Research Paper Death Penalty Text

Jonathan Friesen - Writing Coach

length: 737 words 2.1 double spaced pages rating: red free death penalty the death penalty has been a staple in the justice system of america since its inception. Though very controversial, it has stood the test of time as the ultimate punishment. America, on the other hand, has thirty eight of fifty states with laws regarding the death penalty. It seems the united states requires the death penalty more than ever due to the increased rate of violent crime.

Help Writing Dissertation Proposal Services

Since nineteen ninety more than three hundred fifty people have been put to death with another three thousand three hundred in the waiting on death row. On a larger scale, since nineteen seventy six five hundred fifty two executions have occurred in the united states, the breakdown is as follows: three hundred ninety four by lethal injection, one hundred forty one by electrocution, eleven by gas chamber, three by hanging, and two by firing squad. Half of the post nineteen seventy six executions have occurred within the last five years, including fifty two so far this year. Although the death penalty has brought many viscous criminals to a fitting end, the process by which the death penalty is based upon is an inconsistent one.

The system of tangled appeals, court orders, and last minute pardons has rendered the entire system ineffective. As displayed by the swelling of the stagnant pool of death row inmates, criminals are not deterred by the punishment. The outcome of the case is decided by the quality of the lawyer defending the accused. Many criminals cannot afford a competent lawyer, resulting in a greater chance of that particular person being issued the death penalty, as opposed to life in prison. A fine line separates these two charges, and a defendant who can afford a competent lawyer stands less of a chance of being assigned the death penalty than one who cannot. The amount of violent crimes are split almost equally between the white and black ethnic groups. Since nineteen seventy seven eighty two percent of the criminals assigned the death penalty have committed the crime in question against a caucasian.

Narrative Essay Quinceanera

Another glaring defect of the structure of the death penalty system in america are the laws regarding the sentencing of criminals under the age of eighteen. Although these criminals have indeed committed crimes that could call upon the death penalty, they are children, with so much more learning and opportunities ahead of them. No person who is mentally inadequate or immature should be assigned a death penalty. No matter how the death penalty is carried out, no man has the power to judge and sentence another to death. Moratoriums would temporarily suspend the death penalty while its fairness would be examined for future use. Illinois and nebraska both passed moratorium bills in the spring of nineteen ninety nine, though neither were fully passed into law. The supreme court ruled that execution is a violation of the eighth amendment, which protects united states citizens from cruel and unusual punishment.

Rachel williams 28 april 2011 research paper on the death penalty the death penalty is a capital punishment that is put into effect for major crimes. The death penalty is a very controversial topic in the united states and throughout the world. There was a time period were the death penalty was banned for about four years in 1972 1976.

Many feel that the death penalty is justice because it is retribution toward criminals who have committed heinous crimes. However the death penalty is inhumane and should be abolished in the united states. Lethal injection has become the preferred method of execution in the united states since the early 80's. But is lethal injection a harsh enough penalty for murder? the answer is no, it is not a good enough punishment for someone who has taken the life of another. Lethal injection is a process that allows a convict to be put down quickly and painlessly, but what happened to the older methods? methods such as hanging, electrocution, and firing squads are not used in a large scale these days. These methods are the kind that makes the offender miserable for the last moments of their life these are the methods i think that should be used today.

I am going to argue that the life in prison is not enough, the death penalty should be worse than what it is, and public executions have a greater deterrent effect. There are a lot of families that want more justice to the person who killed a family member then life imprisonment and that is just what they should get. For a family who has one of their own taken from them, the grief they feel is unimaginable. They need justice to be served to aid them to deal with their loss they need the victim's death to be avenged. It is not a help to a grieving family to let the offender spend the rest of his days in jail, eating three square meals a day and watching tv. Ancient civilizations would not have thought twice about sentencing a person to death for taking the life of another.

Opponents of the death penalty would argue that the death penalty is barbaric and inhuman, but what about the murder of innocent people? is life in prison the punishment we want people to believe they will receive for murder? prisons these days are state of the art, with weight rooms, work programs, televisions, food, and warm beds. Some people say that life in prison is worse then death because the offender will have to think about what they did every day for the rest of their life. Executions do not happen the minute after they commit a crime, there is enough time for them to think about what they have done while they wait for their life to be ended. If a criminal committed a murder at 18 and lived to the average life expectancy of an american, taxpayers would have to pay for that convict for at least 50 years. If that same criminal was executed at 19 hundreds of thousands of dollars would be saved on that convict alone. In a system that is overworked and overcrowded it could be just the thing to aid the criminal justice system that it so desperately needs.

Needed jail space would be freed up for criminals with lesser offenses who might receive probation and commit other offenses. The money it would save would enable a lower amount of money to be allotted to prisons that have to house these inmates who could have received death. That money could in turn be used in programs to help deter people at and early age from committing all types of crimes. Some murderers will never feel remorse for what they have done, what will life in prison do for those people? there is an old saying an eye for an eye and only with that theory can justice be served. Since ancient times criminals have received the death penalty because the crimes they have committed have damaged people and families forever.

Allowing convicted murderers to receive the mercy of the courts and get life is the wrong message we want to tell the public. To let murders off easy is an insult to the victims, the families, and society as a whole. Lethal injection is too lenient of a death penalty for a harsh crime criminals sentenced to death should receive harsh penalties like the crimes they committed. It is hard for a family to just go watch a prisoner get an injection, after all, the victim most likely received a more violent death then an injection. Why should they just give them a little injection when they did worse to their victim? the punishment system should be just the same as what the murderer did. For example, if a murderer shot somebody in the arm, and the next day they died, then he or she should be shot in front of their family. The amendment was established in part because supreme court justices felt that personal vengeance has no place in the criminal justice system.

The fate of a murderer was left to a jury of people that did not know the victim, most likely have never had anyone they love taken from them in cold blood, and do not know what it feels like knowing someone they loved suffered the way the victim did. There is no end in sight for murders so why not allow the families of victims to avenge the deaths of their loved ones, and allow them to get the proper justice they seek. The loss of a loved one to a horrible death is unimaginable, and then for the person who took that loved one away from a family to just go to sleep and never wake up again is not enough.

Crowe, the illinois stateтs attorney was a great supporter of the death penalty. I urge capital punishment for murder, he once exclaimed, not because i believe that society wishes to take the life of a murderer, but because society does not wish to lose its own kronenwetter . Instead of using a regular death penalty, they would torture their prisoner until they were dead. In the late middle ages, european countries executed people for minor offenses england primarily reserved the death penalty for such relatively serious crimes as murder, treason, rape, arson, and robbery.

If we would begin to hang and behead murderers, then their definitely would not be any more crimes committed. In england, the array of crimes punishable by death has increased over the years, until the early nineteenth century more than two hundred different crimes had become capital offenses. The death penalty in the american colonies was a little similar to ours in this day. The little crimes we can do away with, but to hang or behead someone would be a lot more deterrent.

Legal Report Writing Training