Capital punishment for murder: citizen and government perspectives

Criminal Justice - Capital Punishment

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: PUBLIC OPINION SURVEY Abstract:

Capital punishment has been abolished in many parts of the world. In the United States, the penal systems of most of the individual American states still incorporate capital punishment for certain types of murder. Ethical controversy exists over the imposition of the death penalty on the basis of global consensus and several specific constitutional issues in the U.S. In principle, it is likely that capital punishment can be applied constitutionally, and in a much broader sense, ethically, as well. Ultimately, the strongest argument against capital punishment in the U.S. is simply that there are insufficient safeguards against erroneous conviction as well as against the purely accidental infliction of torturous suffering during the execution process. Background and History of the Issues:

Until relatively modern times, capital punishment was a form of punishment practiced throughout the civilized world. In addition to being prescribed for the crime of murder, various societies also imposed it for numerous other crimes, including instances detailed in the Judeo-Christian Bible. By the end of the 20th century, comparatively few nations still maintain capital punishment, although several presently impose it for crimes such as drug smuggling and homosexuality, in addition to murder. The United Nations is formally opposed to capital punishment, but its opposition does not carry the weight of international law and is not binding on its member nations (Lancet, 2008).

In the United States, the historical controversies have centered around five specific issues: (1) the constitutionality of punitive killing; (2) the constitutional definition of "cruel and unusual"; (3) the constitutionality of disproportionate application to minorities and to the poor; (4) the prospect of error in administration that result in cruelty; and (5) the prospect of erroneous conviction (Dershowitz, 2002). In addition, the fact that most countries represented by the United Nations have voted to abolish capital punishment now places the U.S. among the minority of nations that still permit it as a form of criminal penalty (Lancet, 2008).

Some of the ethical issues have been satisfactorily resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court, but others still complicate the justification for its continued use in the minds of many. Similarly, as so many other nations move away from condoning the imposition of death as a criminal punishment, many Americans worry that capital punishment in this country undermines our efforts to maintain international respect and prestige, especially among our allies, but also in conjunction with our inspiring worldwide cooperation in our long-term foreign interests (Lancet, 2008). Domestic Concerns and Public Opinion:

The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly rejected state laws that impose the death penalty for crimes that do not result in the death of the victim; most recently, the matter took the form of striking down Texas legislation that sought to apply the death penalty for the crime of child rape (Elliot, 2008; Sherman, 2008). However, even with the restriction of capital punishment to crimes involving murder, several issues still remain that contribute heavily to public opinion.

Specifically, the methods used for execution in several states are susceptible to errors capable of causing extreme and prolonged suffering too often. That is because lethal injection involves the administration of several different intravenous drugs in a precise order; mistakes in the sequence can cause the condemned person to suffocate slowly while paralyzed instead of dying nearly instantaneously after the heart is stopped, as intended (Kaveny, 2008).

Another basis for moral concern expressed by many people is that poverty and minority racial classification are both statistically linked to higher conviction rates and capital sentences than non-minority citizens with financial resources (Schmalleger, 2001). Furthermore, DNA-based forensic techniques are now being applied to evidence preserved after its use at criminal trial decades ago. In several highly publicized instances, convict have been released from death row or from life sentences after serving many years for crimes that they never committed. In some cases, had the state involved still had the death penalty on its books, individuals wrongfully sentenced to life imprisonment would have been executed (Friedman, 2005).