Aliyah-De’Ja Gordon
Dr. Moore
ENGL-1301 SY1
5 December 2017
A Life for a Life: Just or Unjust ?
Thomas Jefferson once said, “The care for human life and happiness, and not their destruction is the first and only object of good government. Did you know there has been 1,465 executions through the death penalty. Much controversy surrounds the death penalty. The idea of killing someone in punishment of a crime seems just to many, but others are against it. In fact, the death penalty is wrong and should be made illegal in America.
Studies show that the death penalty is not deterrent to crime. Despite this, many feel that capital punishment is a good idea. It’s obvious that mistakes are made and innocent people have been sentenced to death. More than 155 death row inmates have been exonerated since 1973. That being said, Professor Brandon L. Garrett at the University of Virginia Law published a book analyzing the steep decline in capital punishment from 1990 to 2016. In his studies he proved that growing public awareness of exonerations and the risk of wrongly sentencing innocent defendants to death, citizens became less appealed to the idea of the death penalty and became more interested in life without parole.
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As citizens become more aware of the alternative of the death penalty, more support has shifted to life without parole. Further proof can be found on The Death Penalty Information Center website, where Lake Research Partners discovered in a 2010 poll that 61% of voters would choose a punishment other than the death penalty for murder. Former governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico once said, “ Life without parole is often said to be a living death sentence, the prison is their cemetery, a cell is their
However, he said it is not a better deterrent than life jail. Jeffery Reiman also rejects the death penalty, and he has shown that it is not fair to punish killers less cruelty. Some people said that the death penalty prevents
“‘Death sentences represent less than one-tenth of 1% of prison sentences in the United States…,’” (Von Drehle, 9). Furthermore, death row is just a small fraction of the criminal justice system and can not be based on that alone. For instance, what many don't take into account is the justice systems allows for many states, such as the populous state of New York, to ban the death penalty. (state laws, p1)
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, and the debate about its abolition is the largest point of the essay written by Steve Earle, titled "A Death in Texas”. This form of punishment should be abolished for 3 reasons; First, It does not seem to have a direct effect on deterring murder rates, It has negative effects on society, and is inconsistent with American ideals. To begin, the death penalty is unnecessary since it is ineffective at deterring rates of murder. In fact, 88% of the country's top criminologists do not believe the death penalty acts as a deterrent to homicide, according to the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. In opposition, supporters may argue that it may indeed help to deter murder rates as they have
There are roughly 2.3 million people convicted for crimes, in that 2.3 million there are 704,000 people who are convicted for a "violent crime". 174,000 are convicted for murder, 17,000 for manslaughter, 165,000 for rape or sexual assault, 170,000 for robbery, 136,000 for assault and 43,000 for other violent crimes. Giving someone the death sentence can cause a domino effect on people's views of committing certain crimes. It acts as a deterrent in some
Life sentences in America today stand at an unprecedented level: as of 2012, 159,520 people in prison were serving a life sentence and 49,081 (30.8%) of them have no possibility for parole. Nationally, one in every nine people in prison today are serving a life sentence (Hugo 132). The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) stated, “Life without parole provides swift, severe, and certain punishment. It provides justice to survivors of murdered victims and allows more resources to be invested into solving other murders and preventing violence. Sentencing people to die in prison is the sensible alternative for public safety and murdered victims’ families” (ACLU Hill vs
Some see the death penalty as the only means to extract justice for victims. Others see it as a morally reprehensible act where a second wrong is committed in order to make something right. With recent issues surrounding the death penalty in which execution hasn 't gone as planned sparking a nationwide debate, this is my outlook on why I 'm for the death penalty not only being abolished in the state of Texas but in addition to the entirety of the US..
It is not hard to believe that when posed the question: have you ever taken away an innocent life? One would like to answer with a negative response, however, statistics show that at least 4 percent of all people who have received the death penalty are innocent. Therefore, if you are in support of the death penalty, and feel that you are doing what is for the better good of society, it is imperative to make note: that though the justice system is good, it is not perfect, and often make mistakes. However, those mistakes should not cause a heart to stop beating, a child to no longer see their parent, or an innocent man to be put to death for something someone else has
Support for life without parole sentences has increased, and the number of death sentences in the U.S. has plummeted by 50 percent in recent years. International concerns about the death penalty would probably never be enough alone to make the U.S. abandon this practice. However, because international concerns are generally being given more recognition in the U.S., and because the opinion of those other countries is more unified than ever before, it is likely that the death penalty will come under
Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is a legal process in which a person is put to death as a punishment for a crime by the government of a nation. The United States is in the minority group of nations that uses the death penalty. There are thirty-three states that allow capital punishment and seventeen states that abolished it (Death Penalty Information Center). The morality of the death penalty has been debated for many years. Some people want capital punishment to be abolished due to how it can cost a lot more than life imprisonment without parole, how they think it is immoral to kill, and how innocent people can be put to death.
In 1608 there was about one execution, compared to the year 1850 where there was about 4000 executions made. The years between 1900 to 1972 there was almost 8000 executions, performed in the United States. Nevertheless, in 1973 to 2002 the number executions dropped greatly to around 1000 executions. (Table 1). As previously stated the death penalty has gone through drastic changes throughout history, ecpecially the number of executions through the years This chart* chronicles the United State’s use of the death penalty over the past four centuries.
Eliot Spitzer once said, “Our criminal justice system is fallible. We know it, even though we don't like to admit it. It is fallible despite the best efforts of most within it to do justice. And this fallibility is, at the end of the day, the most compelling, persuasive, and winning argument against a death penalty.” Many people in America are in favor of capital punishment because some crimes violate the moral codes of our society.
Attorneys from both sides of the capital punishment debate were interviewed with one stating “If you are going to kill somebody in the country, don’t be poor.” *6 This opinion was promptly opposed by an Assistant District Attorney who went on to describe the crimes that those on death row had committed. The more people that were interviewed and surveyed the more they began to realize that the American death penalty was filled with
In recent times, citizens wanted less cruel executions and to replace those with more pain-free options. Today the most common choice of execution for death row inmates is lethal injection ( “Use Of The Death Penalty In U.S. Near A 25-Year Low,”)
There are some states where the death penalty or also known as capital punishment doesn’t exist, in that case is where, life without parole is their sentence. This is putting them on prison, keeping them from society, it’s almost just as bad as death penalty. There are many opinions about the death penalty, opinions like it being inhumane, or cruel and painful. Whatever the circumstance, there is a high percentage of inmates that get sentenced or put on death row, and they don’t even see the chamber. Mostly because the death rate is low in a lot of states.
Allowing the guilty a second chance at life is something that is unacceptable and depriving the innocent victims involved of their reprisal. The death penalty solves this and provides an appropriate punishment. The benefits far outweigh the disadvantages therefore the death penalty should be implemented in the world to create a solution to these abhorrent crimes. This subject has continually rested in the minds of people and in many conversations everywhere in bad light.