Capital Punishment
Capital Punishment - Injustice of SocietyThere has been many controversies in the history of the United Stats, ranging from abortion to gun control, but capital punishment has been one of the most hotly contested issues in recent decades. Today's system of capital punishment is frought with inequalities. The commonly offered arguments for the death penalty are filled with holes. "It was a deterrent. It removed killers. It was the ultimate punishment. It is biblical. It satisfied the public's need for retribution. It relieved the anguish of the victim's family." (Grisham 120) Realistically, imposing the death penalty is expensive and time consuming. Retroactively, it has yet to be proven as a deterrent. Morally is a continuation of the cycle of violence and "...degrades all who are involved in its enforcement, as well as its victim." ( Stewart 1 ) The usual alternative to the death penalty is life-long imprisonment.Perhaps the most frequent argument for capital punishment is that of deterrence. The prevailing thought is that imposition of the death penalty will act to dissuade other criminals from committing violent acts. Numerous studies have been created attempting to prove this belief; however, "all the evidence taken toge
After the 1972 court ruling that all but a few capital statuses were unconstitutional, thirty-seven states revised and reenacted their death penalty laws. " (Frame 51) In addition, with the growing humanitarianism of modern society, the number of inmates actually put to death is substantially lower than fif!ty years ago. Supporters of capital punishment say that society has the right to kill in defense of its members, just as an individual has the right to kill in self defense for his or her own personal safety. First, females are rarely sentenced to death and executed, even though women committed 20 percent of all murders that have occurred in recent years. Why don't we stop the killing?" (Grisham 404). Furthermore, "killing him will not bring back your son. "Let the punishment fit the crime" is its secondary counterpart (Cox). The end result is a punishment that ceases to deter any crime at all. In the United States, the death penalty is currently authorized in one of five ways: firing squad, hanging, gas chamber, electrocution, and lethal injection. Executions inflicted in the past are now regarded today as ghastly, barbaric and unthinkable and are forbidden by law almost everywhere. Before 1970's when the death penalty fro rape was still used in many states, no white men were guilty of raping nonwhite women, whereas most black offenders found guilty of raping a white women were executed.
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