Death Sentence
Death Sentence and Structure for Sentencing
April Mackney
CJA/334 Research Methods in Criminal Justice
November 19, 2012
John Dosdall/University of Phoenix
Death Sentence and Structure for Sentencing
The question that gets more than its fair share of likes and dislikes is “Is the death penalty appropriate” and “should the death penalty be able to be handed down to criminals across the United States?” The opinions of the citizens from centuries ago to today’s times would much rather see a criminal spend life in prison than see them receive the death penalty. The death penalty has raised concerns about the failure rates of executions and people that are wrongfully accused being put to death. The issue with racism has become a larger issue with the death penalty, and even the cost that our country has to take in due to the experiments with the types of punishments for death. Society has stated the frustrations they have over the death penalty and want a different outcome for the criminals that are found guilty. The people today would rather see the criminal receive life in prison and would give up the death penalty as a punishment as long as certain sanctions are enforced upon the inmates. The toughest part of showing people to look at the death penalty as a harsher type of criminal punishment, but to get them to lean more towards life in prison with restrictions added. The concern about the sentencing structure that has raised some issues is the ethical parts of it, the deterrence issue, and the effectiveness deterrence has. People believe that deterrence should be a humane and the criminal justice system should respect the rights of the guilty persons. The issue there is that it does not always go that way. The deterrence issue has been considered a free pass to some criminals and if they do not get caught they can continue doing what they want. Many believe that in order to deter someone from committing crimes or the same crimes again is that the
April Mackney
CJA/334 Research Methods in Criminal Justice
November 19, 2012
John Dosdall/University of Phoenix
Death Sentence and Structure for Sentencing
The question that gets more than its fair share of likes and dislikes is “Is the death penalty appropriate” and “should the death penalty be able to be handed down to criminals across the United States?” The opinions of the citizens from centuries ago to today’s times would much rather see a criminal spend life in prison than see them receive the death penalty. The death penalty has raised concerns about the failure rates of executions and people that are wrongfully accused being put to death. The issue with racism has become a larger issue with the death penalty, and even the cost that our country has to take in due to the experiments with the types of punishments for death. Society has stated the frustrations they have over the death penalty and want a different outcome for the criminals that are found guilty. The people today would rather see the criminal receive life in prison and would give up the death penalty as a punishment as long as certain sanctions are enforced upon the inmates. The toughest part of showing people to look at the death penalty as a harsher type of criminal punishment, but to get them to lean more towards life in prison with restrictions added. The concern about the sentencing structure that has raised some issues is the ethical parts of it, the deterrence issue, and the effectiveness deterrence has. People believe that deterrence should be a humane and the criminal justice system should respect the rights of the guilty persons. The issue there is that it does not always go that way. The deterrence issue has been considered a free pass to some criminals and if they do not get caught they can continue doing what they want. Many believe that in order to deter someone from committing crimes or the same crimes again is that the