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Arguments Against Capital Punishment In The United States

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Capital punishment is a government sanctioned sentence in which a person is put to death from a crime committed. These crimes committed are called capital crimes, which are often crimes such as murder and rape. Capital Punishments prevalence has decreased in the modern era. States globally have shown that most countries have taken an abolitionist stance to capital punishment. The main arguments that centre on the issue of capital punishment is the retributive stance and the utilitarian stance. It is to be a conflict of whether the punishment is an effective deterrent or if it should be done regardless of the consequences. The driving wedge would be respect of human life and what can be done to maintain respect to a human's life. With life, …show more content…

The issue is that the answers to these questions are supposed to apply to both the victim and the perpetrator.
Natural rights are thought to be the rights that are inherent to human beings (Hart, H. L., 1955). These rights cannot be overridden by a coercive unit such as the state. In such a view violation of these natural rights will require a punishment as a token of justice. If this is true that means that capital punishment would be a person forfeiting a person’s right to live. So again there is the distinction between an innocent life and a guilty party. This is also supported by the fact that the material nature of the world is still mutable so a compensation for injury is possible (Aquinas, 1992).

Theistic views have many views on what value a human being has being given. The Abrahamic faith systems have it that God created each human being with inherent worth derived from the fact that humans are made in God’s image (Fletcher, G. P., 1999). If this view is taken, then it is assumed that the harming of a human being is to violate a person whose worth derives from a divine being. This is a violation of the person’s right and there must be a punishment (Kay, J., 1988). Capital punishment would be also viewed for its own sake when looking through the window of human worth. The after effects are not factored into the discussion from this frame. The argument is deontological …show more content…

In order for the charge of guilt to brought, there has to be the legally mandated due process. Without a correct due process the efficacy of the judgement is likely to contain error. Information that comes into a case is often not pieced together for a comprehensive sentence. Due to the pressures to come to a judgement swiftly, the judgement could be made prematurely thus sentencing an innocent person to death. A lack of a swift judgement may also weaken the deterrent signal to potential offenders. (Sunstein, C. R., 2005). Putting an innocent to death is a serious matter that renders the sentence as an act of murder according to the concept of inalienable rights. A failure to point out the state’s illegitimacy in such an act is an admission that rights are not inalienable and they are subject to political manipulation. Political manipulation could include the clouding of judgement from social prejudice (Bouckaert, P. N., 1996) and as a means from crushing dissent (Baldus, D. C., et al,

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I am not one to argue that capital punishment is without its flaws, nor am I one to argue that the death penalty is not inherently ugly in its entirety. I simply make the argument that the death penalty, or capital punishment, is a necessary evil. To accomplish this, I will begin by dissecting the arguments made by Stephen Nathanson in An Eye for an Eye. Nathanson states that for some crimes, it would not be considered morally acceptable to provide equal punishment to crimes committed. For example, I listed earlier that if we applied the equal punishment principle flatly across our justice system, it would require us to not only kill murderers, but also rape rapists, torture torturers, and kidnap kidnappers.

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American society has always wrestled with the concept and ethics of capital punishment. Despite the meticulous process involved when convicting someone, there are many questions and exceptions about who qualifies and the process in and of itself, as to be expected when dealing with something so profound and permanent. What if the accused is mentally ill? What if the perpetrator committed the crime when defending someone else? What if the convicted is innocent, but still put to death?

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1161 Words | 5 Pages

In writing the essay entitled "More Innocents Die When We Don't Have Capital Punishment," Dennis Prager examines the arguments of those against capital punishment. He makes a deductive argument that supports his conclusion in favor of capital punishment, taking the stance that murderers should undergo execution as capital punishment imposes a lessened threat to innocent lives than if it was not an option. Furthermore, Prager makes several claims throughout his writing regarding those opposing capital punishment, their arguments, and the effects on the lives of innocent people. Additionally, through this essay, he commits a few logical fallacies such as false dilemma, strawman, slippery slope, and appealing to the person. Prager's essay presents

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969 Words | 4 Pages

The absurd cries of young, simpleton girls ignited a series of potentially deadly trials that would soon prove to end fatally for over 20 accused victims. The fact that absurd, superstitious accusations were considered to be sufficient evidence to condemn a victim defines the very contrast of due process.

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Difficult, protracted executions constitute infringement of the eighth Amendment, which forbids savage and surprising discipline. Capital punishment disregards the privilege to life as announced in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is a definitive remorseless, cruel and corrupting

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The arguments and disadvantages of the death penalty in the United States. The death penalty is one of the most explosive and emotionally charged debates with some of the most controversial issues regarding, who will be put to death and why? The death penalty has been continuously debated, not only with legal disputes, but as a religious and ethical reasoning. We must ask that question what would cause someone to act in a way that he or she would have a violent impulse which would make him or her commit a murder?

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Capital punishment, or better known as the death penalty, had made its first appearance with the Babylonians through “the Code of Hammurabi”, the first written set of laws and punishments in history. It has since spread worldwide and evolved to fit the customs and traditions of numerous civilizations as time progressed, which explains why some states in America today have implemented some form of Capital Punishment. Used only for the most vile offenses, Capital Punishment may seem appropriate for those who have done the unthinkable. However, it is unclear where we draw the line between whether or not one should be submitted to the death penalty based on the magnitude of the offense. The Supreme Court’s decision in Atkins v. Virginia had helped

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The first objection is that the death penalty does not "provide a measure of moral desert" (Nathanson). For the second, Nathanson states "it does not provide an adequate criterion for determining appropriate levels of punishment." The main objection is an "eye for an eye", or Lex talionis, and I believe it fails to support equality retributivism and creates punishments that are morally unacceptable. There is no way that

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This source of important information gives readers both sides of the debate on capital punishment. This article discusses the enhancement of the brutality of punishing unforgettable crime committers. This article also discusses the side views of allowing the death penalty to be inflicted on people who haven't committed the real crime, therefore, being framed. I hope to use this source as evidence for both sides of the argument surrounding justice for capital punishment.

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494 Words | 2 Pages

Most states were trying to decide whether the death penalty should be legal. The supporters argued that capital punishment was a necessary evil because it kept the crime rates down. It also made the potential murderer second guess taking an innocent man’s life. On the other hand, the opposers stated that the death penalty was inhumane and violates the eighth amendment. “Lethal Injection.”

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1207 Words | 5 Pages

The United States Criminal Justice System continues to evolve through the uses of case law and precedence established by debate from opposing sides. The rulings by upper courts become the law of the land; however, these decisions rarely settle the debates from opposing views. This holds true in the U.S Supreme Court Case No. 07–5439, known as Baze v. Rees (Baze v. Rees, 2008). This essay is a response to the Supreme Court case and subsequent decision about the use of lethal injection, and how the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution defines cruel and unusual punishment.

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Hailey Brunsen Wheeler Composition 2 1 February 2017 Rhetorical Analysis Death penalty; the punishment of execution. Let me ask you a question, does it seem just to solve murder with murder? Wouldn’t the executor of the criminal be just as guilty for murder as the criminal himself? “The Facts: 13 Reasons to Oppose the Death Penalty,” written by an organization called Oregonians for Alternatives to Oppose the Death Penalty. If murder isn’t okay, then neither is the death penalty.

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Muhlhausen, David B. "The Death Penalty Deters Murder." The Ethics of Capital Punishment,edited by Christine Watkins, Greenhaven Press, 2011. At Issue. Opposing Viewpoints inContext, Microsoft Academic. Spangenberg, Robert L., and Elizabeth R. Walsh.

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“Given the fallibility of human judgements, the possibility exists that the use of the capital punishment may result in the execution of an innocent person. The Senate Judiciary Committee has previously found this risk to be “minimal,” a view shared by numerous scholars.” (Cassell) The same could be said about the innocent inmates that were wrongfully convicted and are serving life without parole. Claims of innocence are almost always nothing more than postponing strategies to prolong the execution for as long as possible.

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1383 Words | 6 Pages

Capital Punishment is the death penalty for those who commit murder. The thought behind this punishment is a life for a life. There has been debate on if the death penalty is right or wrong. Some poeple want the death penalty to be illegal while others argue it is needed to deter crime. There are many valid arguments regarding the death penalty.

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