ARGUMENT AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY
The death penalty is the final sentence. There is no stringent and severer penalty than the death itself. Presently, fifty-eight countries practice the death sentence. Our state, the United States, is one among the fifty-eight countries that practice the death sentence. As at now, the United States will only apply the death punishment, if one engages in a serious offense such as murder. People who support the death sentence believe that capital punishment will discourage murderers. In this essay, I will be arguing that death punishment does not deter offenders and that the United States should abolish other practices.
Before I present my claim, I would love to document some background information about death punishment to the readers. The concept of the death sentence was established and borrowed from Britain when the founding fathers pronounced independence. Our founding fathers loved the idea of capital punishment because it was a normal part of life. Europeans practiced the death sentence for different crimes. The first documented death punishment in America took place in 1608, at Jamestown. A man known as George Kendall was murdered for committing treason offense. During the colonial period, legislations about the death sentence varied from one region to the other.
However, during the nineteenth century, capital punishment changed significantly. Around this period, the capital punishment started becoming less common. States did not practice public killing. All murders were conducted in private. And the first state to implement this practice was Pennsylvania. Ultimately, some states stopped the capital punishment in general. Currently, among the fifty states, fourteen are not practicing the capital punishment anymore. These countries include; Iowa, Hawaii, Alaska and Michigan among others.
Moreover, a number of cases concerning the capital punishment found their way to the Supreme Court. Many attempted to present an argument that the capital punishment contravened the eight amendment and that the death sentence is inhumane and uncommon. In 1972m Furman v. Georgia temporarily brought to a halt the capital punishment for a period of ten years. Ultimately, the capital punishment was reintroduced in January 1977 with the killing of Gary Gillmore (Fleming, 2016).
Currently, the United States still pronounce death penalty on criminals. However, there are some restrictions. For instance, the government cannot pronounce a death sentence on a mentally incapacitated person and is not supposed to pass such judgement on youngsters. Presently, the United States has six primary ways to execute serial criminals and they include; hanging, shooting, poisonous gas, electrocution, and poisonous injections. The ways of doing may differ from one state to another. Though the United States still pronounces the capital punishment, executions are reducing significantly compared in the past, in line with statistics (Wei 2018). Proponents of the death sentence argue that the capital punishment will act as deterrence and is the only means for revenge against killers.
The primary reason why the death punishment does not act as prevention is that criminals do not think that they will be caught. Reasonably, no one would engage in the killing, if one understood that he or she would not be murdered. Prevention is a mental process. Thus, if a criminal does not think that an actual risk is existing, there will be no prevention.
The death sentence as retribution does not make sense in our contemporary society. By killing a criminal, our administration is conveying unconscious messages concerning murder. The meaning of death penalty is because the United States administration wants to send a signal that murder is an unbearable crime. By executing, the criminal the government is challenging itself. Moreover, capital punishment can be perceived as retribution. We are just taking iron for an iron. Two crimes will not make a right. Executing a killer will not restore the life of the slayed. In the 21st century, our criminal regulations should now portray a higher standard than a sword for sword.
In present times, capital punishment can no longer be assumed as a valid form of revenge. There are prolonged delays in conducting the killings of a convict. Statistics demonstrate that there is more than eight years before the murcan takdre effActually, most death penalty convicts die of old age, before their capital punishment. California’s capital punishment is a prime illustration. Since, 1976, only thirteen convicts have been killed (Sanger, 2016). Presently, there are nearly seven hundred convicts in California’s death sentence. If the tendency persists, that would imply that most of the convicts would die of normal causes before their death penalty can be conducted.
Those that argue that the capital punishment as revenge fail to take cognizant of the killing process in our criminal judicial system. Legally, a prisoner is given an opportunity to appear his or her case. Appealing is necessary in the American criminal judicial system since the process is meant to protect people’s mistakes. A normal appeal can take more than ten years. There are just not adequate juries to respond to all case assessments. For instance, the United States Supreme court gets many case assessments yearly, however there are only nine juries in the Apex Court, only few cases are revised. For this reason, therefore, the capital punishment cannot be assumed as an effective form of revenge.
To eliminate the capital punishment in the United States effectively, one would require to present a petition to the United States Supreme Court (Malkani,2016). And would need to submit an injunction of either mandamus, certiorari, or ban. Additionally, one can petition against the capital punishment. If the case was chosen, then one would require to argue that the capital punishment is not a form of justice anymore. The most important thing to winning this petition, in my view, is to tender strong and comprehensive evidence. Demonstrate to the nine juries, that the capital punishment will not yield to any good results and it is unconstitutional and a waste of resources.
Some may argue that by alleviating the capital punishment, crime levels will rise. Studies have already demonstrated that the capital punishment will not stop offenders. Presently, there is no strong evidence that confirms that the death sentence with prevent offenders; but there is confirmation demonstrating that countries with no capital punishment has reduced murder level compared to states with the capital punishment. In latest assessment, scientists summarized that the projections assuming that the capital punishment saves many lives is just not reliable. Actually, researchers observed that using the similar numbers and appropriate approach could result to the exact contrary assumptions: that is the capital punishment in fact intensifies the figures of murders (Miller,2017). Irrefutable evidence for instance, the fact should dismiss any criticism concerning the capital punishment and murder levels.
The capital punishment should be eliminated. Those that think in the capital punishment, failed to support their argument. There is no research that supports their arguments. However, there is a research that supports the evidence the death sentence is terribly failing. Pronouncing a death sentence on a convict is not an easy task anymore. There can be prolonged delays in the killing process. Convicts are dying before their execution punishment can be undertaken. For all the aforementioned reasons, the United States should abolish the capital punishment.
References
Fleming, K. P. (2016). The International Lethal Injection Drug Boycott and Its Effects on the Death Penalty in the United States.
Malkani, B. (2016). Dignity and the Death Penalty in the United States Supreme Court. Hastings Const. LQ, 44, 145.
Miller, L. L. (2017). Death Penalty and Racialized Production of Meaning.
Muramatsu, K., Johnson, D. T., & Yano, K. (2018). The death penalty and homicide deterrence in Japan. Punishment & Society, 20(4), 432-457.
Sanger, R. M. (2016). Fourteen Years Later: The Capital Punishment System in California. Available at SSRN 2830677.
Wei, T. (2018, November). To Abolish or to Retain: Debating the Death Penalty in the United States. In 2018 3rd International Conference on Modern Management, Education Technology, and Social Science (MMETSS 2018). Atlantis Press.