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The Pros And Cons Of The Death Penalty

1369 Words6 Pages

In the United States, thirty-one states still have the death penalty as a sentence, and nineteen states have abolished it or overturned it as a sentence (States, 2017). As of this year, twenty-one inmates have been executed (Execution, 2017). The death penalty, which is also referred to as capital punishment, is given to individuals who have been convicted of capital crimes such as murder or treason (Staff, 2007). Despite being able to sentence those individuals convicted of murder and other capital crimes in states that sanction it, there is a debate among individuals about the death penalty with regard to whether if it deters crime, whether there is a chance innocent individuals have (or will be executed if wrongly convicted), whether factors …show more content…

Lynaugh, which they had originally voted on against exempting individuals with intellectual disabilities from the death penalty (Mossman, 2003). Therefore, stating that the death penalty would be considered as a cruel and unusual punishment. Furthermore, it stated that previous court case decisions, which prohibited or rarely used the death penalty, and public opinion, which found the execution of offenders with intellectual disabilities unfavorable was used as evidence to support their decision. In addition, it was argued that “offenders considered to have [ an intellectual disability] are categorically less culpable than the average criminal (Atkins, 2001). It further argued that this was a result of incapacity in areas such as “reasoning, judgement, and control of their impulses” (Atkins, 2002). Even more importantly this case has a significant outcome with regard to how psychology is applied in the courtroom. The case helped demonstrate how assessments are important when determining factors that could implicate that an individual suffers from a mental illness, pertaining more to intellectual disabilities, and how that can help mitigate what type of sentence an individual should receive (Mossman, 2003). However, the method used determine whether or not an individual suffers from an intellectual disability and the definition of intellectual disability falls at the discretion of each state (Amos,

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The U.S. Supreme Court argued that execution of an individual with an intellectual disability is inconsistent with the “evolving standards of decency test that marks the progress of a maturing society.” The Court held that there was a “national consensus” forbidding execution of the intellectually disabled from the fact that 18 states of the 38 states that permit capital punishment had recently enacted legislation barring execution of the intellectually disabled. The U.S. Supreme Court in Atkins observed that the execution of intellectually disabled criminals in the states that permitted it was no longer common and noted that the practice of such executions “has become truly unusual” and that a “national consensus” against it was emerging. This was evident in the public reaction and national attention

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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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