Analysis on Death Penalty Paper Example

Introduction

In basic definitions, according to Mathias (2013), death penalty can be described as where the government takes the life of an individual as a form of punishment due to his wrongdoings. He additionally argued that capital punishment is acknowledged as the worst type of punishment which can be imposed by a particular government to its citizens. Majority of jurisdictions allow capital punishment on distinct cases particularly those encompassing murder, treason, and espionage. Various techniques have been used in different periods to impose the death penalty on those convicted of wrongdoings which are punishable through death. These methods include the use of poisonous gas, hanging, death before a firing squad, and electrocution as well as lethal injection among others. People who support capital punishment are convinced that it is essential in maintaining law and order while those against it hold that it is not an appropriate punishment and approach to maintaining law and order hence it should abolish. Therefore, to comprehend the issue of the death penalty, it is significant to its origin, various cases involving its debate, and from the viewpoint of those who are against it.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Origin of Capital Punishment

The death penalty can be dated back before the birth of Jesus Christ. It was initially used in the Eighteen Century B.C during the King Hammurabi' code. Additionally, during this period, it was enforced on individuals who violated at least one of the stated twenty-five crimes. In the 14th century B.C, it was made a component of the Draconian Code of Athens (Vito & Vito, 2014). Furthermore, in the 15th Century B.C, capital punishment was viewed as a type of punishment by the Romans which was ultimately integrated into their laws.

In Britain, the death penalty was initially enforced in the 10th Century A.D. At this period, some techniques of imposing it were adopted which encompassed quartering, drawing, beheading, burning at stake, boiling, and hanging (Lynch, 2013). Nonetheless, during the ninetieth century, capital punishment reforms had been established which decreased the number of crimes punishable through death.

Currently, the universe has observed a gradual decrease in the number of states which impose the death penalty. For instance, according to an article published the by Canes-Wrone, Clark and Kelly (2014), approximately, two-thirds of the globe states including virtually the whole of Europe Continent, have eliminated capital punishment. However, in the United States which adopted the death penalty from Britain, there are still existing debates on whether the U.S should end capital punishment or not.

Analysis of Gregg v. Georgia and Furman v. Georgia

There are two distinct cases which reveal the current debate on the subject of the death penalty in the U.S which encompass the Georgia v. Gregg and Georgia v. Furman. In the case of Georgia v. Furman, the U.S Supreme Court declared that the execution of capital punishment comprised unusual and crucial punishment which is in defilement of the Fourteenth and Eighth Amendments (Vito & Vito, 2014). Additionally, Supreme Court arrived at the stated decision due to their findings on the way the death penalty was administered. It additionally stated that the death penalty was disproportionately executed and imposed on the members of unpopular clusters, the Negro, and the poor. It was also considered that life incarceration was an effective deterrent to wrongdoings which regarded the death penalty as excessive punishment. As the result of the Supreme Court concluded that the state of Georgia should restructure its laws to abolish the arbitrariness and discrimination in the execution of the capital punishment.

In the case of Georgia v. Gregg (428 US 153) which took place in 1973, the Supreme Court upturned itself and ruled that capital punishment did not in any way violate the constitution. Furthermore, it argued that the constitution itself in any way did not prohibit the death penalty. Additionally, an effort to support its argument, it adopted the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of the U.S which stated that no individual should be destitute of his or her property, liberty, and life in the absence of law procedure. This revealed that the U.S Constitution did not prohibit capital punishment but rather approved it by providing the necessity of the law procedure which had to be followed. Additionally, the Supreme Court stated the debate suggested in Furman v. Georgia case which argued that over time decency standards particularly of the public had revolved in such a way that death penalty, could be not be tolerated anymore since the argument was not valid (Vito & Vito, 2014). The occurrences which transpired in a milestone of the Furman v. Georgia case according to the Supreme Court revealed that the argument about the death penalty is fallacious. This is because it bore emphasizes which new capital punishment law had which had been signed in over thirty-five countries after Furman v. Georgia. This law demonstrated that the elected people representatives had not rejected capital punishment.

Arguments against Death Penalty

The individual against the death penalty or Abolitionists argues that the death penalty does not discourage crimes. They stated various surveys which revealed that there was no experiential proof which developed a causal connection between the death penalty and non-commission or commission of wrongdoings. Different studies suggest that in twenty-seven countries where at least one implementation of capital punishment had happened during the same time, executers only discouraged wrongdoings in six countries. Conversely, in various states, the death penalty even escalated killings which were more than twice the number of experienced dissuasion (Canes-Wrone, Clark & Kelly, 2014). Furthermore, in eight states, the death penalty had no impact on the rate of murder. This showed that executions had a dissuasion impact in only twenty-three percent of the states. However, capital punishment induced extra murders in forty-nine percent of the states while in seventy-six percent of the states, death penalty execution did not discourage murder. The abolitionists stated that it does not often follow that wrongdoings are planned or premeditates since it is also possible for crimes to be performed in the state of passion or anger. Where a crime is planned, the criminal mindset is to conceive of various techniques to escape capture as well as conviction, not punishment fear. Therefore, in such cases, the death penalty will not discourage crime.

On the other hand, for Abolitionists, the death penalty is a murder which they viewed as a violent act. By viewing the death penalty as the only answer to criminality, the United State government educates that the resolution to violence is also violence. As a result, it is legitimizing violence by adopting capital punishment as a component of its criminal justice structure. Therefore, abolitionists suggest various less violent ways of debilitating criminals, for instance, imposing long prison sentences (Lynch, 2013). Additionally, the death penalty is discriminatory because socioeconomic and race factors take a significant part in its execution. Thus, abolitionists argue that currently, it has become almost impossible to execute the death penalty fairly. Also, capital punishment is irreparable, and it enduringly deprives criminals of their due law procedure. This is because when the government executes individuals, they are depriving them of a chance to prove their innocence even through the utilization of the latest technology (Vito & Vito, 2014). Additionally, there is a likelihood that innocent individuals may be murdered since once convicted offenders are executed, they cannot be helped by the novel evidence (Lynch, 2013). This evidence may be discovered later or during the retraction of a witness' testimony who was an essential instrumental in an offender's conviction.

Conclusion

The death penalty has been discovered to be an old form of punishment which had been used before the birth of Jesus Christ. However, there are various debates where some support it and others oppose it. Georgia v. Gregg and Georgia v. Furman cases has been essential in comprehending how the U.S Supreme Court view capital punishment. It has been found that it's the United States Constitution does not prohibit execution of capital punishment, but it approves by providing the necessity of the law procedure which had to be followed. However, there those who are against the death penalty known as abolitionists. They argue that capital punishment does not reduce or discourage crime as supported by various studies which they cited. They also concluded that the death penalty is a murder which they see as a violent act. They have thus suggested less violent ways of debilitating criminals while providing them with a chance to prove their innocence through the utilization of the latest technology or where novel evidence has been discovered later after their sentence. Therefore, due to severe impacts of the capital sentence which have seen some states such as entire Europe eliminating the death penalty, all states including the United States should eradicate it.

References

Canes-Wrone, B., Clark, T. S., & Kelly, J. P. (2014). Judicial selection and death penalty decisions. American Political Science Review, 108(1), 23-39.

Lynch, M. (2013). Institutionalizing bias: The death penalty, federal drug prosecutions, and mechanisms of disparate punishment. Am. J. Crim. L., 41, 91.

Mathias, M. D. (2013). The sacralization of the individual: Human rights and the abolition of the death penalty. American journal of sociology, 118(5), 1246-1283.

Vito, A. G., & Vito, G. F. (2014). Capital Punishment. The Encyclopedia of Theoretical Criminology, 1-4.