FREE ESSAY ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

Capital Punishment
While capital punishment has been one of the most feared things in our time, it is still
being questioned if it's unconstitutional. The death penalty is being enforced in more
than 100 countries. And throughout the history, the death penalty is usually a result of
crimes of either rape or murder. Although we carry out the punishment in a better manner
than other countries, its safe to say that the American public's opinion toward the issue
is divided. Some people believe that the procedure is cruel and unusual punishment, and
not a deterrence. They have also been cases where many innocent people were put to death.
Another argument that rises with capital punishment is the discrimination with black
males. Studies show that about a 90% of males that are sentenced to death row are black.
However, anyone who knows about law or the criminal justice system and its inner
workings, could put up a very strong argument that capital punishment is not doing what
it should be doing in reference to the deterrence point of view.
There has been substantial evidence to show that courts have been impulsive, racially
biased, and unfair in the way in which they have sentence some people to prison while
others to death. In the 1930 era, African American only made up about a 12% of the United
States population but yet in that time they made up a 51% of the people executed. One can
also argue that minorities commit the crimes that fit the death penalty more often than
whites, but studies show that that is not the case either. What studies have shown is
that a jury is more likely to impose the death penalty on blacks than on whites accused
of the same offense. That brings up a very strong argument; big majorities of the people
on death row come from a low-income background that are not very well educated.
Classifying these people as the lower class. And the majority of people that make up the
lower class are minorities. That Simply states one thing, whites may have more money to
get a better layer while those minorities who don't have the privileges to get a private
layer, that can explain part of the reason of why white are sentence to death row in a
less frequent rate than minorities. 
The death penalty has been opposed by the people since the beginning of its era. One can
argue that capital punishment is in violation of a person's right to live. Since 1976,
when the Supreme Court declared that the death penalty was not against the constitution,
The Supreme Court has heard many cases dealing with these amendments. A lot of times
people who are apposed to the death penalty bring up the eight amendment of the United
States Constitution which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. Some people say that
the death penalty is a cruel and unusual act, while others argue that the types of
executions that are used are horrible ways to die. A question arises from that argument.
If a different type of execution were to be brought up would it then be all right to
people to rest? In Louisiana, Patrick Sonnier was sent to the electric chair in April
1984. The death certificate stated that it took four minutes for Sonnier to die despite
the 1,900 volts of electricity that passed through his body (Prejean 173). 
The amendments of the constitution were created to protect the rights of the citizens and
against the excessive government force. The fourteenth amendment guarantees individuals
the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. While the eight amendment
protects people from cruel and unusual punishment.
Those who are in favor of the death penalty will tell you that it is an excellent way to
deter crime, and it is not a cruel and unusual punishment. However, there has been no
statistical evidence proving that the death penalty reduces crimes in the states that the
death penalty is enforced. And also in the opposite side of the argument, there has not
been any statistical connection between the existence of the death penalty and the number
of murders in a given area. States that show an absence of the death penalty do not show
a significant increase of the crimes that applies to the death penalty. A study done by
the New York Times, it shows that three Texas cities are among the top 25 cities in the
U.S. for homicide, and this is with Texas having the death penalty. The study also showed
that New York had no city in the top 25, and this was with New York not having the death
penalty at that time.
The public may be misinformed about the facts of the death penalty and whether it deters
crime or not. There is, in fact, a little direct evidence on public goals of punishment
or the way in which these goals influenced support for capital punishment (Warr p.g.95).
Most people say that retribution is the primary purpose of punishment, which increases
with age, but decreases with education attainment. These are the people who are more
likely to favor the death penalty, but they are only a minority of the people who support
the death penalty. 
Social scientist have been trying to understand the support of capital punishment.
Whether it links to personality characteristics (such as authoritarianism or
conservatism), or to whether they were given corporal punishment as a child. Lately,
social scientists have been trying to link it to many different reasons such as rising
crime rates (real or perceived), fear of victimization, or changes in the risks of
victimization (Warr p.g. 96). Legal sanctions may be aiming at deterrence, retribution or
incapacitation. You wouldn't expect a person who is in favor of rehabilitation to be a
believer of the death penalty. And if people say that they are in favor of the death
penalty because of deterrence or incapacitation, they usually don't know the direct
measures or motives (Warr p.g 96). 
A study done in 1980 in Seattle shows that 42% of the 339 returned mail surveys chose
retribution as their number one or primary goal of punishment. And 66% chose retribution
as their first, second or third most important reason of punishment (Warr p.g. 102). One
problem with the study is that there was an under representation of black citizens (2% of
respondents were black). If this were to directly relate to the entire population of the
United States, the majority of the people would feel that retribution is the main purpose
of the death penalty, not deterrence. 
Social scientists have drawn a negative conclusion about the deterrent effect of the
death penalty based upon two sorts: (1) longitudinal analyses of homicide rates in
jurisdictions before and after the abolition and/or reinstatement of capital punishment
and (2) comparative analyses of homicide rates for abolitionist and retentionist
jurisdictions. Contrary to the deterrence hypothesis, these studies have typically shown
(1) no significant change in homicides that can be attributed to the abolition or
reinstatement of capital punishment and (2) homicide rates to be the same or even higher
in death penalty jurisdictions (Bailey p.g. 608-609). Basically what this is saying is
that the death penalty does not have any influence what so ever on homicide rates. In
fact, some states that have formally had the death penalty the abolished it, the homicide
rates tend to be higher for the former jurisdictions. 
States such as Florida have spent an average of $3.2 million a person since 1972.
California spends almost $100 millions a year on capital punishment cases. And New York
looking at something within that range as well. The death penalty has been in affect in
the state of new jersey for over 13 years now, and its costing taxpayers a lot of money.
Some say why have the death penalty if no one gets executed? And others say that capital
punishment is uncivilized in theory and unfair in practice; so why do we stoop down to
that level of murder? 
Another big question that has been asked with police officers in mind is does the death
penalty provide these police with extra protection while they are on duty? A study was
conducted between 1961-1971 in the fifty states measuring the yearly cross-sectional
analysis given by the FBI. They wanted to see if they were a straight correlation between
states with the death penalty and police killings. A good example of this could be for
instance, if someone was to commit a crime and were being chased by the police, if they
know that their crime could make them eligible for the death penalty then they would
probably be likely to do almost anything not to get caught. The data was retrieved from
unpublished figures complied by the FBI. The killings recorded are only from lethal
assaults, not including accidents or other natural causes of death. 
What the deterrence hypothesis would say is that the states with the death penalty would
have a much lower rate of police killings. What they found out was that over the ten
years, the offense rate was very similar over the span of the study. These findings lend
no support to the deterrence hypothesis. Even though some police spokesman may say that
the death penalty does add a level of protection for the police officer, social
scientists say that the presence of the death penalty doesn't protect against police
homicides at all. 
The death penalty is ultimately cruel, inhumane and degrading punishment and violates the
rights of life. Since 1977 the methods used to exterminate criminals differ somewhat. Out
of 220 inmates, 106 were electrocuted, 103 were put to rest by lethal injection, 9 by the
gas chamber, 1 by a firing squad, and 1 by hanging. Abolitionists believe that this
society cannot mirror the brutality of the crimes committed by the convicted person
because of its judicial murder. 
Capital Punishment is brutal act that does not enhance respect for human life.
Abolitionists also believe that the state is a teacher and when it kills, it teaches
vengeance and hatred. If the barbaric practice of execution has been abolished in most
major industrial countries, even in South Africa, so can the so can the United States. An
execution is a dramatic, public spectacle of official, violent homicide that teaches the
permissibility of killing people to solve a social problems-the worst possible example to
set for our society. Will society put money into schools, rehabilitation, community
services, and jobs, or will it bankrupt itself with more prisons and more victims? The
death penalty is no solution to violence.