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Pro Death Penalty Essay

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Capital punishment also known as the death penalty is the execution of a murderer. You have at least be convicted of first degree murder, which is the voluntary and premeditated murder of an individual; or second degree murder, which is a murder committed with intent but without deliberation. Death row is an area of a prison where criminals convicted of crimes warranting the death penalty await execution, it may be years before they are actually executed.(Issitt) Capital punishment has been used in society since ancient times. It is a controversial topic because on one hand supporters of the death penalty believe that it is only fair, if a criminal takes someone else’s life they deserve the same fate as their victim or victims. While on the …show more content…

In the early 1600’s through 1910’s the most common way to execute criminals was hanging. The first electrocution was in 1890, it gradually became the common method by the 1920’s. The gas chamber was introduced in 1924, and fell out in the 1960’s. Within the 18th century burning was used and by the 19th century firing squads were used. The more inhumane procedures were pressing, in which weight was applied till the convicted was crushed death; and gibbeting, in which the convicted was placed in a cage to die by dehydration.(Smith) Lethal injection was used in 1982 and now is the primary the method of execution in the U. S. It is a sequence of drugs to induce unconsciousness and ultimately death. In recent years, the drugs used for lethal injections are in a shortage because of the lack of support of the death penalty, among the Pharmaceutical companies and Europeans manufacturers who produce it. This leaves the American prisons desperate to find alternative ways to execute their death row …show more content…

The Furman v. Georgia case proved that capital punishment was unconstitutional, due to violating eighth and fourteenth amendments. The court sets a limit on the use of the death penalty for certain crimes. In 1976, the Gregg v. Georgia case reinstated the death penalty because of the new laws created and addressed the Supreme Court’s concerns. These laws made capital punishment constitutional in Florida, Georgia, and Texas. In the Coker v. Georgia case the court ruled that death for rape was “grossly disproportionate and excessive”, which led to murder being the only crime that deserved capital punishment. The Kennedy v. Louisiana case also restricted the death penalty to crimes in which the victim is killed, or cases of treason. The Atkins v. Virginia barred the execution of the mentally disabled. The Roper v. Simmons barred the execution of juvenile defenders.(Smith) The Ring v. Arizona case led the court to find that the sixth amendment supports that the death penalty decision must be made by juries, not judges. This ruling invalidated the death penalty laws of five states and possibly those of four

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779 Words | 4 Pages

This lead to the death penalty being ruled illegal within the United States in 1976 for a while, but the Supreme Court later ruled “that the death penalty was allowed only in the event that the sentencing was delivered at the time of the trial and that the jury who had sentenced the individual to death was determined to review the details of the case.”

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He tried to flee, and while doing so tripped and fell. The gun that he carried went off and killed a resident of the home. He was eventually convicted of murder and sentenced to death. The question in this case is, “Is the imposition and carrying out of the death penalty in this case cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments?” Reasons for Majority

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358 Words | 2 Pages

Roper V Simmions, Falls under the 8th amendment cruel and unusual punishment. In Roper V Simmions there was a 17 year old boy with a mental disabitliy who commited a premediated murder was orginally being tried for the death penalty. In this case however there was another individual who did assist in the murder. He wasnt declared “mentally fit” for the trial but some felt his crimes were heneous enough to warrent the death penalty.

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851 Words | 4 Pages

The issue in this case is whether the imposition of the sentence of death for the crime of murder under the law of Georgia violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Gregg argued that the sentencing procedure allows for arbitrary grants of mercy that reflects a misinterpretation and ignores the reviewing authority of the Georgia Supreme Court to determine whether each death sentence is proportional to other sentencing for similar crimes. Gregg was pleading for a life sentence instead of death. Georgia argued that the statute did not constitute a cruel and unusual punishment and did not violate the Eighth and Fourteenth amendments. Georgia also argued and proved that there must be specific jury findings as to the circumstances of the crime to determine whether the death sentence was fair for the case.

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Justice Brennan found the death penalty is in all circumstances cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, Justice Marshall found the death penalty is a cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, Justice Powell found that death is disproportionate punishment for the crime of raping an adult woman where, as here, the crime was not committed with excessive brutality and the victim did not sustain serious or lasting injury (Coker v Georgia, 433 U.S. 584, 1977). The United States Supreme Court reversed the decision by the lower courts even though, not all were in agreement saying the sentence of death for rape would be disproportionate and excessive punishment making the sentence unconstitutional. Justice Powell disagreed because he believed the plurality had gone too far in holding that capital punishment is always a

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1434 Words | 6 Pages

However, the abolishment of the death penalty was short-lived. By 1976, the Supreme Court agreed to hear five state death penalty cases, consecutively known as Gregg vs. Georgia (Oshinsky, 2010). Again, after much deliberation, the court stated, “We now hold that the punishment of death does not invariably violate the Constitution” (Oshinsky, 2010). In the years after the Gregg decision, it has been decided that murderers who are minors, mentally insane, or mentally incompetent at the time of their crime are exempt from the death penalty.

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665 Words | 3 Pages

The question then asked before the justices was whether or not capital punishment for the crime of rape was “cruel and unusual punishment” under the Eighth Amendment. The Court found that the death penalty was not invariably cruel and unusual punishment when referencing the Eighth Amendment. However, in the case of Coker v. Georgia the Court did find that the sentence of death was grossly disproportionate and is an excessive punishment for the crime; therefore, it is forbidden by the Eighth Amendment as cruel and unusual punishment (Brody & Acker, 2010, p. 55). At the time of the case in question, the majority of States had ever authorized the use of death for the offense of rape (Brody & Acker, 2010, p. 55). In the case of Furman v. George, under that ruling most of the capital punishment statues in the United States had become invalidated, including rape

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1304 Words | 6 Pages

Gregg did not agree with his punishment. He believed that the death penalty was a violation of his 8th and 14th amendment right. The 8th amendment protects us from cruel and unusual punishment and Gregg believed this was cruel punishment. The Supreme Court had to decide if his crime deserved the death penalties or if the death penalty violated his rights. Opinion: The decision came out to be 7 to 2.

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356 Words | 2 Pages

The Supreme Court has observed that a method of execution violates the Eighth Amendment if it inherently involves “torture or a lingering death” or is “inhuman and barbarous.” This was brought into question in the case of Glossip V. Gross when Oklahoma introduced the drug midazolam as a new execution drug. The case also brings into question whether the court is required to supply a form of execution when the government cannot find one itself. In Baze v. Rees the three-drug protocol was observed for lethal injection by at least 30 states, where barbiturate, an anesthesia that causes the person to go unconscious and two other drugs which paralyzed the prisoner eventually causes them to go into cardiac arrest.

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590 Words | 3 Pages

(Hurst v. Florida) (Furman v. Georgia (intro)) From this case, it showed how “it has been assumed in our decisions that punishment by death is not cruel, unless the manner of execution can be said to be inhuman and barbarous” (“FindLaw's United States Supreme Court Case

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Which resulted in the states changing their death penalty to function with the court ruling. Also, it made the prisons have more economic problems and overpopulated. The death penalty was itself not unconstitutional, but the way it was administered constituted cruel and unusual punishment. Mistakes were made , and the people(courts) tried to avoid more wrong executions.

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491 Words | 2 Pages

1) The reason why the death penalty in Florida was determined to be unconstitutional were due to the U.S. Supreme Court believing judges had too much power in deciding whether someone should be sentenced to death, or receive the lesser penalty of life. Legislators decided to require only ten out of twelve jurors to agree imposing a death sentence in regard to capital criminal cases, when the law was changed earlier this year. While Florida legislators believed their system was rational, the state's high court opposed. The U.S. Supreme Court declared in January that judges had too much say in sentencing someone to death, when constitutionally it was the jury alone.

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213 Words | 1 Pages

One of the problems that was the way it was administered. Justice Douglas stated that the death penalty violates the eighth amendment because if the death penalty discriminates against people

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2122 Words | 9 Pages

Although the methods of execution have become more humane, transitioning from public hangings to private lethal injections,

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241 Words | 1 Pages

Suspending the Death Penalty In 1972 in Furman v. Georgia, Jackson v. Georgia, and Branch v. Texas (known collectively as the landmark case Furman v. Georgia (408 U.S. 238), the issue of unpredictability of the death penalty was again be conveyed before the Supreme Court. Capital Cases results in in arbitrary and capricious sentencing, said Furman. Under the Eighth Amendment, Furman was a challenge, different to McGautha which is a Fourteenth Amendment due process claim. By a vote from 5 to 4 and in 9 separate opinions, the court apprehended that Georgia’s death penalty decree could result in haphazard condemning, which bequeathed the jury widespread sentencing discretion.

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