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The Pros And Cons Of Capital Punishment

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With the ruling in Gregg v. Georgia (1976), the Supreme Court held that capital punishment for certain offenses did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment, thus deeming the death penalty constitutionally acceptable (Harr, Hess, Orthmann, and Kingsbury; 2015). Over the years, the Court placed limitations on the sentence. Beginning in 1986, the Court banned the execution of mentally ill individuals, and three years later rendered mentally retarded individuals ineligible as well. In 2005, the Roper v. Simmons decision excluded juveniles under the age of eighteen from receiving the death penalty on the grounds of cruel and unusual punishment (Harr et al., 2015). The courts limited the number of individuals and crimes warranting the death …show more content…

Rees (2008), the Court determined was "humane" when performed correctly (Harr et al., 2015). Lethal injection incorporates three separate drugs: an anesthetic, a paralytic called Pavulon, and potassium chloride which stops the heart (Schmalleger and Smykla, 2015). The intention of the chemical cocktail is for the inmate's death to occur while he is unconscious to refrain from subjecting him to unnecessary pain or cruelty. Ultimately, though controversial, the death penalty achieves three of the five contemporary goals of criminal sentencing: retribution, deterrence, and incapacitation. Physical punishment dates back to the days of the Old Testament's "an eye for an eye" and intends to exact revenge on a criminal for his crimes (Schmalleger, 2016). Since most capital offenses eligible for the death penalty involve murder, sentencing an offender to death seems an appropriate punishment (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2014). Despite eighty-eight percent of criminological experts refuting the death penalties impact on deterrence, they fail to account for the specific deterrence -aiming to prevent a particular offender from reoffending (Schmalleger, 2016). Specific deterrence is achieved through the death penalty because following execution, it is impossible for an offender to

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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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It clearly violates the eighth amendment that states, “[E]xcessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." (Eighth Amendment.) The segment of ‘cruel’ refers to a punishment that is brutal and inflicts severe pain of the suspect, whilst ‘unusual’ implies that the punishment is generally not associated with the crime that has been presumably been committed. The supreme court of Georgia explained, in a five to four ruling, that “capital sentencing based on the unguided discretion of juries offends the "cruel and unusual punishment" clause of the Eighth Amendment” due to the fact that it permits “juries to impose the distinctively profound sentence of death on some convicted defendants while other juries impose the far different sentence of life imprisonment on large numbers of similarly situated defendants convicted of exactly the same crime.” (Furman v.

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Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), after an incident in 1996, the defendant, Daryl Renard Atkins, was convicted of abduction, armed robbery, and capital murder in a Virginia trial court. Then at a second capital sentencing hearing, appellate ruling states that the first hearing was a mislead verdict form, “a testimony from a forensic psychologist stated that Atkins was mildly retarded, with an IQ of 59, a prosecution expert witness expressed that the defendant was of at least average intelligence, a jury again sentenced him to death” (Atkins v. Virginia, 2002). The case document of Atkins v. Virginia (2002) states that in an appeal to the supreme court of Virginia, “affirming the imposition of the death penalty relied on the authority of Penry v. Lynaugh (1989), which had to do with the eighth amendment protecting individuals from cruel and unusual punishment, however the case rejected the defendant’s claim as there was no categories that prohibited death sentences on those who were mentally handicapped” ( Atkins v. Virginia, 2002). Then on a certiorari, the US supreme court reversed and remanded the sentence, holding that execution of offenders who were mentally handicapped was excessive and thus was prohibited by the eighth amendment, therefore, it was decided on June 20th, 2002 that “execution of criminals that were ‘mentally retarded’ are held as cruel and unusual punishment and in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the constitution” (Atkins

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The moral of the death penalty is that when someone commits a heinous crime, they should be prosecuted in a way that is equal to their crime. Robert Blecker, JD said that "We have the responsibility to punish those who deserve it, but only to the degree they deserve it...." This states that people should get what they deserve. If they go out and commit homicide or murder for fun they should get the same treatment. Losing someone can be tragic, but losing someone because a criminal killed them is even worse.

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1008 Words | 5 Pages

To reiterate, the death penalty is a violation of the 8th Amendment of "cruel and unusual punishments"

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From the beginning of the foundation of America, men have tried to figure out the correct way to deal with law-opposing criminals. From crucifixion and slavery, to death by firing squad and life sentences, the world has utilized different forms of discipline. The death penalty has formed into the most questionable form of punishment, drawing the most attention from the public eye. This sanction is used to punish criminals for committing the most heinous crimes and offenses. The crimes that obtain the death penalty mostly consist of murder which include murder during a kidnapping, murder for hire, drug-related drive by shooting, and genocide.

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873 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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Time, 8 June 2015. Ehrlich, Isaac. “The Deterrent Effect of Capital Punishment: A Question of Life and Death.” The American Economic Review, vol. 65, no. 2, 2007, pp. 397-403.

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The execution in May 1989 involving Stephen McCoy is one in several examples of these defective results. According to witnesses, McCoy reacted violently to the lethal injection given to him. According to the Flawed Executions, the Anti-Death Penalty Movement, and the Politics of Capital Punishment article, “after the drug was administered McCoy was seen gagging, violently coughing, and undergoing body contortions” (Haines). Examples such as these show that the systems that has been put in place, and the methods used in order to afflict capital punishment has some defects. Morally speaking, one cannot consider to willingly and with a clear conscious sentence an individual to a punishment that completely fraudulent and unethical.

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1016 Words | 5 Pages

This case dealt with an accidental murder, and resulted in the sentencing of William Henry Furman to death. The punishment however, was never carried out because the appeal was brought to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of Furman. To end the case the Supreme Court defined cruel and unusual punishment as a degrading, not arbitrary, or unnecessary and unaccepted actions. This “test” to see if some action violates the language of this amendment was used to determine that the death penalty was in fact unconstitutional, and led to a four year de facto moratorium throughout the United

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771 Words | 4 Pages

It wasn’t until the case of Weems v. United States that determined and further explained what “cruel and unusual” entailed. “Cruel and unusual punishment is defined by the changing norms and standards of society, and therefore is not based on historical interpretations. Courts may decide whether a punishment is unnecessarily cruel with regard to physical pain. Courts may decide whether a punishment is unnecessarily cruel with regard to psychological pain.” (Gains 291) Through this case, three specific criteria were determined in what crimes are punishable and deserve the death

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159 Words | 1 Pages

Death row or the death penalty is mainly a union that is divided within the prison system. These Death Row individuals are sentence for a capital crime commission and has written death warrants from state governors. In the United States the number of death sentences has decreased since the year of 1993. Since the death penalty can be a complex topic based on the defendants actions some lawyers don’t have the right experience for those types of cases. There are not enough private lawyers either.

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Death penalty or the capital punishment is the harshest punishment the authority can give to a crime, there have been many debates on many aspects of the element of the death penalty whether on philosophical aspect such as is it really a good thing to kill the people who killed other to show that killing is wrong and is it morally right, or on religious aspect such as god give us this life so the state shouldn’t take this life god gave us furthermore the act of taking a life go against almost every religion on earth and even on a legal aspect since the person on death row might be falsely accused and if the act of execution is done there will be no going back, and death sentence seem like an “eye for an eye” type of punishment(such as cutting off the hand of the thief for stealing) but it has been proven many times before this type of punishment doesn’t work .This report is made as part of SPD 202 as of why death penalty should be considered as social problem. Since the death penalty concern the matter of life and death of a person, the execution of an innocent person isn’t simply a tragedy it is a major false from both the state and the institute of justice. There have been many reports of false execution coming from all over the world. Take Jesse-Tafero case for example he was accused and executed via electric chair back in May 1990, he was accused of killing 2 Florida highway officers, but later on in 1992 the whole case was overturned when crime scene

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382 Words | 2 Pages

I believe if someone commits a murder, they should be executed. < In today’s society/ many people believe that murderers should not be harmed or executed because of their crimes/ but I believe that >anyone who has the audacity to take the life of another human being/ and has sufficient evidence against them/ should be put to death. According to the Death Penalty Information Center/, out of the 50 states, 31 still have some form of death penalty including the U.S. government and the U.S. military.

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Capital Punishment also known as the death penalty is a controversial topic. A lot of people think that the death penalty is against human rights; however, what right does a criminal have to take a life or to do grotesques crimes? Others say the death penalty say that the consequences of the death penalty are irreversible. But, wasn’t the criminal taking someone else’s life also irreversible? Criminals don’t think to value theirs or the other people’s lives.

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