Capital Punishment: Injustice of Society
Looking out for the state of the public's satisfaction in the scheme of
capital sentencing does not constitute serving justice. Today's system of
capital punishment is fraught with inequalities and injustices. The commonly
offered arguments for the death penalty are filled with holes. "It was a
deterrent. It removed killers. It was the ultimate punishment. It is biblical.
It satisfied the public's need for retribution. It relieved the anguish of the
victim's family."(Grisham 120) Realistically, imposing the death penalty is
expensive and time consuming. Retroactively, it has yet to be proven as a
deterrent. Morally, it is a continuation of the cycle of violence and
"...degrades all who are involved in its enforcement, as well as its
victim."(Stewart 1)
Perhaps the most frequent argument for capital punishment is that of
deterrence. The prevailing thought is that imposition of the death penalty will
act to dissuade other criminals from committing violent acts. Numerous studies
have been created attempting to prove this belief; however, "[a]ll the evidence
taken together makes it hard to be confident that capital punishment deters more
than long prison terms do."(Cavanagh 4) Going ever farther, Bryan Stevenson,
the executive director of the Montgomery based Equal Justice Initiative, has
stated that, " people are increasingly realizing that the more we resort to
killing as a legitimate response to our frustration and anger with violence, the
more violent our society becomes We could execute all three thousand people on
death row, and most people would not feel any safer tomorrow."(Frame 51) In
addition, with the growing humanitarianism of modern society, the number of
inmates actually put to death is substantially lower than 50 years ago. This
decline creates a situation in which the death penalty ceases to be a deterrent
when the populace begins to think that one can get away with a crime... [continues]
Looking out for the state of the public's satisfaction in the scheme of
capital sentencing does not constitute serving justice. Today's system of
capital punishment is fraught with inequalities and injustices. The commonly
offered arguments for the death penalty are filled with holes. "It was a
deterrent. It removed killers. It was the ultimate punishment. It is biblical.
It satisfied the public's need for retribution. It relieved the anguish of the
victim's family."(Grisham 120) Realistically, imposing the death penalty is
expensive and time consuming. Retroactively, it has yet to be proven as a
deterrent. Morally, it is a continuation of the cycle of violence and
"...degrades all who are involved in its enforcement, as well as its
victim."(Stewart 1)
Perhaps the most frequent argument for capital punishment is that of
deterrence. The prevailing thought is that imposition of the death penalty will
act to dissuade other criminals from committing violent acts. Numerous studies
have been created attempting to prove this belief; however, "[a]ll the evidence
taken together makes it hard to be confident that capital punishment deters more
than long prison terms do."(Cavanagh 4) Going ever farther, Bryan Stevenson,
the executive director of the Montgomery based Equal Justice Initiative, has
stated that, " people are increasingly realizing that the more we resort to
killing as a legitimate response to our frustration and anger with violence, the
more violent our society becomes We could execute all three thousand people on
death row, and most people would not feel any safer tomorrow."(Frame 51) In
addition, with the growing humanitarianism of modern society, the number of
inmates actually put to death is substantially lower than 50 years ago. This
decline creates a situation in which the death penalty ceases to be a deterrent
when the populace begins to think that one can get away with a crime... [continues]
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