Death Penalty - Research Paper Example

Death Penalty- Should we abolish Capital punishment? The follow of capital punishment is as aged as government itself. For most time in the history, it has not been believed to be contentious. Since medieval times most Governments have penalized a broad selection of misdeeds by death and also have demeanor executions as a custom of the management of criminal law. However, in mid 18th Century, social critics in Europe began to highlight the value of the human being and to condemn Government practices they deemed unjust, including Capital Punishment. Capital Punishment has been used as castigation for many crimes since ancient times. The Bible recommends death for many heinous crimes such as witchcraft, kidnapping and murder. But in 1500, only some major criminal acts were sentenced to death in England. These offenses included larceny, rape, burglary, murder, arson, and treason. In 1723, the Waltham Black Acts was passed in the Parliament in which many new crimes were ratified and this augmented the number of people given the death penalty every year. Following the 100 years from then, which is 1740 to 1839 a total number of Eight thousand Seven hundred and Fifty three people were put to death in Wales and England. The highest number of people that were put to death was Three hundred and seven in 1785 because they weren’t able to run away because of the ongoing American War of Independence. Due to this high number of death hangings, in 1800 the population reduced to only 9 million. In 1750s the reforms for death penalty begin to integrate in Europe and were under the governance of Cesare Beccaria (an Italian jurist), Voltaire (a French Philospher) and law reformers from England such as Samuel Romilly and Jeremy Bentham. These opponents of Capital punishment stood by the argument that death penalty was atrocious, terrible, appalling and usually given wrongly. They started their campaign with Quaker leaders and other law reformers and believed that life imprisonment was a more sensible option. By 1850s, these reform movements began to take physical existence. In 1853 Venezuela was the very first nation to condemn death sentence and then in 1867, Portugal followed the lead. In 1847, Michigan was the first state of United States to abolish death penalty for murder. In today’s society, Capital Punishment is abolished in most of the Latin America and Western Europe. However, United States, along with Japan, china and many Middle Eastern and Asian countries give death penalty for certain offenses and oblige it at various frequencies. Challengers of Capital Punishment compete that it is dreadful and horrifying. Those who oppose the death penalty see it as a human rights issue involving the true limits of governmental power. These people argue that life is a gift bestowed to us by God and no one has the right to take away other person’s life for acts such as robbery or burglary. But should death penalty be given for murder and shocking crimes still remains a question. Further Capital Punishment can be a wrong decision for most individuals because there is always a probability of error. It might happen that a person who is given death penalty is innocent and some other person was responsible for that dreadful deed. The actual administration of our society can be corrupted as well. Capital Punishment is imposed mostly on the indignant and the minorities. There is also a possibility of weakness of argument from the side of preclusion; the argument that the threat of Capital Punishment lessens violent crime is open to doubts and is difficult to prove as well; and is also morally suspected. Another dispute over Capital Punishment is that we are too unskilled to carry it out. Sometimes a person keeps waiting for months or even years to be finally put to death. The delays, appeals, technicalities and retrials that keep a person destined to death waiting for implementation of the law enacted keep him or her bored and tired of life. According to World News, dated November 2, 2011, Michael Perry was sentenced to death because he was convicted of murdering Sandra Stotler ten years ago when he was nineteen. He was executed last week in the state of Texas for a crime he says he didn’t commit. He and his lawyers argued till the very last moment that he was in the custody of police when Sandra was killed- as they calculated the time of her death. Police claimed that he approved his guilt but Perry said he was drunk then. (theguardian, Friday 4 November 2011). The supporters of the argument that Capital Punishment must be abolished bear the fact in mind that it is barbarous and incompatible in our present society of humanity and civilization. It has been abolished by Fifteen States of America. The arguments against Capital Punishment are many and persuasive and pleas in its favor are plausible and few. Punishment is for fortification of society but Capital Punishment has adverse affects. It protects society by killing criminals who performed these crimes but is it possible that those crimes won’t be committed again? Apparently not; because Capital Punishment beliefs that same act of misconduct will not be performed by the same individual but usually what happens is that several individual perform the same act. Killing or giving death sentence to one doesn’t remove all the other culprits from society. The person whom we are killing is least likely to be a threat to us in the future in our society, if he is not a serial killer. As a prevention to murderers, death sentence has proved to be a failure if the criminal statistics of countries where death penalty is in force with those where it has been eliminated. Extenuating circumstances might be the reason of a person’s misconduct and he or she might not be the sole reason for his or her own deeds. For instance a disturbed family environment, trauma, violence in the family, abandonment, being host of a discriminating social cultural environment, lack of intimacy, cruelty might be the reasons for wrongdoings. Capital Punishment is irreversible. Innocent people have been sentenced to death in the past. The jury, judge, and the whole legal system have been made an actor in the hands of some one else to the criminal they wish to punish. The Supporters of Capital Punishment hold the view that Bible is a contemporary source of cultural and religious values for most people residing in North America. The Old Testament of the Jews along with the New Testament of Christians speaks in favor of Capital Punishment. Christians who are in support of Capital Punishment give reference to the Old Testament when Noah was called by God and HE said, “Whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person’s blood be shed.” This passage is often cited by believers of Capital Punishment. In Bible God created human in his image. Then human did sin, he was forgiven by the God; human again did sin and was pardoned by the God. The process of God’s forgiveness and reinstatement also lessens the effect of death penalty (Capital Punishment in America: A Balanced Examination. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2011. Print). Advocates of Capital Punishment view it as a revenge for awful crimes. Those who support the death sentence declare that it is a uniquely effective punishment that discourages crimes. In Saudi Arabia, for instance the death penalty rate is very high and so the crime rate is very low as compared to other countries. Promoters of Capital Punishment want Governments to execute well and they consider Capital Punishment as an issue of criminal justice policy. If we take up the case of Michael Perry, he was sentenced to death but his partner in crime, Jason Burkett was found guilty of all three murders of Sandra, her son Adam and his friend Jeremy Richardson but, was only sentenced to a life time prison by a narrow jury vote and will come out in 2041 (theguardian, Friday 4 November 2011). Will he be redeemed when he comes out of prison? Probably not; if advocates in opposition of Capital Punishment believe that he can be reformed and brought back to life. It is not possible because a life in prison makes a person suffocated and frustrated. Again, we can blame our Government and law agencies rather than debate over Capital Punishment. Jails are crowded and prisoners are treated so badly that mostly they either commit suicide or kill other prisoners. According to IdahoStatement.com, Paul Blomberg’s daughter was kidnapped, rapped and then murdered in 2000. Her name was Samantha Maher and she was only 22 by then. Her father gave testimonies in front of the jury trails and even though there were two sentenced hearings for Darrell Payne, seven years from now; nothing has happened to this man up till now. He was given death penalty twice but due to incompetent law enforcement agencies, nothing has been done to him until today. Being a logical person, can one think he can be redeemed and reformed? Not necessarily. Blomberg now beliefs that Idaho system does not really execute criminals which are on the death row. In 1979, the Idaho death penalty was reinstated but even after that three Death Row convicts have been freed and only can have been executed. Out of the 40 people who were sentenced to death have their sentences changed now and are no longer obliged for execution. (IdahoStatement.com) One might consider death sentence as bad. That was the reason the Idaho people protested against it. “The worst of the worst often receive a lesser sentence, while those without the means to defend themselves end up on death row,” said Monica Hopkins, executive director of the Idaho ACLU. “Our ideals of democracy and justice demand that we abolish the death penalty,” in an interview with FOX News on Monday, November 14, 2011. People of Idaho consider death penalty as bad and are firm supporters of reformation. But if we further study the case and why they protested one can draw the conclusion that they were against the law and enforcement agencies and not really against Capital Punishment. There are trials in court which stay there for years and years; people are condemned to death rows in which they live a life of solitude waiting for the day they will die. “I see today as us being a spiritual adviser to the state of Idaho,” said Rob Hanson. “You don’t need to kill to bring justice.” This restatement of religious leader is also due to the long trails and waiting for convicts and a hard time given to their families. (FOX News Monday, November 14, 2011) Because of these profound differences of opinion not only about the right answer to the question of Capital Punishment but what type of question is being asked when death penalty is considered is becoming a public issue in today’s society. Many supporters of the capital punishment believe that for every person that is sentenced to deaths, thousands of lives are saved. As Professor John McAdams puts, “If we execute murderers and there is in fact no deterrent effect, we have killed a bunch of murderers. If we fail to execute murderers, and doing so would in fact have allowed the killings of a bunch of innocent victims. I would rather risk the former. This, to me, is not a tough call.” Another important aspect of Capital Punishment is that it reduces cost to the state. Money is not an infinite commodity and every state receives a budget each year. It should rather be spend on the underprivileged, the needless, homeless, indignant and orphans rather than the long run imprisonment of burglars, murderers and rapists, etc. In United States, most people are executed rather than given life time prison. But the cost of execution exceeds the cost of life time imprisonment because of ineffective system of jury and years of solitude imprisonment in death rows. According to a statistics, a capital case resulted in execution cost of $3-4 million, even though the original cost of keeping someone in prison is only #30-35000 a year or even lesser than a million dollar for a life sentence prison. But this figure is exclusive for pleas and costs of health care as the convict ages. The states of Kansas, Montana, Colorado, and New Hampshire have abolished death sentence due to high costs. This again adheres to the fact that abolition to capital punishment is supported only because of incompetence of law rather than other reasons in most cases. The real punishment for a murderer is execution rather than rehabilitation or reformation. If some one murdered your loved one, you would want him to be hanged at once then to be held in prison for years and years and then released of prison. The old concept of “an eye for an eye” is still prevalent in Muslim cultures where they practice Islam and take guidance from Quran which commemorates the fact that Prophets also used to do this. Death Penalty is good and serves a definite purpose of lessening crimes as well as bringing justice and tranquility to society. In order to serve its purpose, it must be made effective and efficient. The justice system has changed dramatically in the past thirty years in order to make sure that rightly accused is brought to justice. I believe that death penalty should not be abolished, as it ensures the safety of the society, brings justice to those who have suffered and most importantly helps in reducing criminals in our society. Death Penalty is important to keep the brightness of justice and public safety shining brightly on our society. References 1. Joanna Walters. Texas death row, Werner Herzog and the man who maintained his innocence. theguardian, Friday 4 November 2011 15.27 GMT 2. Mandery, Evan J, and Evan J. Mandery. Capital Punishment in America: A Balanced Examination. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2011. Print. 3. Marzilli, Alan. Capital Punishment. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2003. Print. 4. Patrick Orr. Legal Complexities stall executions of Idaho killers. 2011. 5. Andrew Crisp. Capital Punishment Opponents Hold Capitol Protest. Monday, November 14, 2011 at 9:01 AM. 6. Marzilli, Alan. Capital Punishment. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2003. Print http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=nlOU4fUaiV8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=in+favor+of+capital+punishment&hl=en&ei=g1_BTuD9B4PkrAfZk8nhAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CEcQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=in%20favor%20of%20capital%20punishment&f=false 7. Death penalty Essays 8. Gaie Gaie, Joseph B. R The ethics of medical involvement in capital punishment : a philosophical discussion. Kluwer Academic. 2004 ISBN 1402017642 9. Woolf, Alex. World issues - Capital Punishment. Chrysalis Education 2004. ISBN 1593891555 10. Simon, Rita A comparative analysis of capital punishment : statutes, policies, frequencies, and public attitudes the world over. Lexington Book 2007. ISBN 0739120913 11. Mandery, Evan J. Capital punishment: a balanced examination. Jones and Bartlett Publishers. 2005 ISBN 0763733083 12. Kronenwetter, Michael. Capital punishment: a reference handbook (2nd ed.). ABC-CLIO. 2001 ISBN 1576074323 Read More