Preview

Capital Punishment

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
477 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Capital Punishment
Capital Punishment in the United States: Rough Draft

Have you ever thought about if the person sitting next to you is a murderer? If he is, what would you want from the government if he had killed someone you know? He should receive the death penalty! Murderers and other major offenders should be punished for the crimes they have committed and should pay the price for what they have done. Having the death penalty in our society is humane. It helps with overcrowding and gives relief to the families of the victims, who had to go through an event such as murder.

You may not see it as that big of a deal, but the families of the victims of these criminals have to live every day knowing that while their family member is dead, this criminal is still well and living. Usually people just want to look past this problem because they are not in the position of the families of the murder victims, but you need to look at it through the eyes of these families. Until we stop just letting these things slide, they will continue to happen. The death penalty has been around since the time of Jesus Christ. Executions have been recorded from the 1600s to present times. From about 1620, the executions by year increased in the US. It has been a steady increase up until the 1930s; later the death penalty dropped to zero in the 1970s and then again rose steadily. US citizens said that the death penalty was unconstitutional because it was believed that it was "cruel and unusual" punishment (Amnesty International). In the 1970s, the executions by year dropped between zero and one then started to rise again in the 1980s. In the year 2000, there were nearly one hundred executions in the US. On June 29, 1972, the death penalty was suspended because the existing laws were no longer convincing. However, four years after this occurred, several cases came about in Georgia, Florida, and Texas where lawyers wanted the death penalty. This set new laws in these states and later the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Some people might agree with the death penalty. Families get devastated when someone they love and care about has died. Its different when that person they care so much about has been murdered or killed. People tend to hate that person and have the urge to do just about anything to them in order for them to suffer, which causes us to take, revenge on them. This matter has lead to the death penalty. This is a punishment that slowly kills the man or woman that has committed the crime. Why should we have pity on those who choose to kill? If they felt powerful enough to kill, then we should be able to do the same to them. Whatever their reason is that they choose to kill they should be punished someway, somehow.…

    • 288 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Murder is one of the crimes that can be applied for the death penalty.A Lot of people probably think that if someone were to murder someone they deserve the death penalty.However I believe they deserve to suffer in prison and live in a cell and think for every hour of the day about what they did.In my opinion if they get the death penalty that is the easy way out.…

    • 303 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Society demands that punishment should fix the harm it has done. By sentencing a person to death no harm has been fixed. As long as capital punishment exists in our society it will continue to spark the injustice, which it has failed to curb. The death penalty is morally and socially unethical, should be construed as cruel and unusual punishment, has no proof of acting as deterrent, and risks the appalling and unacceptable injustice of executing innocent people. It does not matter who does the killing as long as a life is taken by another, it should always be considered…

    • 1955 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dying is a horrifying topic, and death is a scary issue. None of us want our love ones dead, but what happens if they are murdered or run over by a reckless drunk driver? Should all these killers pay the price for what they did by going to prison? Or should their live be terminated as a consequence for their actions? This is a hot issue of whether we should keep the capital punishment or abandon it. When serial killers are committing a crime they never think of themselves as being the victim of death someday. Capital punishment is one of the many ways to teach murderers that for every action there is a consequence. Everyone has the right to live. No one has the right to take another human's life just because he feels like doing so. These murderers should be punished, with the penalty of death, because the death penalty not only values people's life but also shows justice under democracy.…

    • 596 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are few policies that produce as much debate, controversy and emotion in this country as the death penalty. Capital punishment has been around in this country since colonial times when people were killed for practicing witchcraft and today the death penalty is legal in 31 states. Since 1976, 1414 people have been executed in the U.S. (deathpenaltyinfo.org). People who favor capital punishment believe that if someone brutally take's another person's life then they should lose their own right to life. However, in taking a closer look at the death penalty, there are many problems associated with it such as that is is morally wrong, the botching of executions, the execution of innocent people, and the fact that it is a flawed system…

    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Death Penalty In America

    • 449 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The death penalty in the United States of America is a topic that many people could have both negative and positive reactions toward. Everyday there is a murder being made, whether it's a small type of crime or a large type of crime. Someone gets killed and justice is either served or not, depending if the murderer is caught. Some say we live in a freedom type where we are free to do whatever we want. However, that is not the case. There are laws in the United States that citizens of must follow and comprehend in order to not receive punishment. That type of punishment can vary based on the type of crime which had took place.…

    • 449 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death Penalty Controversy

    • 585 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Now the question is, is the death penalty the answer for particular individuals who have committed various acts of heinous crimes such as murder? The states that do take part in the death penalty have different things that technically qualify one for getting the death penalty. In a general sense there usually has to be a murder that is caused by an offender in one way or another. I think that however that each case is different and unique in its own way of course and it may be hard to distinguish what is credible for getting the death penalty versus just being locked up for life. I originally was in favor of the death penalty because I figured there’s no need to feed and clothe and give shelter to some horrible people, just get rid of them. I look at it like, there’s people living out on the streets without any of the things that these inmates have and they might not have even hurt anyone in there entire life, yet the one who has killed women and children or whoever, is the one getting the hot meal at night.…

    • 585 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mass serial killers such as Charles Manson, Gary Ridgeway, and Dennis Radar are still serving their life sentences for their crimes they committed many years ago. These three men are a known as a few of the most notorious killers to walk this earth. They’re responsible for hundreds of deaths of innocent people. However, criminals that commit horrendous acts of crime continue to live alone in a maximum security prison cell away from other inmates to ensure their safety. Without the use of the death penalty, these criminals never feel the pain they deserve to feel. Serial killers roam the streets of the U.S, killing victims each day all the while knowing their punishment for this crime won’t result in the loss of their own life. Unfortunately, life in prison allows horrible people to live their life out in good living conditions, perhaps even better than how they were living as a member of society. While some citizens are against the death penalty, I believe it gives families closure for the loss of their loved ones. If someone takes the life of an innocent person, it is only right they receive the same punishment their victims endured.…

    • 777 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The problem is too many people think the death penalty needs to go, and that life in prison is the obvious answer. The death penalty may seem bad, but in true reality it does great things for this country. The death penalty is not cruel, lowers crime rate, and represents true justice, why would you want to get rid of it? Do not support the removal of the death penalty, it is needed for the justice system, especially with the copious amount of crime going around these days. So, should that murderer be given life in prison, or the death penalty, your…

    • 908 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Capital Punishment

    • 1406 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Many positions can be defended when debating the issue of capital punishment. In Jonathan Glover's essay "Executions," he maintains that there are three views that a person may have in regard to capital punishment: the retributivist, the absolutist, and the utilitarian. Although Glover recognizes that both statistical and intuitive evidence cannot validate the benefits of capital punishment, he can be considered a utilitarian because he believes that social usefulness is the only way to justify it. Martin Perlmutter on the other hand, maintains the retributivist view of capital punishment, which states that a murderer deserves to be punished because of a conscious decision to break the law with knowledge of the consequences. He even goes as far to claim that just as a winner of a contest has a right to a prize, a murderer has a right to be executed. Despite the fact that retributivism is not a position that I maintain, I agree with Perlmutter in his claim that social utility cannot be used to settle the debate about capital punishment. At the same time, I do not believe that retributivism justifies the death penalty either.…

    • 1406 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death Penalty

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Have you ever wondered what life would be like knowing that a murderer went free after killing one of your family members; it is a very unsettling thought knowing that people have this feeling everyday. The death penalty is the best punishment for murderers because it is condoned by the Bible, gives closure to family members and keeps the cost of inmates down.…

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Capital Punishment

    • 343 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Argumentative & Persuasive Essays - Abortion, Affirmative Action, Alcohol, Athlete, Capital Punishment, Censorship, Cloning, Drugs, Eating Disorders, Euthanasia, Genetic Engineering, Global Warming, Gay Marriage, Gun Control, Immigrants & Immigration, Internet Censorship, Internet Pornography, Internet Privacy, Marijuana, Media, Media Violence, Media and Women, Media Censorship, Military, Nutrition, Overpopulation, Racial Profiling, School Choice, Sports, Stem Cell Research, Steroids, Terrorism, Violence, War on Drugs, more...…

    • 343 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Capital Punishment

    • 1119 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Capital punishment is very unjust. It is not up to man to decide another person faith. You only get one time to live and your time to die shouldn’t be decided by the corrupt justice system. People who have committed crimes or even accused of crime have been murdered which is unfair. The guillotine was used to carry out many executions in England and throughout the world. The guillotine was used to cut the head of those who committed crime or those who was accused of committing a crime. The guillotine was a short painful death but it was an act of brutal murder. They government seen the negative publicity the guillotine was receiving, so they updated their death penalty to the electric chair. The electric chair was less bloody but more painful. The electric chair was used to kill the victim by sending large amounts of electricity to the victim’s body until they were deceased. The electric chair was involved but water on the victims head to speed up the process, but sometimes executioners would be corrupt or forget to put the water on the victims head. When the water is not placed on the victims head it burns the victims, causing a slow and painful death. There was so many cases of the electric chair gone wrong, which made the government once again change their method of death to lethal injections. Lethal injection is the quickest form of death and comes to in three parts. First the victim is given anesthesia to go into a deep sleep without feeling the pain, then the victim is give a shot to slow down the breathing, finally the victim is given a shot to stop their heart. All of these act of forms of murder which is unfair. Karl Marx believes in justice at its own will. In the bible it states and eye for an eye which is basically what you do to other shall be done to you. I agree with Marx view on capital punish because capital punishment goes against the rules of the bible, an act of evil, and judgment should only be left in God’s…

    • 1119 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Capital Punishment

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Over the past century capital punishment has been a very controversial issue. Sentencing people to death does not always sit well with the general public. People that are opposed to the death penalty claim that is does not deter people from committing murder, that it is cruel and unusual punishment, that it is unethical, and that the justice system is flawed and can sometimes result in sentencing innocent people to death. These seem like good arguments on the surface, however once expanded upon they start to venture further and further from the truth. Capital punishment is right because the justice system is very thorough in proving guilt, it is not cruel and unusual punishment, and it can deter people from committing murder.…

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Capital Punishment

    • 2619 Words
    • 8 Pages

    "The Death Penalty in the United States." The Death Penalty in the United States. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2014. <http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/dpusa.htm>.…

    • 2619 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays

Related Topics