Over decades society has questioned whether or not Capital punishment; also known as the Death penalty, is justice or injustice. From the perspective of philosopher John Rawls; justice should be described as“ a fair system of arrangements; one that the parties can agree to without knowing how it will benefit them personally” , therefor the death penalty is justice because it creates equality between the crime and its punishment. In other words “ an eye for an eye.” In the Unites States criminals can only be sentenced to death if he or she has committed a Capital crime. US Legal states that capital crimes include first degree murder (premeditated), murder with special circumstances (such as intentional, multiple, involved with another crime, with guns, of a police officer, or a repeat offense), and rape with additional bodily harm, and the federal crime of treason or betrayal of your country. The United States has never not known Capital punishment. According to the Death Penalty Information Center Capital Punishment has been around from the time the United States was formed; in 1776. Although Capital Punishment is legal in the United States not all states believe in punishment by death. Only thirty-five of the fifty states enforce the death penalty. The other fifteen states support a life sentence without parole (Death Penalty Information Center, 2010). The individual states can choose how to punish their criminals however they feel is appropriate for their crime however the states that do not have that choice include: Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia,and Wisconsin (Death Penalty Information Center).
Many people that are against Capital punishment must not fully understand this penalty because if they were to fully understand it they would not be against it. For example if you're starving to death and see a can of soup, of course you'd take it, because it would save your life. Well what if you didn't understand that the can of soup would save your life…you'd die! thats the same for understanding Capital Punishment, why pass up on something that would potentially save you? Therefore to survive, you ( society) will need to obtain a full understanding of Capital punishment and to do so, society will need to know the history, different debates and studies, and of course the pros and cons. In the criminal justice system Capital punishment is not only a punishment; it also provides an example to the rest of society to deter from crime, brings the victim and their loved ones peace, and shows morality.
The death penalty has been around for centuries, it can be traced all the way back to biblical times. For example, the first death penalty laws dates back to 399 B.C. when the Greek Philosopher Socrates was convicted for corrupting the morals of the youth and sentenced to death by drinking a hemlock-based liquid (a highly poisonous European plant). In the fifth century B.C. when the Romans used the law of the laws of the Twelve Tablets people could be put to death for any crime. During this time death sentences were carried out in various forms: some being crucifixion , - nailing or binding the criminal to a cross-, drowning, beating to death, burning alive and impalement - stabbed with a stake, pole, spear, or hook and then left to bleed to death. In the tenth century A.D. William the Conqueror, the first Norman King of England would not allow anybody to be put to death for any crime, unless in a time of war. However, he did allow criminals to be mutilated for their crimes. When someone is mutilated there is sever damage done to the body, this was used as a punishment because it would be so severe that it would “ruin” the beauty of body.
In the sixteenth century A.D. Henry VIII made up for all the lost time in not executing people by having as many as 72,000 people executed during his reign as king. Around this time citizens were most commonly executed for going against the church, witchcraft, and murder. During executions King Henry VIII would make executions a public event. All of the town’s people would gather to watch the criminal be put to death. A common execution method for a poor criminal was quartering. This consisted of the prisoner's limbs being tied to four oxen, then the animals were driven in four different directions ripping the person apart. Upper-class criminals could buy their way into a less painful death by hanging or beheading. Doctor Joseph Ignace Guillotin wanted to banish the death penalty completely but because that was just not going to happen he argued for a painless method of execution; that would allow equality for all the classes. Guillotin created a machine in which the criminal would lay their neck in a slot and a diagonal blade rather than a round one would come down with great force, causing a quick and painless death.
The execution of someone convicted for witchcraft is different from other executions. Witches were burned at the stake; the executioner tied a rope around her neck when she was tied to the stake. When the flames reached her she could be strangled from outside the ring of fire. Unfortunately, this often failed and many were literally burnt alive. As time went by and America was developed the European settlers came to the new world and bringing the practice of capital punishment along with them. The first recorded execution in America was of Captain George Kendall in the Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1608; Kendall was executed for be being a spy for Spain. In 1632 Jane Champion was hung in the Virginia colony for a reason that is unknown. Hangings seemed to have been the main form of execution in the colonies. In 1665 the New York colony set the Dukes Laws in motion. while under the Dukes Laws citizens could be put to death for hitting your mother or father, or denying the “True God”, pre-meditated murder, killing an unarmed man, killing by lying in wait or by poisoning, sodomy( being intimate with someone of the same sex), kidnapping, perjury( lying while under oath), going against the king, and conspiracy to invade towns or forts in the colony.
Deterrence is often contrasted with retributivism, which holds that punishment is a necessary consequence of a crime and should be calculated based on the gravity of the wrong done. John Lamperti, Professor of at Dartmouth College suggested that capital punishment provides added protection to police or to prison guards, and a number of states which have abolished capital punishment for "ordinary" murder retain it for the killing of police or prison staff. This sort of deterrence has been investigated several times, and no evidence was found that absence of capital punishment makes police or prison work more dangerous.One survey did, however, confirm that police in death penalty states believe it contributes to their safety. Interestingly, the same survey showed police in the abolition states believing by almost the same margin that absence of capital punishment did not add to the hazards of their jobs. Cesare Beccaria's 1767 essay, On Crimes and Punishment, had a strong impact throughout the world. In the essay, Beccaria's theory was that there is no justification for the state's taking of a life and that life imprisonment is more of a deterrence rather than death because death is short whereas life is not. In 1983 Dr. Ernest Van Den Haag states in his article “For the Death Penalty.” for the New York Times that “Common sense, lately bolstered by statistics, tells us that the death penalty will deter murder... People fear nothing more than death. Therefore, nothing will deter a criminal more than the fear of death... life in prison is less feared. Murderers clearly prefer it to execution -- otherwise, they would not try to be sentenced to life in prison instead of death... Therefore, a life sentence must be less deterrent than a death sentence.” Dudley Sharp, Death Penalty Resource Director states that the test for deterrence is not whether executions produce lower murder rates, but that executions produce fewer murders than if the death penalty did not exist. For example, the argument that murderers are the least likely of all criminals to repeat their crimes is not only irrelevant, but also increasingly false. 6% of young adults paroled in 1978 after having been convicted of murder were arrested for murder again within 6 years of release. ("Recidivism of Young Parolees," 4, 1987, BJS). If theses murderers were sentenced to death the first time then their second act would have never happened. According to Isaac Ehrlich's study, published on April 16, 1976, eight murders are deterred for each execution that is carried out in the U.S.A. He goes on to say, "If one 8 execution of a guilty capital murderer deters the murder of one innocent life, the execution is justified.” The Eighth amendment states that “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” Many critics of the death penalty argue that it is unconstitutional because it violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against "cruel and unusual" punishments. The U.S. Supreme Court has determined that a penalty must be equal to the crime; otherwise, the punishment violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishments. There are many interpretations for the meaning of "cruel and unusual", but generally the term "cruel" is defined as excessively painful or brutal. Punishments such as torture and dismemberment seem to clearly fall under this heading. However “ Death row is a grisly laboratory, the ultimate experimental stress, in which the prisoner's personality is incredibly brutalized." (Washington Research Project, 30) Many death row prisoners eventually fall into psychosis under the stress. A prisoner of unsound mind can not be executed, so their psychosis delays their execution. Flanagan shares the story of a name named Henry McCracken, a condemned sex murderer, fell into a "self-induced hypnotic condition caused by fear of his impending execution..." The execution was put on hold and McCracken was given electric shock treatments. Once he showed improvement, stopped imagining rabbits and cats in his cell, straightened out his personal habits, and began playing the guitar. The successful treatment meant that the hold on his execution must be removed; McCracken was sane and ready to be killed." (Washington Research Project, 31). After criminals are sentenced to death they have time to contemplate on their life and actions before they are actually executed and in that time people consider it to be psychological torture to have to endure the time that you wait for your death. As for ”Unusual" it has been understood to mean a punishment that is not usually connected with a particular crime, which is rarely applied in some cases. The death penalty has been around for so long that the United states has never not known the death penalty. therefore it would be “ unusual” to ban it.
Today in the United States, all states and the federal government use lethal injection as the main method of execution. Utah is the only state in the United States that not only uses lethal injection as a form of execution but the state also offers firing squad as well. Jennifer Dobner of the Huffington post stated that “Ronnie Lee Gardner, 49, was given the choice of being killed by lethal injection or shot by a five-man team of executioners firing from a set of matched rifles – a rarely used method of execution that harkens back to Utah's territorial history. "I would like the firing squad, please," Gardner told state court Judge Robin Reese” Gardner became Utah's first execution since 1999 and the third man to be killed by a firing squad in the state since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. As for Utah and the other thirty-seven states most use a three-drug protocol; others use a single-drug process. The three-drug protocol uses an anesthetic, followed by pancuronium bromide to paralyze the criminal, and potassium chloride to stop the inmate's heart. The one-drug protocol uses a lethal dose of an anesthetic. Both forms of lethal injection are painless on the criminal; therefore this rules out cruelty. Unusual can also be ruled out because Capital punishment has been around since before the U.S. was created. It would be unusual if capital punishment was not around.
Many believe that it cost more to execute a criminal then it does to sentence them to life in prison. Opponents say that the cost of the death penalty is so expensive, at least two million dollars per case and say that we must choose life without parole at a cost of one million dollars for fifty years. According to the webpage Justice for All it is estimated that life without parole will cost one point two million dollars through three point six million dollars more than equivalent death penalty cases.Life without parole prisoners faces on average of thirty or forty years in prison while the annual cost of incarceration in forty thousand dollars to fifty thousand dollars a year for each prisoner (Lowe)Opponents claim that life without parole should replace the death penalty. Therefore, any cost calculations should be based specifically on cell costs for criminals who have committed the exact same category of offense.the average cell cost is twenty four thousand dollars per year and the maximum security cell cost is seventy five thousand dollars per year. This means cost comparisons are valid only if you compare the costs of death penalty to life without parole cases to the cost of death penalty cases. After doing all the math life without parole cases appear to be extremely more expensive, over time, than the death penalty cases. For years, opponents have improperly compared the cost of all life without parole cases to death penalty cases.
Kevin Flanagan of Wooster Polytechnical Institute states “ Opponents of the death penalty have a distinct advantage when arguing their point over advocates…the fact that taking the life of another is immoral, and if you remove all outstanding circumstances capital punishment is nothing more than legalized murder.” Flanagan does make a good point however it is not good enough because the odds are that the criminal is being executed for murder. Flanagan also states that “capital punishment is immoral it is the idea that it creates a climate of violence. If a society punishes a murderer by murdering them what are we saying about violence? Our society teaches its children that violence does not solve anything.” not only are the children learning that violence does not solve anything but they also learn that bad actions receive consequences. As for “society punishes a murderer by murdering them” opponents of the death penalty then find that Capital punishment is hypocritical because the law states that we as a society can not take the life of another human being but here we are taking the lives of criminals.
As a country we can not take the religious stand out of the picture because our nation was founded on religion alone. In Genesis chapter 9 verse 6 when Jesus was steeped in the Old Testament, he demanded that: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed” and in Leviticus chapter 24 verse 17 it states “ Anyone who takes the life of a human being is to be put to death.” The bible is the law book of the world, not just our country. Therefore we are not hypocritical nor are we violent we are punishing those who need to be punished.
Ethical, philosophical and religious values are essential in the continuous debate over capital punishment. Nevertheless, evidence can and should inform policy making.The justice system is a complicated area of government; not all states enforce the death penalty, because criminal punishment is a subject left for the states to decide (Banner, 2002) There are multiple methods of execution available to enforce the death penalty; different states enforce different methods, even multiple methods. For centuries Capital Punishment has served the purpose of not only a punishment; it also provides an example to the rest of society to deter from crime, brings the victim and their loved ones peace, and shows morality.
In this paper I have surveyed not only the history of Capital punishment, but the pros and cons of both side of the debate. When I started this paper I was unsure which side of the spectrum I fell under, which is one of the reasons I chose this topic. I had to ask myself the question, other than in self defense is it okay to take another persons life? After reading case after case of of some of the worlds most heinous criminals, and seeing what happens when uncontrolled desires take over, I have to say yes. If for no other reason than because I am religious person, and believe that anyone who takes a life should lay down their own. As a supporter of capital punishment I hope that you now have a full understanding on the history, different debates and studies, and of course the pros and cons. Capital punishment is a good punishment ; all states should enforce it so that one day our country will be a safer country.
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