Death Penalty Debate on Ethics and Morality

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 quite divided and many have joined the on-going debate on whether or not the U.S.

should utilize this form of punishment. Despite the fact that most industrialized, westernized countries have rid themselves of the death penalty, and despite the fact that many argue cruelty and lack of civilized due process in utilizing such punishment, many of those who uphold the death penalty claim that it does work, especially in deterring criminals. The three articles presented below were thus retrieved in order to conduct further research on this issue and examine what beliefs are still held and why, from both the pro and against camps.

In choosing the three articles, the search topic was capital punishment. The ____ (School Name) Library provided over 300 results for this topic. When I tried typing death penalty, the same number of results appeared. However, I noticed that these results were not organized chronologically and thus decided to organize the search results by date, with the most recent first. This helped, as it narrowed down the research done in the past ten years.

I decided to choose the subject of capital punishment solely and not focus on any of the justice or forensics aspects presented, and chose the three most recent and most pertinent articles within this subject. The first article is entitled "A balanced study of the death penalty," and is written by Paul Rosenberg of the Denver Post. This article is aimed to give the reader a small glimpse into the extensive history of the death penalty in the U.S. from an objective standpoint.

The author does not argue either for or against the practice, but simply elucidates the process and why it has existed in this country for so long, and in such different way in many of today's states. The most important piece of information in this piece is the author's explanation of why some states still choose to utilize the death penalty. For instance, southern states, many of which still utilize capital punishment, are traditionally believed to follow old English law (which placed a great stress upon this form of 'deterrence').

Furthermore, the South is also known to have deep seated prejudices against African-Americans, many of whom were hanged in executions in the past and thus, the South maintains the tradition despite skin color. This author thus presents a very good reason as to why this form of punishment differs so greatly in the United States, which is very helpful in understanding how the states enact various laws, and certainly tradition has a huge impact upon this.

The second article is entitled "Why the death penalty still exists in the U.S.," and is written by Kenneth Cooper of the Boston Globe. Cooper presents the reader with a very different view of the subject, and aims to argue why the death penalty still exists and gives, as an answer, the power of racism in the U.S. In upholding this form of punishment.

He makes the following point repeatedly: "…the death penalty's evolution has been shaped by the emergence of thought that values individuals, including the convicted; a bourgeois refinement that recoils at bloody scenes; and a penal system that has made executions as a matter of punishment, not sovereign will." Cooper thus maintains, from this quote, that those utilizing the death penalty are uncivilized, old-fashioned, and racist, as well as follow outdated traditions (i.e. those southern states that still utilized the death penalty).

In fact, he states that there is no reason for this utilization in the 35 states that uphold capital punishment, and the federal government. He claims this because he does not believe that this form of punishment deters, as U.S. crime rates are much higher than those of European countries, for instance, many of.