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Should Capital Punishment Be Both Cruel And Unusual Punishment

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Throughout its history, the United States judicial system has dealt with an abundance of cases relating to capital punishment. The topic has sparked much debate on whether or not the death penalty constitutes as cruel and unusual punishment. Much like the political world we live in, people have their own opinions on whether this punishment is humane. Many, in support of the death penalty see it as an opportunity to rid the country free of the worst criminals to ultimately achieve a much safer society. On the other hand, people in disagreement argue that no execution can be deemed “humane”. A main argument for the opposition of the death penalty claim that there are alternatives which can offer the same punishment without an inhumane “execution” such as life in prison. However, supporters of the death penalty see life in prison as an extremely unfair punishment related to the acts brought forth by these criminals. Why should a serial killer who has been found guilty on 6 accounts of first degree murder be allowed to
“live” the rest of his life, regardless of it behind bars? He shouldn’t, is the answer. Abolition supporters will continue to take shots at the ethics behind capital punishment, …show more content…

For example, a state such as California which ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in 1968. The murder rate in California prior to the removal of the death penalty was around 2.4 per 100,000 of the population. As the process towards ridding the state free of the death penalty moved forward, executions began to slow up. In 1960, the murder rate had climbed to 3.9 percent and then again to 5.4 percent in 1967. In the year 1967, the death penalty was completely removed from the state of California. In result, the murder rate had skyrocketed to 14.5 per 100,000 people. Ultimately, the murder rate has remained between 11 per and 13.1 per 100,000 in the years to

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The most important issue that must be addressed in this case is the principle of the “evolving standards of decency” and the uses of a national consensus. The “evolving standards of decency” were developed by Trop v. Dulles and have been implemented in one way or another in all of the precedents dealing with “cruel and unusual” punishment. It is important to treat these principles as an important aspect of “cruel and unusual” punishment jurisprudence, therefore turning from these set of principles would be foolish and a disregard for every precedent. However, it is important to acknowledge that each case satisfies the standards by using a different method; some use the presence or lack of state legislature as a judgment of consensus while others look at foreign countries.

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The death penalty has been significantly changing according to these six cases: Atkins v. Virginia (2002), Roper v. Simmons (2002), Kennedy v. Louisiana (2008), Graham v. Florida (2010), and Miller v. Alabama (2012). These six cases discuss the “evolving standards of decency”. The “evolving standards of decency” state that the implementation of the death penalty is deemed unconstitutional for certain circumstances, defendants, and crimes. When implementing this test, the courts analyze the most prevalent opinions among the different state legislatures, judges, sentencing juries, and the general public in order to determine whether the use of the death penalty is cruel and unusual.

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The reasoning behind the abolition of the death penalty was because many prisoners on death row at the time were mentally unstable, no evidence had shown that the death penalty acted as a deterrent of crime and that innocent people may be executed (history.com, n.d.). The debate about the abolition of the Death Penalty started on July 3rd, 1922 when Queensland first abolished this form of punishment; other states soon followed and the last state being New South Wales having abolished the punishment in 1985 for all crimes as in 1955 the abolished the punishment for murder but

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