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Pojman's Arguments Against Capital Punishment

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Capital Punishment Capital punishment is widely debated throughout the United States. The United States government at this time deems capital punishment constitutional. Even though the United States government deems it constitutional, each state has the right to make it legal or illegal within their state. Currently, only thirty-one states institute the death penalty. Pojman’s makes an argument through the utilitarian theory of deterrence justifying the death penalty, I will discuss this argument in more detail a little later. Two arguments Pojman uses justifying the death penalty are, the best-bet argument and the common-sense argument. To briefly explain both of these, the best-bet argument states that we don’t know for sure the death penalty …show more content…

Fieser uses the advantages of long-term imprisonment to continue his argument against capital punishment. Fieser says that perpetual slavery is all that is necessary to deter murderers from crimes. He also states that perpetual slavery is equal to or is more of a punishment than the death penalty is. Fieser argues this point by saying some people look at death as a way to escape from their misery and therefore is not that scary to them. The death penalty exerts all of its force at one moment, unlike perpetual slavery, which is continuous. The death penalty is a one-time punishment, whereas perpetual slavery punishes the suffer over and over. In the end, Fieser is saying that using perpetual slavery over the death penalty is a more effective way to deter. I am not sure how much I agree with this. Considering slavery was abolished in 1865, I cannot see the government allowing this form of punishment to be legal. Obviously, we all know how disgusting slavery was, and to start it up again to punish murderers, only bad things could come from such a thing. Therefore, I still believe capital punishment is the only way, as of right now, to punish convicted

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