Death Penalty Nearly half of Americans say that the death penalty is not imposed often enough (Newport). Yet the number of executions in America continues to drop. There was about half the number of executions in 2009 than 1999 (Thornburgh). Some say that the death penalty should not be used at all because we are not sure if the person is guilty. In fact, the death penalty needs to be imposed more often because it prevents the murders of innocent people, and the punishment should fit the crime.
For instance, the criminal will think twice before killing for fear of receive the strongest punishment. Death penalty actually is not an effective crime deterrent. This is because majority of people do not anticipate they will be caught. Some states in the United State such as New York, Hawaii, Alaska and Michigan do not use the death penalty had proved they had lower murder rate than the states that do. For example in 2004, crimes rate for states do not use the death penalty had 4.08 murders per 100000 inhabitants compare to states use death penalty had 6.32 murders per 100000 inhabitants.
Shalom wonders what this is saying about our current system that is in force (10). The author reveals that murderers that are unable to pay for their defense are more likely to be sentenced to death then those who are capable of getting a lawyer. Former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall says that “the burden of capital punishment falls upon the poor, the ignorant, and the underprivileged members of society” (11). Shalom concludes that the United States is not the only country that is continuing to practice capital punishment. The other countries are considered to be far from world leaders in human rights.
Gianna Bianca 04/04/2013 Protecting the Children with Jessica’s Law Every two minutes in the United States, someone is sexually abused. 44% of these victims are under the age of 18 years old (CDC). These statistics are bold, but even worse – these crimes can be prevented. Crimes against children that involve sexual abuse can be prevented in one giant way: by keeping the predators in prison there they belong. This seems like a no brainer, however some judges and members of senate disagree that these illicit crimes are punishable by lengthy sentences and strict court conditions.
This article discusses individual cases and crimes and gives analysis of the arguments made against death penalty in real world. Firstly it discusses the deterrence argument while going through a number of cases. The conclusion is that it has no effect on reducing homicides but ironically it breeds violence as in some cases offenders committed a capital crime in a territory where execution still prevails while they could have easily avoided it. Second thing discussed is the cost, the research in article shows that it costs significantly more money to put a convict to death than to incarcerate him for life in a prison. Moreover it is shown that in many cases criminals are executed while there are reasonable doubts in their convictions and some have avoided execution by just a few hours before being exonerated.
Our justice system shows more sympathy for criminals than it does victims and this should be altered. It’s time we put the emphasis of our criminal justice system back on protecting the victim rather that the accused. We need justice for current and past victims, longer sentences and the death penalty is the way to achieve this. Death sentence provides a deterrent for prisoners already serving a life sentence. Nothing is to stop people who have been sentenced to life imprisonment to kill in prison; to escape and kill or to kill when their life sentence (minimum of 15 years) has been
Even though some may argue that death penalty deters crime, studies have shown that it does not. On the contrary, death penalty increases the murder rate since it causes the death of still another person. Execution cost taxpayers more than keeping someone in prison for life. Isolating
It's time justice put the emphasis of our criminal justice system back on protecting the victim rather than the accused. Any criminal on death row has almost always committed another crime to add onto their punishment. DNA testing and other methods of modern crime scene science can now effectively eliminate most uncertainty as to a person's guilt or innocence. Death penalty pros states that “DNA testing is over 99 percent effective. And even if DNA testing and other such scientific methods didn't exist, the trial and appeals process is so thorough it's next to impossible to convict an innocent person”.
Desmond LeSure Professor Bolton ENGL 1020 19 April 2012 “Is the Three-Strikes Law fair and ethical?” There are individuals who were known as habitual criminals who constantly repeated the cycle of committing a crime, getting arrested, and eventually getting released. In 1993, Americans noticed that this was very costly to the public because the process of arresting and trying these criminals was expensive. American tax payers were beginning to become concerned with this issue and wanted something to be done about habitual offenders. Society is pushing the issue that it was more logical to keep repeat criminals in jail and not release them to commit more crimes. Politicians listened to society and executed a law that would put an end to
"Bring Back Flogging" was published on February 20, in 1997 in the Boston Globe. In this essay, Jeff Jacoby describes the weak points of today's criminal justice system, and claims that flogging should be our option because it is a much quicker, cheaper, educational, and a more effective way than imprisonment. In his argument, Jacoby does show a good amount of evidence, but he does not seem to support his points. He points out that about 1.6 million Americans were in jail that year (1997), and that this number was 3.5 times larger than that of 1980. This seems to show the weakness of the criminal justice system.