capital punishment pros and cons
In simple terms, "capital punishment is the lawful taking of a person's life after conviction for a crime" (Flander, 3). In an historical aspect, capital punishment traces as far back as the earliest times of Western Civilization. The first criminal laws were the practice of personal justice. Stephen Flanders writes in his book Capital Punishment: "the infliction of death for purpose of retribution has been a facet of human existence since earliest times. Even before the emergence of organized societies, individuals killed to avenge wrongs done to them and their families. There was no code that specified wrongful conduct, or penalties such behavior would incur" (4). The earliest recorded sets of laws were known to Western society as the Babylonian Hammurabi code. It decreed the death penalty for crimes as minor as the fraudulent sale of beer. Egyptians were also killed for disclosing sacred burial places and for the theft of valuable heirlooms (Flander, 5). "Historica!lly, one of the reasons societies had relied so heavily on the death penalty was that other punishment options did not exist" (Flander, 6). As more organized social structures developed, crimes were divided into public and private offenses. Public offe
"In California, our most populous state, it is estimated that taxpayers could save $90 million annually by abolishing the death penalty. A person who opposes capital punishment would detest that capital punishment is not effective. Also, fewer crimes will occur due to a criminal's fear of the death penalty, in which fewer crimes will occur. The Moral Imagination: Confronting the Ethical issues of our day. That if life is indeed sacred, then it is sacred everywhere for convicted murderers, citizens of hostile governments, and cruel dictators (Tivnan, 158). Finally, capital punishment does not save taxpayers money. The Moral Imagination: Confronting the Ethical issues of our day. In my opinion, capital punishment comes down to one question: Can a society that presumes itself to be decent kill even it most vicious criminals (Tivnan, 167). Thomas Sowell maintains that studies prove the death penalty would be an effective deterrent if capital punishment were used consistently and if the process had fewer delays (Winters, 103).
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Acceptance Essays
