrent because the majority of people committing the crimes, such as murder, do not calculate the probability of getting sentenced to death. . In fact, the murder rate in the United States is five-six times higher than both Britain and Australia; both countries have abolished capital punishment. Texas’s murder rate is twice that of Wisconsin, a state which does not have the capital punishment. Both Texas and Oklahoma have historically executed the most number of inmates, yet in 2003 their state murder rates increased, and both have murder rates higher than the national average (Reasons to be against the death penalty"). As Freedman points out, “[Criminals] may be severely mentally disturbed…like Ted Bundy, who chose Florida for his final crimes because it had a death penalty.” This man, Ted Bundy, went to Florida knowing that after he committed his crimes, he would be given the death penalty. Clearly to him being killed was better than spending life in prison. Who can blame him though? Sitting in a dark cell all day long thinking about what they did and realizing how wrong they were, would cause insanity in the majority of society. Some might argue this claim saying that the being put to death is worse than being in prison for life. Although this is somewhat a matter of opinion, studies have …show more content…
Some serial killers, such as Gary Ridgway in Seattle who admitted killing 48 prostitutes and runaways and also an "angel of death" nurse who admitted killing 17 people, receive life in prison. Meanwhile, mentally ill and impoverished murderers who could not afford good lawyers or did not receive much media attention are given the death penalty. One case stated on Antideathpenalty.org that in Alabama, David Hocker was executed after a one-day trial. His mental illness was not sufficiently described to the jury. They also cited another case in Alabama where James Hubbard, a 74-year-old man who had been on death row for 27 years was executed. Hubbard was beset by medical problems which would have probably soon caused his death by natural means: cancer, high blood pressure and the early stages of Alzheimer’s. Another case in Texas, involved a man, Kelsey Patterson, who had schizophrenia. He was executed even after the Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended clemency after learning of his time spent in mental hospitals and his unintelligible rambling. On average per year, there are about 20,000 murders and about 15,000 arrests are made. Of those 15,000 arrest only about 14,000 murder cases are actually taken to court; some are not because not all cases have enough evidence. Only 10,000 of those 14,000 are convicted. And within those that convicted only
Randa, Laura E. “Society’s Final Solution: A History and Discussion of the Death Penalty.” (1997). Rpt.in History of the Death Penalty. Ed. Michael H. Reggio. University Press of America, Inc., 1997. 1-6 Print.
Koch, Larry Wayne, John F Galliher, and Colin Wark, The Death of the American Death Penalty : States Still Leading the Way. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2012, Ebscohost Ebook.
Andre, Claire, and Manuel Velasquez. “Capital Punishment.” Our Duty or Our Doom. 12 May 2010. 30 May 2010 .
Narration: was “fraught with errors.” He added that “until I can assure that everyone sentenced to death in Illinois is truly guilty, until I can be sure with moral certainty that no innocent man or woman is facing a lethal injection, no one will meet that fate.”
The Death Penalty Should Be Enacted In Illinois Due to the recent releases of newly exonerated Death Row inmates, individuals and organizations are calling for a moratorium- a cooling off period for state executions. The cases of just a few inmates makes it apparent that this would be a necessary step to save innocent lives. After 17 years in prison, Illinois Death Row inmate Anthony Porter was released from jail after a judge threw out his murder conviction following the introduction of new evidence. This reversal of fortune came just two days before Porter was to be executed. As reported in USA Today, Porter's release was the result of investigative research as conducted by a Northwestern University professor and students. The evidence gathered suggested that Porter had been wrongly convicted. Were these new revelations and the subsequent release of Porter a lucky break or a freak occurrence? Not likely, reports DeWayne Wickham, also of USA Today. He points out that since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the United States in 1976, of those sentenced to death, 490 people have been executed while 76 have been freed from Death Row. This calculates into one innocent person being released from Death Row for every six individuals that were executed. This figure correlates with the 1996 U.S. Department of Justice report that indicates that over a 7-year period, beginning in 1989, when DNA evidence in various cases was tested, 26% of primary suspects were exonerated. This has led some to conclude that a similar percentage of inmates presently serving time behind bars may have been wrongly convicted prior to the advent o...
Mappes, Thomas A., Jane S. Zembaty, and David DeGrazia. "The Death Penalty." Social Ethics: Morality and Social Policy. 8th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. 105-53. Print.
“The case Against the Death Penalty.” aclu.org. American Civil Liberties Union, 2012. Web. 12 Feb. 2013
"The Case Against the Death Penalty." American Civil Liberties Union. The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU Foundation., 2011. Web. 01 Nov. 2014.
One of the major problems many have with capital punishment is the cost. Death penalty trials are very complicated with many important parts, and as a result the death penalty is extremely expensive. Studies have shown that a “death-penalty trial costs $1 million more than one in which prosecutors seek life without parole (Barnes 1 of 2).” Duke University studied North Carolina’s death penalty and found that the state spent more, $2.1 million dollars more, on a death penalty case than a case seeking a life sentence (Barnes 1 of 2). Between 1995 and 2004, New York spent over $170 million dollars without executing a single prisoner (Costs 3 of 5). Death row prisoners are deemed dangerous to society and other prisoners, and so they are classified as maximum custody. This means that they are kept in a cell by themselves. Keeping prisoners on death row costs $90,000 more per year than regular confinement due to single cell housing and the extra guards that are needed in those prisons (Barnes 2 of 2). Security for the death row inmates is greatly increased which adds about 100,000 dollars to the cost of incarcerating each death row prisoner (Williams 1 of 2). California’s 714 capital prisoners cost $184 million more per year than those sentenced to life without parole. Capital crime cases have many aspects which increases the cost. Qualified lawyers are needed to work on these cases, and due to the limited amount of capable attorneys, the prisoners are forced to wait to have an attorney assigned to their case (Williams 2 of 2). These special state appointed attorneys cost the state up to $300,000 to represent each death row inmate on appeal (Williams 1 of 2). The long wait drives up the cost of the case along with the increase of time ...
D’Alembe, Talbot “Understanding the Death Penalty Study Commission Report” Raising the Bar in Capital Cases. 34.2 ( 2007): n.pag. Web. 24 Jul 2014.
Use of the Death Penalty is inhumane. Most Americans view the death penalty as taking a life for taking a life. Lauri Friedman quotes Pat Bane when he states, “In the aftermath of a murder, a family has two things to deal with-a crime and a death. The death pen...
Bedau, H. A. (2004). Killing as Punishment:Reflections on the Death Penalty in America. York, Pennsylvania. Maple Press. Northeastern University Press. Print
Van Den Haag, Earnest, and John Conrad. The Death Penalty: A Debate. New York: Plenum Press, 1997.
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, ...