Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • Free Essays • My Term Papers • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Miscellaneous Death Penalty5 misc20 Death Penalty5 misc20 The issue of the death penalty is widely disputed. So disputed that maybe I shouldn’t have picked this topic. But nevertheless, the death penalty is an issue that needs to be addressed. Should the death penalty be abolished from our criminal justice system? Well, that depends on whom you ask. If you ask me… no. I personally don’t see anything wrong with the death penalty because there are a lot of criminals that are just too dangerous to society and death is the only punishment they deserve. I know that it is in the eighth amendment that prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, and I can’t think of a greater punishment for a crime than death, but I believe that exceptions should be made. Despite U.S. Supreme Court rulings to the contrary, many death penalty opponents consider capital punishment in and of itself to be cruel and unusual. They believe the death penalty to be a barbarous practice that should be discarded. Specific methods of execution also frequently come under attack as violating the Eighth Amendment. Death penalty advocates counter that the framers of the Constitution took capital punishment for granted, and did not consider it cruel and unusual. Some proponents of the death penalty believe some methods of execution, such as lethal injection, are more humane than others. (http://ethics.acusd.edu/death_penalty.html) From 1930, the first year for which statistics are readily available from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, to 1967, 3,859 persons were executed. During this period, over half (54%) of those executed were black, 45 % were white, and the remaining 1% were members of other racial groups -- American Indians (19), Filipino (13), Chinese (8), and Japanese (2). The vast majority of those executed were men but 32 women were executed from 1930 to 1967 as well. Most of these executions were for the crime of murder, 455 were for the crime of rape, and 70 were for other violent offenses.(http://ethics.acusd.edu/death_penalty.html) Since the 1976 Gregg decision upholding the constitutionality of Georgia's death penalty law, numerous states have reinstated capital punishment in their statutes. The most recent state to enact a death penalty law was New York in 1995. As of January 1998, 38 states and the federal government have capital punishment laws in effect. Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin do not have a death penalty. (http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/just/death/) Death penalty advocates argue that the execution of convicted murderers deter others from committing murder for fear that they will also be executed, and also that murderers will be incapacitated: once dead, they will have no opportunity to commit additional murders. Death penalty opponents dispute the deterrent effect of capital punishment, arguing that few murderers rationally weigh the possibility that they might face the death penalty before committing a murder. Finally, death penalty opponents do not dispute that execution incapacitates executed murders, but argue that life imprisonment without possibility of parole is equally incapacitating. (Jacob Sullum, Los Angeles) I do not agree with this statement. I couldn’t think of punishment worse than death. If I were a criminal I would fear this as a form of punishment for the crime I will be committing. But it true that criminals do not think about what will happen if they are caught. They think of the act it’s self. Opponents of the death penalty argue that there is a danger of executing innocent persons, and cite actual cases in which defendants were wrongly convicted of, and sometimes executed for, capital crimes. Death penalty opponents view recent laws which restrict the appeals process. Opponents feel that this increases the potential for executing innocent people. Death penalty proponents argue that there are sufficient safeguards against executing persons and that the danger of executing the innocent is small. Advocates of the death penalty generally argue either that existing safeguards against executing innocent people are present in the system, especially in the appeals process and that occasional executions of innocent people are unfortunate, but necessary risks in a society which expects to protect itself. (Katha Pollitt, New York) Death penalty opponents argue that capital punishment is expensive, costing more than it would cost to imprison murderers for life. Proponents of the death penalty argue that the death penalty is a cost-effective alternative to life imprisonment, or that death penalty costs could be lowered by restricting appeals. (Katha Pollitt, New York) Both sides to this argument are very well represented and stated. It is hard to make a decision on weather or not to take a man's life because he has committed some deviant act that society (or a jury of 12 people) feels that there is no other punishment they can give that person but death. I am still in favor for the death penalty for the same reasons I have said before. Our society needs a penalty for these serious violent offenders. If we did not, we would have very serious inmates still in our prison systems. Besides, I kind of believe in the old saying: an eye for an eye. Now I think, of course, that there should be exceptions for people who have involuntary killed a person or even killed a person in self-defense. If anything we should become stricter on the kinds of crimes that we hand down the death sentence to. This, in turn, might make all the violent offenders think twice before they commit the crime. Bibliography: Works Cited Death Penalty Debate. (http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/just/ death/), Online, March 2000. -Gives information on the states that have reinstated capital punishment into their justice system and gives a list of the 12 states that still do not have the death penalty. Pollitt, Katha: The Nation, New York; Mar 6, 2000; Vol. 270, Iss. 9; pg. 10, 1 pgs, EBSCOhost March 2000 -Gives a detailed two sided argument on the death penalty and argues how it costs more to house an immate for life in prison. Punishment And The Death Penalty. (http://www.ethics. acused.edu/death_penalty.html), Online, March 2000. - Gives statistical facts on the history of the death penalty. Sullum, Jacob: Reason, Los Angeles; Mar 2000; Vol. 31, iss. 10, pg. 14, 1 pgs, EBSCOhost March 2000 Word Count: 898
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