Utilitarianism View On Capital Punishment

The death penalty has great varying facts and views when it comes to all of the ethical frameworks. From the religious ethics stand point, it would appear that the death penalty may be a permissible form of punishment. Religious ethics support the "eye for an eye", or retributive form of justice. This would make capitol punishment permissible when deserved as retribution for a murder case. There are many extremist religions that use corporal/cruel punishment as a means of serving retribution to criminals (such as cutting off the fingers and hands of thieves). Through the lens of formalism, I would say that the death penalty is not tolerable. As a universal rule, it would not be good to subject every single individual who commits a serious

A common misconception with the death penalty is that it costs less than housing an inmate for a life sentence. A life sentence actually costs are an average of $740,000 while a death penalty costs around $1.6 million (https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/costs-death-penalty). With these facts in place, I believe that the utilitarianism view point would have to carefully dissect the positives and the negatives to each individual situation and decide what would greater benefit the victim, the offender and the community. Through the view point of virtue ethics, I believe that the death penalty is an acceptable form of punishment. Virtue this stresses the belief that "the offender deserves what he is due, no more and no less". Which implies a karmic view, in the sense that the offender should receive the same punishment permitting to the crime he

As our eighth amendment states, "nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” I believe the death penalty to be a cruel and unusual punishment, especially from the dual life value stand point. I do not believe that retribution in an "eye for an eye" fashion, is a positive use of deterrence. Especially when many death row inmates have been cleared from crimes later in life because of missing evidence or DNA exoneration. Prison is not a safe and happy place to be, especially when ordered into it for a life sentence, the best deterrence in my opinion, is losing ones civil liberties for the rest of their lives. To be caged for life, is the ultimate punishment. I also feel that a death sentence can be an easy way out for certain individuals. It is a way of leaving behind misery and the thoughts of the horrible acts that someone has committed. While it may be a fair justification for someone who has committed an egregious murder, it is not civilized for a government to perform the exact same illegal act upon someone who's committed a crime. Another factor in the capital punishment decision for me is the cost of housing an inmate versus a death penalty. With the costs of a life sentence being significantly less than an execution, I further believe that it has no benefit on our