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Utilitarianism View On Capital Punishment

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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 …show more content…

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 …show more content…

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

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While there are far more subjects to discuss regarding to this issue, I feel it necessary to state that I believe the death penalty should exist in a perfect society. I believe that certain crimes and certain situations warrant the punishment of death. However, the our society is not perfect. The justice system has failed to fairly use this punishment in far too many instances, and concludes that they cannot justly wield this

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Being on death row often prolongs the pain for the inmate. They spend their time in prison fearing the inevitable which for them is death. Today, we live in a society that is very divided on this issue. There are many in support of the death penalty, suggesting that it acts as a positive deterrent against future crime. There are also many

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Capital punishment is cruel for nowadays society. The death penalty is essentially another way of trying to get revenge. It is a way to essentially get payback for someone who has taken another life. “To take a life when a life has been lost is revenge,

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Currently, the death sentence is only applied to those who commit murder, however, in the past, it has also been used for rape and armed robbery. Arguing in favor it can seem justifiable to take the life of a person who unjustifiably took the life of someone else. And with murder being the only way to be sentenced to the death penalty it seems fitting. Along with that, it provides deterrence from committing murder for possibly many people. The deterrence that execution provides is a debated topic nested into another controversial topic.

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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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I believe that death penalty is considered to be a cruel and unusual punishment. In my opinion, a life is priceless and shouldn 't be taken away without their willingness. All men are created equal- no man was made better than the other and therefore should not bring death on their life. On the other hand, I think that there are more reasons why people would support the death penalty.

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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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The proponents of the Deterrence theory tend to think that death penalty is a lot more humane than life imprisonment. In my view, death penalty can be regarded as less severe when compared to life sentence, because the isolation of the offender is much stronger punishment for him or her than death, since prison in itself can be considered as hell. Furthermore, there is always a possibility of a miscarriage of justice. Alongside with that, the fact of execution of an innocent person by the state has such a grand-scale negative impact on the society, and that in my opinion, means even more than the fact of the crime itself Besides, the economic reasons can be argued having in mind, the words of Voltaire “Let the punishments of criminals be useful.

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There have been many controversies on the topic of capital punishment and its role within society. It is not likely that there will ever be a unified view on this topic. One of the first reasons why the death penalty should never be imposed is because of the possibility of killing an innocent person. True enough the DNA technology has decreased this probability but due to administrative bias innocent people can still be killed. There is no retribution for a dead man who was wrongly put to death.

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I agree that the death penalty is inhumane and should be abolished; no one deserves to be killed, even those who have killed. However, I also feel that the death penalty solves nothing because all the government or state does is end the person’s life. This means they don’t get to learn from what they have done; they don’t receive punishment. It is better that the prisoner be sentenced to life so that they could ‘feel’ dead, but still have to live in a confined space for the rest of their lives, thinking about what got them there in the first place. That to me, is a real death penalty.

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The moral arguments for or against the use of capital punishment itself is recognized by society. The value place on life and the ability one must end life relies partly upon religious conviction and the system of cultural beliefs instilled therein. There are a lot of supporters of capital punishment all around the world. I believe that capital punishment is an extreme but necessary measure. There is criminal that have not any hope to be reclaimed and they cannot cause a pity to normal persons.

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It seems that sentencing people to death even if they committed murder violate the right. Human life is valuable to the point that even murderers should not be deprived of the right to life. In fact, it seems that the death penalty is a worse penalty than a jail term. It is contended that life confinement without probability of parole makes a better outcome for the offender than an effortless death after a short time of detainment. As a matter of fact, crimes rates from nations which have prohibited the death penalty have not risen.

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The Death Penalty, loss of life due to previous crimes and actions, is believed by some to be extremely costly, inhumane, and cruel unlike some others whom believe it is just, right, and provides closure. The Death Penalty is not a quick and easy process. Most who get sentenced to deaths row wait years for their ultimate punishment of death. Some believe that it is not right to punish and kill a human for actions they have done because, they believe that the inmate should have another chance. Then others believe that it is right to punish someone for their actions especially if their actions involve killing another or multiple humans.

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