Death Penalty

The Death Penalty Debate
Jessica Pelletier
PHI 200
Professor Robert Vaughan

The Death Penalty has been an ongoing ethical debate in our country for many years with the population divided on the topic.
Humans are to prone to error to decide who should receive the sentence of capital punishment, and is society willing to pay the price of executing an innocent person?
      Proponents of the death penalty say that murderers must pay the ultimate price in order for justice to be served. Opponents say that the death penalty is immoral and all too often racially biased.   Although many people are against the death penalty, there are equal amounts who believe in an eye for an eye.   Their belief is that justice is better served, not only for the victims, but their families and society as well.
The question is should the death penalty be banned as a form of punishment, and does it violate the eighth amendment and constitute as cruel and unusual punishment, or should your right to live be given up if you take a life maliciously.   Both sides of this argument bring forth divided theories.   For those who oppose the death penalty, they believe racial disparities play a big role.   “Several studies have noted that there are vast discrepancies in the application of the death penalty, according to the race of the victim and the race of the offender.   When the victim is white and the offender is African American the death penalty is given about thirty five percent of the time, compared to only fourteen percent when the relationship is reversed.   The death penalty is given in twenty-two percent of the cases in which whites kill whites and in only six percent of the cases where African Americans kill African Americans.   The race of the victim plays a key role in the prosecutor’s decision to seek the death penalty and a jury’s decision to impose it.   Importantly these patterns have been observed in all retentionist states that have been examined”. (Sheldon, Brown, Miller,... [continues]

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