“Along with Troy Davis hundreds of people have been wrongfully convicted and executed in the United States” (David A. Love 1). Think about it if the person that faced the death penalty wasn’t guilty you took an innocent life. There are just some things that people shouldn’t have the ability to do, and sentencing someone to a death is one of them. “Since 1976-2010 there have been approximately 1,226 executions”.
Vincent Flores Phil102 Mon/Wed 11-12:20 The Death Penalty The state of California is having difficulty deciding whether or not to keep the death penalty. Currently there are 714 people on death row; yet, California has only executed 13 people since 1976.California officials cannot deliver what they are sentencing considering the number of people on death row in comparison to how many death sentences are made each year. Last year, 78 death sentences were given by California's court systems compared to the 315 that were given in 1996, Dieter explained. For instance, The Green River Killer, Gary Leon Ridgeway, was sentenced to California's death row for murdering 48 women and throwing their bodies into the Green River. The Author supports their position by stating, “What we refuse to accept is the severity of the crimes the individuals on death row have committed.
Prison time is an effective deterrent to a point, with some people more time is needed. Prosecutors should have the option of using a variety of punishments in order to minimize crime. The most fundamental principle of justice is that the punishment should fit the crime. When someone plans and brutally murders another person, it would seem that justice would be better served if they too were killed as they had planned to kill another human being. Our justice system shows more sympathy for criminals than it does victims and this should be altered.
This results in poor representation of convicted people in courts and unfair verdicts. Another issue associated with the penalty is that the value of life is lessened. Government should be concerned with the damage inflicted on society when a person is sentenced to be killed by juries. Being put to death by a people does not seem to be that different from a heinous murder committed by a murderer. With all of the media reporting executions like movies, societies become desensitized and accept death penalty as the right way to take care of criminals.
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.
The majority of the people voting for the age limit to drop to 18 are the people who are under 18 or who are 18. They feel that 18 year-olds are prepared to make responsible decisions about drinking (Amethyst Initiative). The Amethyst Initiative believes that lowering the drinking age will only make situations worse for society. But the fact is, these people are not thinking about the consequences and are only looking at the pleasure. “More than 1,700 college students in the U.S. are killed each year—about 4.65 a day—as a result of alcohol-related injuries” (The Marin Institute).
Today I’m going to be discussing whether capital punishment, more commonly known as the death penalty, should be abolished or kept and brought back to countries than no longer have it. So, capital punishment is the execution (or any other way of killing) of someone as punishment for a crime after a trial and being found guilty of that crime. It is usually only used as a punishment for serious crimes i.e. murder, rape etc. Capital Punishment is used in many countries such as Afghanistan, Belarus, China, Egypt, India, majority of the United States and several other countries as well.
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.
Lynching is being “put to death, especially by hanging, by mob action and without legal authority.” People were being killed without a right. However, people were not just hanged. There were other crimes that included castration, burning at the stake, maiming, dismemberment, etc. This horrendous crime “…seemed to have been an American invention.” This means that we came up with the idea of torturing and
The number of hangings fell from an average of fifteen a year in the first half of the fifties to about four a year. However some odd decisions were still made on executions, such as Hendryk Niemasz who was executed even though he appeared to have killed someone while sleepwalking. The Homicide Act was effectively unworkable because it allowed some murder to be categorized as more serious than others. For example murders with a shotgun lead to the death penalty, while brutal strangulation following a sexual assault led to imprisonment. The liberal climate would not allow this disparity as it would have been viewed as unfair and would have been one of the factors in considering the abolition of the death penalty.