Moral Justification of the Death Penalty "There are, of course, political leaders and others who advocate capital punishment as part of a calculated attempt to gain or maintain power, but most people who favor the death penalty are motivated by natural reactions of fear and indignation, as well as laudatory moral desires to protect the innocent and to see justice done" (Nathason and Goldberg). Capital punishment has been used by almost every culture in the world. Execution has been in existance almost as long as people have populated Earth, and has been controversial since. History has shown since the Old Testament and Hebrew and Heian period to the present day, there have been those in favor and those against the death penalty. Whether or not capital punishment should and will be a permanent establishment in our justice system has been discussed by many, in various levels of society for hundreds of years. Although many in society argue the issues in abolishing capital punishment, many areas can point to the moral justification of punishment in general.Legal execution has existed as long as human culture was brought upon this planet. One of the first written codes of law, composed by Hammurabi of Babylonia and carved on a stone column nearly four thousand years ago, includes death as an appropriate punishment (Bender and Leone 12). With as many tracks of history, punishment has been used for many years. The Hebrew culture used the death penalty as a means of retaliation against criminals. The retaliation was intended to be for the crime that has been made. "An eye for an eye," is the most common used quotation in associated with this principle. Today, more than one- half of the world's nations use capital punishment. Iran, for example, was site of more than 470 legal executions between 1985 and 1988 (Zimring and Hawkins 2). In Ireland, capital punishment is legal, but the last state-sanctioned execution was in 1954 (Bender and L...
