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However, today much of the debate over capital punishment is about whether it is morally right to sentence a person who has committed a serious crime to death. This paper will address the moral issues in the controversy over whether capital punishment should be abolished. The death penalty has been part of most of the world’s justice system since the beginning of civilization. The Hammed code stated, "an eye for and eye." In the Old Testament there are many cases in which God commands the use of capital punishment. One example is the flood of Noah in Genesis 6-8. God destroyed all human and animal life except that which was on the ark. Another example is Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18-19, where God destroys two cities because of the heinous sin of the inhabitants. Although many Christians argue that capital punishment does not apply to the New Testament, there is evidence to show that the New Testament scripts reinforce the principles of capital punishment (Anderson). Romans 13:1-7, for example, teaches that God ordains human government and that civil magistrate is a minister of God (Anderson). Although laws governing the application of the death penalty have undergone many changes since biblical times, the punishment endures. Common execution methods have included crucifixion, boiling in oil, burning at the stake, stoning, and being thrown from a cliff, among others (“Background”). The methods of execution were commonly carried out on the condemned in public (“Background”). Capital punishment has been used as a way to punish criminals for illegal acts of all types. The laws were stricter in the past; a person could be executed for things such as stealing or being accused of being a witch. The ancient Hebrews inflicted death on any person found guilty of denying the true God or cursing their parents (“Background”). For centuries, England punished by death those found guilty of pickpocketing and petty theft (“Background”). In 1845, the founding of the American Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment gave movement to a nationwide anti-death-penalty campaign (“Background”). But this abolition movement did not reach peak strength until the end of the century. Between 1897 and 1917, 10 states repealed death penalty statutes, influenced in part by the reformist sentiments of the progressives (“Background”). During this period, executions occurred far more frequently than they do today (“Background”). Capital punishment has been a continued controversy in the public opinion forum, in state legislatures, and most recently in the courts. In 1972, the case of Furman vs. Georgia involving capital punishment reached the US Supreme Court. The Court decided that capital punishment would violated the Eighth Amendments provision "forbidding cruel and unusual punishment” (“Chronology”). By this decision, death sentences all over the country were set aside. But, four years later, the Supreme Court held in Gregg v. Georgia that under the states’ new two-stage trial system, the death penalty no longer violates the Eight Amendment (“Chronology”). The three most common death penalties in United States are the gas chamber, lethal injection, and the electric chair. Methods of execution worldwide are firing squad in 73 countries, hanging in 58 countries, stoning in six countries, lethal injection in five countries, beheading in three countries, electrocution in one country, and last lethal gas in one country (“Methods”). Now there are very few countries that hold public executions as in the past, but it is not completely unheard of. The methods of execution were also much crueler. The big issue is whether the current methods used to execute criminals are painless and ethical. Today’s methods are less painful than in the past. All methods result in pain for the criminal; some would say that it is wrong to put them through that kind of pain. Others say criminals who committed acts like rape or murder deserve to suffer like their victims suffered (“Issue”). Those who are in favor of capital punishment believe that all states should use the penalty and sentence criminals to death if they are convicted of rape or murder. People argue that the penalty stops others from committing such crimes. “It is difficult to make the case for any deterrent effect from this," said Steven Messner, a criminologist at the State University of New York at Albany, who reviewed the analysis by The New York Times (Bonner & Fessenden)."Whatever the factors are that affect change in homicide rates, people don't seem to operate differently based on the presence or absence of the death penalty in a state." Rehabilitation is ineffective, people argue, and capital punishment is often the only penalty that matches the horrific nature of some crimes. Furthermore society has a right to retribution and the finality of an execution can bring closure for victims' families. There has been argument that innocent people are being executed (Pambiancon). No such evidence exists. Indeed, the very study that opponent use to support their argument pointed to the only one case since 1976 of a supposedly innocent person being executed. In fact, there’s no proof of an innocent person being executed since 1900 (Pambiancon). Polls show that these views are shared by a large number of Americans. Then there are those who are not in favor of capital punishment and believe that it should be banned from society. One of the major arguments against capital punishment is that people feel that it violates the Eighth Amendment, which forbids cruel and unusual punishment. People against capital punishment believe the death penalty is absurd and is an un-Christian practice. Further more, they feel society should not encourage sentiments of vengeance that cater to morbid interest in ritual execution (“Chronology”). Many people feel that capital punishment is not a deterrent but that it is a spiteful action of the past and has no place in a civilized society today (“Issue”). In fact, law enforcement officials do not consider the death penalty an effective deterrent. Of 368 police chief and sheriffs, the death penalty was ranked as the least cost effective way of reducing violent crimes (“Issues”). According to a new national poll: The man with the money and a good lawyer was always able to get out better than the poor man with an attorney selected by the court… After a man was hanged… no evidence, nor court order could bring him back, even though he was proven innocent (“Background” 22). Those who "have labored long in the criminal justice system know, supported by a variety of studies and extensive personal experience, that blacks get the harsher hand in criminal justice and particularly in capital punishment cases," McCann wrote in "Opposing Capital Punishment: A Prosecutor's Perspective," published in the Marquette Law Review in 1996 (Bonner & Fessenden). Forty-three percent of the people on death row across the country are African-Americans, according to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (Bonner & Fessenden). In Milwaukee, the district attorney for the last 32 years, E. Michael McCann, shares the view that the death penalty is applied unfairly to minorities. "It is rare that a wealthy white man gets executed, if it happens at all," McCann said (Bonner & Fessenden). In twelve states that have chosen not to use capital punishment, an analysis by The New York Times found that the demographic profile of states with the death penalty is not far different from that of states without it. Indeed, 10 of the 12 states without capital punishment have homicide rates below the national average, Federal Bureau of Investigation data shows, while half the states with the death penalty have homicide rates above the national average (Bonner & Fessenden). In a state-by-state analysis, The New York Times found that during the last 20 years, the homicide rate in states with the death penalty has been 48 percent to 101 percent higher than in states without the death penalty (Bonner & Fessenden). The poverty rate in states with the death penalty, as a whole, was 13.4 percent in 1990, compared with 11.4 percent in states without the death penalty (Bonner & Fessenden). The homicide rate in North Dakota, which does not have the death penalty, was lower than the homicide rate in South Dakota, which does have it, according to F.B.I. statistics for 1998. Massachusetts, which abolished capital punishment in 1984, has a lower rate than Connecticut, which has six people on death row; the homicide rate in West Virginia is 30 percent below that of Virginia, which has one of the highest execution rates in the country (Bonner & Fessenden). In addition to Michigan, the states without the death penalty are Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Alaska, Hawaii, West Virginia, Vermont, Maine, and Massachusetts. No single factor explains why these states have chosen not to impose capital punishment. Culture and religion play a role, as well as political vagaries in each state (Bonner & Fessenden). Opponents of capital punishment are finding their fortunes finally changing: For the first time in years, polls show public support for death penalty weakening (Pambiancon). Politicians opposed to capital punishment have been emboldened to come out of hiding with proposals at both state and federal levels to adopt moratoriums on executions. The arguments for and against the death penalty have not changed much (Bonner & Fessenden). At Michigan's constitutional convention in 1961, the delegates heard arguments that the death penalty was not a deterrent, that those executed were usually the poor and disadvantaged, and that innocent people had been sentenced to death. "The same arguments are being made today," said Eugene G. Wanger, who had introduced the language to enshrine a ban on capital punishment in Michigan's constitution at that convention (Bonner & Fessenden). Research has indicates that a significant of people who are not for capital punishment belief that it violates their rights and that it’s a cruel action, they feel strongly of their sets of morals. In which their punishment are unfair and injustice to the victim’s who have had their rights violated either by a physically or mentally abused. Most of these people vote against capital punishment for the moral issue, saying that we are civilized people compared to other countries. Should we let these people with good and nice moral say that it wrong to put to death a criminal that committed an illegal act free for their wrong doing. Reason like the one above is why a small percentage of our population is for capital punishment. They see as a control in our society. By having this control they believe that it will change our local community and lower crimes rate in our country. Also they try to set standard moral, saying that its not right to commit an illegal act and get away with it. In which a lot of criminals do by having a flow of money in their bank accounts, or by pleading that their insane, or by saying that there not guilty of the crime where by the judge view sees then not-guilty of the crime that was committed. And if the judges see them as innocent they have some how cheated the system that been corrupted so may of time by the people. Which leads to why our system must be revised to view both sides, to where the punishment is not as harsh and that the victims seeks justice for the crime that was committed by another person, this way it pleases both groups. The justice system does not serve justice to our country and for our people. If it did there would not as many crimes and illegal actions be happening in United States today? But the question is are other counties justices serving them justice for the crimes that are being committed. I have lived in Sana, Yemen for three years while my dad worked for the United States Embassy. There the government of Yemen where strict to where alcohol was illegal. If you where caught drink on the streets, or while driving, you would of been sentence to jail for a certain amount of days. In Yemen the thief and crime rates where so low, because the people knew what would happen to them if they would of got caught. The government in Yemen would cut of the hand of a thief if the where caught stealing, or if they committed a crime either there head was chop of or there tongue. All of this was also done on a Sunday in a public square where police would drag you if you where walk down the street or shopping. This incident happen to my mom while she was down town shopping in the market a police drag her and had her go and see I guy get his hand chopped off for stealing. It may look like if it would happen every day but it did not. The local people knew better not to steal from others that’s why the people that own stores used to leave the store open with out locking up or closing. They trusted their people not to steal from them because if they did they knew the consequences of their actions. Why if this methods work for Yemen and other countries, why can it not work for the in United States. Where the illegal actions is so high compared to other countries. The people here get way with so many things that is they got away with it once they believe that they can do it again and not be caught. The system will still be corrupted until the day we revise the system and make it better for our country. By make it safe enough to leave our stores open and homes with out being robbed from or violated by others. I guess my goal is to see in the future that this will happen and makes it safe for me and my future family to be safe with out fearing that their going to be robbed, rape, or murdered. If the system will not change, I will properly move out of United States because I do not feel safe here enough to leave my doors open to be intruded by a criminal. I want to feel that security in my own home that I do not have to fear of being a victim of someone else’s crimes. Bibliography: Work cited Anderson, Kerby.”Capital Punishment”. Leadership U Web Site. 2 Sept 2000. 19 Sept 2000. . “Background”. CQ Researcher Online. 10 Mar 1995. Scarborough-Phillips Lib. 6 Oct 2000. . Bonner, Raymond and Fessenden, Ford. “Absence of Executions: A special report; States With No Death Penalty Share Lower Homicide Rates”. The New York Times. 22 Sep 2000. Lexis-Nexis. Scarborough-Phillips Lib. 31 Oct 2000. “Chronology: Chronology”. CQ Researcher Online. 10 Mar 1995. Scarborough-Phillips Lib. 6 Oct 2000. “Current situation:States Mull Changes”. CQ Researcher Online. 10 Mar 1995. Scarborough-Phillips Lib. 6 Oct 2000. “The Issue”. CQ Researcher Online. 10 Mar 1995. Scarborough-Phillips Lib. 6 Oct 2000. “Methods of Execution Worldwide”. Amnesty International-USA Web Site.03 May 1999. 6 Oct 2000. Pambianco, Robert V. “Conservative Debate Death Penality: We’er not executing the innocent”. The Denver Post. 23 June 2000. Lexis-Nexis. Scarborough-Phillips Lib. 31 Oct 2000. Saunders, Debra J. ”Gore and Bush Spar Over Hate Crimes”. 13 Oct 2000. The San Francisco Chronicle. Lexis-Nexis. Scarborough-Phillips Lib. 31 Oct 2000. Word Count: 2416
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