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The Pros And Cons Of The Death Penalty

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Death Penalty

Is the death penalty acceptable in the United States? While many countries have outlawed it, some countries, like the United States, practice capital punishment at the state level. Each state has the right to decide whether to perform the death penalty or use life imprisonment. The death penalty is a highly controversial practice in today’s society. Throughout the history of the United States, there have been many different tactics for execution. For the worst crimes, life without parole is better, for many reasons. Many people are against the death penalty not because of sympathy for criminals, but because it doesn’t reduce crime, prolongs the pain of families of murder victims, costs a whole lot more than life in prison, and, …show more content…

Vengeance is seen by many as another reason people are in favor of the death penalty. It is also felt by many families that have had a love one murdered to watch the execution of the murder be executed as it provides closure for the family, in states that allow people to watch executions. “Anti capital punishment campaigners are fond of mis-quoting Ghandi’s saying "an eye for an eye makes the world go blind". This is nonsense because it wrongly presumes that we all commit murder, whereas only a tiny proportion of people do. Given a population of around 306 million and a homicide rate of around 15,200 per annum less than 0.4% of the population actually commits a homicide in any given year. Or conversely 99.6% of us do not kill.” (Clark, …show more content…

They first have to have the district Attorney charge them with first-degree murder to seek the death penalty, which is not something they do lightly. It is due to the far greater cost of the death penalty cases. Another option for them is that they may offer a plea deal where they will plead guilty in return for the District Attorney not leaning toward the death penalty. If they don’t offer a plea deal then they have to go on trial, the jury then has to find the person guilty in the first degree. “In 2002 the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Ring versus Arizona that a jury must recommend a death sentence and it not be left up to the trial judge to decide. Therefore after the first phase of the trial, when a defendant is found guilty in a capital murder case there has to be a second penalty phase where the prosecution can put forward aggravating factors and the defense can show mitigating factors. To recommend the death penalty jurors have to be sure that sufficient aggravating factors have been proved. In most states the jury has to unanimously agree on the death penalty and if just one juror objects to it then it cannot be given. Juries can and often do decide to go for life without parole instead, if they don’t feel that the aggravating factors are sufficient or if they are outweighed by mitigating factors.” (Clark,

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Being in jail is better than a death sentence in many ways; they get good meals, they have clothes or someone could escape. They have everything that any normal person would have besides independence and sometimes connections to the outside world. The inmates

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An important lesson that can be taken away from Wiesel's life is to always be grateful for what you have. This is an important lesson, because gratitude leads to happiness. If nobody was thankful for what they had, then they would always be trying to get more, and if they did not get it, then they would be frustrated and agitated. For example, in Night, Wiesel has significantly less than any of us have now, so he is grateful when he gets a single extra ration of bread or soup, and he is delighted to have this. He writes “Our first act as free men was to throw ourselves onto the provisions.

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Mitigating factors include circumstances such as impaired capacity and no prior criminal record. It is an aggravating factor if “the victim was particularly vulnerable due to old age, youth, or infirmity.” On the subject of the victim in a murder case, the death penalty has a huge impact on the victim's family. Receiving justice for a crime committed against your loved one, especially a 3 crime so tragic and irreversible, is a step towards peace.

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Criminals are shielded from cruel and unusual punishments. Finding the better option for good is sometimes the only answer. More so, execution is a crueler punishment than a life sentence without the possibility of parole. The process of entrusting a jury and judge with the power to decide someone's fate and put an end to their life will always be inhumane and seen as a cruel punishment. Although the Supreme Court has ruled capital punishment constitutional, it is difficult to determine if someone really deserves to die rather than just spending life locked away with no possibility of release.

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Support for life without parole sentences has increased, and the number of death sentences in the U.S. has plummeted by 50 percent in recent years. International concerns about the death penalty would probably never be enough alone to make the U.S. abandon this practice. However, because international concerns are generally being given more recognition in the U.S., and because the opinion of those other countries is more unified than ever before, it is likely that the death penalty will come under

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The death penalty is a sentence that has no use. The process has become too slow over the years to the point where some people die before they get executed. Similar to the case of Max Soffar who may have been innocent, but died of cancer before he had the chance to fight for the freedom he may have deserved(Houston Press). This also shows that the death penalty has taken and ruined the lives of innocent people. A study shows that 4% of defendants sentenced to death penalty are innocent(The Guardian).The second reason is the high number of botched executions that happen in the USA.

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In the United States, the death penalty is often used unfairly in situations where it is clear that the defendant is not guilty of the crime or that the defendant is not deserving of the punishment. The appropriate use of the death penalty is very subjective. This is due to the fact that there are very few guidelines, and it is mostly up to the jury and judge to decide whether or not to impose the death penalty when the defendant is guilty of a capital crime. The judge can look at many factors, such as history, the regret of the crime, and the nature of the crime when deciding (U.S. Dept. of Justice). Additionally, in 2009, all five of the women who were on Alabama's death row were condemned for the unexplained deaths of their young children, spouses, or boyfriends.

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Ethical Considerations of the Death Penalty in the United States A problem that is occurring in today’s society is whether or not capital punishment is worth continuing and spreading entirely through the United States. Capital punishment is a lawful infliction of death used as a punishment. Over the years it has varied from each state and which crimes are applicable for this kind of punishment. Currently, there are 31 states where the death penalty has been legalized (CNN 2017).

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If the cold-blooded killing of thousands does not lower premeditated murder, there is really no point (because let 's face it, the saying “eye for an eye” is childish and socially unacceptable). This same conclusion was agreed upon in a recent poll by almost 90% of the world’s criminological societies (Facts About the Death Penalty). However in all honesty, the argument against the death penalty doesn’t just stop at its redundancy, but also its

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Christopher Schuhmacher once said “Serving a life sentence in prison feels like a long and arduous journey towards a freedom that is not guaranteed to be there once you arrive.”. The death penalty is an issue that has both sides missing a possible solution that will solve the majority of the problem. one side thinks that that the death penalty is morally wrong while the other thinks that it is a quicker punishment than a punishment that gives you no chance of ever encountering freedom. The correct answer to this controversial issue is to not make the life altering decision for the person in question but to let the convict chose for him/herself whether to be executed or to have Life Without Parole(LWOP). The conditions of the LWOP and the death penalty all need to be taken into consideration and also the possibility of innocence.

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Should the death penalty/ capital punishment be a thing? The death penalty should not be legal, because it has no place in today 's society. The death penalty has been around since at least the eighteenth century B.C. Now the U.S. still has the death penalty in 31 out of the 50 states. While some may say it seems barbaric to still have a death penalty, the U.S. says it 's used as a crime deterrent.

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Many prisoners who are sentenced to life without parole are released 20- 30 years later. This resulting in prisoners being released when they are older in their age. These prisoners who have already served time for their crimes and are released. Majority of older released prisoner don’t committing a serious crime after they are released. Another alternative to can be a lot cheaper than the death penalty execution.

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It offers a better alternative to everyone involved, including the victim, the prisoner, the families of both, and society as a whole. Any person who takes the life, security, or peace of mind of another human being deserves the same in return. Those who deny the death penalty’s effectiveness give criminals a green light to murder, rape, and burglarize innocent members of society. By sustaining the death penalty, we stand up to injustice and crime in our

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As stated in the website, Death Penalty Information Center, “The death penalty in the United States is used almost exclusively for the crime of murder. Although, over the course of time, there were a significant amount of murders, rapes etc. Which caused the offenders to receive the death penalty. Therefore, The amount of crimes that can be committed by one are endless, but the kinds of crimes that can be committed to sentence one to receive the death penalty are limited, as well as the various execution styles.

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