¶ … Capital Punishment and Who Gets to Decide the Final Law.
Capital punishment is the act of executing a person found guilty (in a court of law) of committing a particular crime. Capital punishment can only be utilized by governments, so in cases where non-state parties 'execute' an individual and claim it is capital punishment, it is not, and in that case, the parties will have committed murder. Capital punishment is often only utilized as a punishment for very serious crimes, such as rape, adultery, certain types of fraud, and treason. These crimes are referred to as capital crimes. Though many nations have outlawed capital punishment, many countries around the globe still allow it (BBC, n.d.). Statistics revealed in May 2012 by the global human rights group, Amnesty International, reveal that as many as 141 nations have abolished capital punishment either by law or practice (Amnesty International, 2012).
Some of the States across the U.S. still allow capital punishment. Public support for the practice is, however, increasingly waning in the United States. More than 50% of Americans now prefer alternative forms of punishment (Amnesty International, 2012). There are different reasons as to why the American public...
Some of the reasons for the abolishment of capital punishment are discussed below.
Many religions and individuals stress that all life is precious. The majority of the people against capital punishment are of the opinion that human life is so precious that even the most evil individuals shouldn't be killed. Many individuals opine that the value of an individual's life cannot be diminished or destroyed by the individual's evil acts even if he or she has raped or murdered someone. However, some of those who want to abolish capital punishment don't agree. They argue that human life ought to be preserved only to the extent that there is a justifiable reason not to, and that government should justify its reasons not preserve a convicted criminal's life (BBC, n.d.).
One of the most important and valid arguments against the death penalty is that if states continue practicing capital punishment, an innocent individual will soon be executed because of faulty legal processes. Judges, jurors, witnesses, prosecutors and law enforcement personnel can all commit errors. In cases where states have not abolished the death penalty, such errors cannot be rectified. There is credible proof that such errors can occur, for instance in the United States alone, some 130 individuals who had been found guilty and sentenced to death have been found innocent (BBC, n.d.)(Amnesty International, 2012).
According to Amnesty International (2012), research shows that over 77% of the individuals who have been sentenced to death were convicted for killing white individuals…
Capital Punishment Solitary confinement represents one among the best means of keeping modern-day prisoners from communication and conflict, but has the most injurious effects on their health. Individuals imprisoned in conditions of solitary confinement demonstrate more psychotic behavior compared to normal prisoners; this includes higher rate of suicides (Thesis Statement). After a prisoner loses his/her mental capacity of understanding the reason for his/her imprisonment or punishment, subjecting him/her to solitary confinement
However, sociologists argue that the retributive justice theory suffers due to the lack of appreciation of circumstantial causes involved in the commission of crime. By counting 'free will' as the only factor involved in a crime the deontological thinking lacks in the comprehensive analysis of criminal behavior. For instance the disproportionate number of crimes by the economically disadvantaged African-Americans when compared to Caucasians is a clear instance for external
[DPIC] Similarly, many other researches were conducted but failed to offer any conclusive evidence as to the effectiveness of capital punishment in deterring crimes. The lack of consistency in these results presents a complex problem before us in evaluating the utilitarian value of death penalty. One more aspect to be considered under the utilitarian thought is the cost of executions. It is well-known that the legal cost of executions in
As such, it is unlikely to change in light of knowledge or information about the death penalty and its administration" (Vollum & Buffington-Vollum, p. 30). Furthermore, "those who scored higher on value-expressive attitudes were less accepting of information critical of the death penalty and, in turn, less likely to change their views in light of the information presented." Thus, the widespread support of the death penalty in the face
Death Penalty An on-going Debate on Ethics and Morality The debate on whether the death penalty, or capital punishment, should be utilized in the United States is best seen in the varied laws that exist within each state. For this reason, many states, most of which are in the northern parts of the country are against capital punishment, while many southern states support this kind of a law. The U.S. map is
[James fieser] We also have to assess the 'proportionality of happiness' factor in determining if capital punishment is justifiable in a particular case. That is to say that if the execution of a prisoner will save the lives of many people capital punishment can be approved in such cases. Let us for instance take the example of a captured terrorist or a suicide bomber. In this case it is