Capital Punishment Essay
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The enforcement of the death penalty (capital punishment) has been an effective deterrent. Capital punishment is the execution of criminals by the state for committing heinous crimes such as rape and murder. The debates over the merits of capital punishment have endured for years, and continue to be an extremely indecisive and complicated issue. Society must be kept safe from these killers by taking away their function in our society, but at the same time, we must ensure that the innocent people are never convicted or sentenced to death for a crime that they did not commit. 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 discourage other criminals from committing violent acts. Numerous studies have been created attempting to prove this belief.
This fact that it was more safe back then than it is now probably has to due with the fact that in earlier times, where capital punishment was common, the value of life was less, and societies were more barbaric, capital punishment was probably quite acceptable. However, in today's society, which is becoming ever more increasingly humane, and individual rights and due process of justice are held in high accord, the death penalty is becoming an unrealistic form of punishment. Also, with the ever-present possibility of mistaken execution, there will remain the question of innocence of those put to death. This decline creates a situation in which the death penalty ceases to be a deterrent when the populace begins to think that one can get away with the crime and go unpunished. In addition, the less that the death sentence is used, the more it becomes unusual, thus coming in conflict with the eighth amendment.
The death penalty has existed as long as humans have existed. The quote "an eye for an eye" is found in the Bible. In the middle ages fines, public humiliation and imprisonment were appropriate punishments for all crimes, and death penalty for all murders. Today, Federal law states that the death penalty is to be enforced with convicted criminals for: treason; deserting armed forces during wartime; murder committed by a soldier; kidnapping and murder that involves crossing state lines; murder committed during an airplane hijacking; and of course, homicide. The death penalty is also called for punishment for: attempting to kill anyone investigating or prosecuting his or her activities; advising, directing, authorizing or assisting in the murder of someone.
The Old Testament said a great deal about the death penalty, it is even mentioned thirty times in the Bible. The Torah (first five books of the Bible) required this type of punishment for many transgressions that were both civil and religious. Death was usually by stoning, but one crime required women to be burned alive.
The death penalty has been part of justices systems since the beginning of civilization. It was used as a way to punish criminals for crimes of all types. The law was a lot stricter in history; you could be executed for things such as stealing, being accused of being a witch and many other things. The majority of the executions in history until around the 1830 s were performed in public. Now there are very few countries that hold public executions, but it is not completely unheard of. The methods of execution were also much crueler, such as burning at the stake, stoning, thrown to animals, thrown from a cliff among other things.
The methods used today are a walk in the park compared to methods used throughout history. Even though there are these federal laws requiring the use of the death penalty for the crimes, state laws only consider one crime, murder, to be a capital offense. In the United States alone, there have been 4047 executions since 1930, and 188 were from 1977-1996. In 1996, there were a total of 15,168,100 arrests; 33,050 for forcible rape; 1,506,200 involving drug violations and 19,020 for murder and non-negligent manslaughter. The death penalty was enforced 45 times. Methods of the death penalty include lethal injection, gas chamber, electric chair, hanging, and firing squad.
Many contend that the use of capital punishment as a form of deterrence does not work, as there are no fewer murders in states that have the death penalty, then those states that do not have the death penalty. In order for capital punishment to work as deterrence, certain events must be present in the criminal's mind before committing the offense. The criminal must be aware that others have been punished in the past for the same offense that he or she is planning, and that what happened to that individual who committed that offense could also happen to them. Sometimes this works and sometimes the individuals who commit any types of crime ranging from auto theft to first degree murder, never take account the consequences of their actions.
Deterrence to crime is rooted in the individuals themselves. Every human has a personal set of morals. How much they will and will not tolerate. How far they will and will not go. This personal set of morals can be made or broken by friends, influence, family, home, and a person's life. An individual, who is never taught some sort of restraint as a child, will probably never understand any limit as to what they can do, until they have learned it themselves. This is where the death penalty would come into good use if it were used more often.
The death penalty deters murder by putting fear into would be killers such as the ones just described that have not learned a limit on to what they can do. A person is less likely to do something, if he or she thinks that harm will come to them. Another way the death penalty deters murder, is the fact that if the killer is dead, he will not be able to kill again. Most supporters of the death penalty feel that offenders should be punished for their crimes, and that it does not matter whether it will deter crime rate. Supporters of the death penalty are in favor of making examples out of offenders, and that the threat of death will be enough to deter the crime rate.
There are those who claim that capital punishment is itself a form of vengeance on the killer, but isn't locking up a human being behind steel bars for many years, vengeance itself? Is it humane to give an individual who took the life of another, heating, clothing, indoor plumbing, and three meals a day, while a homeless person who has harmed no one receives nothing?
Adversaries of capital punishment claim that it is far more humane then having the state take away the life of the individual. In February 1963, Gary McCorkell, a 19 year old sex offender, was scheduled to hang, but just days before his execution, the then liberal cabinet of Lester Person commuted McCorkell to life in prison. Less than 20 years later, McCorkell was arrested, tried, and convicted for the kidnapping and raping of a 10-year old Tennessee boy. He was sentenced to 63 years in prison. Had McCorkell been executed in 1963, that boy would have never had to go through the horror of being sexually abused?
These individuals may then themselves become sex offenders, as many sex offenders were sexually abused as children. McCorkell may have been a victim of sexually assault in the past, but that does not justify what he did. He did not do this once, but did this continually, killing two boys, and assaulting two others, leaving one for dead. He knew exactly what he was doing. What right does this man have to live? He has ruined the lives of four children, what will he do in life that will compensate for that? What kind of a life would the state have been taking in this case? This life is surely not an innocent life, nor forgiving, nor one that was in the area of reform and cared to be.
According to Isaac Ehrlich's study, eight murders are deterred for each execution that is carried out in the U.S. He goes on to say, " if one execution of guilty capital murderer deters the murder of one innocent life, the execution is justified." To most supporters of the death penalty, like Ehrlich, if even one life is saved, for countless executions of the guilty, it is good reason for the death penalty. Most supporters, including Ehrlich consider the theory that society engages in murder when executing the guilty, is invalid. He feels that execution of convicted offenders expresses the great value society places on innocent life.
In a study done by Professor Stephen K. Layson of the University of North Carolina, showed to be on the low side of the deterrence factor of capital punishment. Professor Layson found that 18 murderers were deterred by each execution in the U.S. In 1966, 42% of Americans were in favor of capital punishment while 47% were opposed to it. Since the crime rate in the United States has increased, support for the death penalty has followed proportionally. In 1986, support for the capital punishment was 80% for and only 17% against with 3% undecided, but most of the undecided votes said they were leaning toward a pro capital punishment stance, if they had to vote on it immediately. All of these studies and surveys show that capital punishment is a valid deterrent to crime, and obviously, the public and society as a whole are in favor of it.
The death penalty makes, would-be capital offenders think about whether committing a crime is really worth their lives. Even if capital punishment did not deter crime, the simple fact that it will allow to "get even" with murderers. Capital punishment also insures peace of mind because it insures that murderers will never kill again. The...
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