Death Penalty Essays: The Arguments Against Capital Punishment

Superior Essays
Jesus Hernandez

Is it acceptable in any case to kill a possible innocent human? Capital Punishment is the sentencing of a man or woman to death instead of him or her serving time in a penitentiary for committing a serious crime like murder. This is an issue everyone should be concerned about because taking away someone’s life is serious and cannot be undone. This issue cannot be focused on by only the government because the citizens need to know how it is affecting them as well. Families could lose loved ones due to a death sentence, and the taxpayers have to pay out of their own pockets for the cost of the execution. People should be concerned about capital punishment because deciding to keep it or abolish it can “decide whether crime rates
…show more content…
Also, citizens should decide whether the death penalty is being used justly or being unfairly used against certain people. The pro side for capital punishment believes that it should be allowed. People on the pro side believe that a person should pay for what act of violence they committed by taking away his or her life since that person took another life. These people believe that the death penalty would be used as a form of deterrence meaning that the thought of dying for a crime would keep people from committing crime. A result from that, they believe, is that it would lower crime. An attorney, Steven D. Stewart had stated, “The inevitability of a mistake should not serve as grounds to eliminate the death penalty any more than the risk of having a fatal wreck should make automobiles illegal” (ProCon). He is referring to if the judicial system makes a mistake by sentencing an innocent person to death. Everyone makes mistakes so in his mind, the death penalty cannot be taken away or else many other things that could possibly cause mistakes should be taken away. On the other hand, the con side believes that the death penalty should be removed from the judicial system. People on the con side believe that a person …show more content…
Adherents of this position favor that there should be a law that allows for capital punishment, but it should be rarely used. Those in favor of this qualified position propose that the death penalty should only be used if the victim’s family wants the murderer to be sentenced to death, if the murderer has escaped prison before, or if the murderer is a serial killer. The reasons a proponent of this position has is that listening to the victim’s family might keep them at ease a little more knowing that they got some type of closure. Another reason someone with the beliefs of this position has is that if someone has already escaped prison before, then he or she should be given the death penalty because that person might be able to escape again. It would give the citizens a feeling of safety knowing a potential threat will not be on the loose again. Also, a serial killer should be sentenced to death because serial killers have committed the act of murder multiple times. After the first time someone might regret killing a human being but a serial killer feels no remorse for the victims he has hurt, and therefore, should just die. An adherent of this position may believe that it would be fair for the victim’s family to decide the fate of the criminal since the criminal decided the fate of the victim. Another belief held would be that it is the job of the

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The death penalty is a controversial subject with plenty of opponents and supporters. The supporters of the death penalty make the argument that there are some criminals that as long as they are alive they’re a danger to everybody else. The opponents of the death penalty say that a judge and a jury shouldn’t be able to decide whether or not a person should live or die. Whether or not the death penalty is a fair and just punishment for criminals has been something that has been disputed ever since the death penalty was created. One of the death penalties supporters is Ernest Van Den Haag.…

    • 1227 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In most states, the imposition of the death penalty on certain; mostly murderous crimes is established in the perceptions of the cost of such crimes to the victims’ families and the social cost to the society. There even appears to be an economic inclination saliently factored into the justice of capital punishment by comparing the value of imprisonment cost as opposed to the cost of incarceration. There appears to be an automatic or reflexive behavior for a retributive justice towards violent crimes involving murder of a loved one. Even the most ardent opponents to the death penalty as in my case, I succumb to the default psychological judgment of wanting justice at all cost. The problem for me arises when there is not an absolute evidence of facts that links an accused person to such crimes, and even if there was one, the facts in this case can be subjective.…

    • 1733 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The morality of the death penalty has long been, and still is a controversial topic in the United States. People have been debating for centuries whether or not this form of punishment should exist. Those supporting it have claimed that the death penalty acts as a deterrent of future crimes. On the other hand, those against it have disproved this claim. Studies show that capital punishment should not be used in the United States, since it does not act as a deterrent, certain groups are more likely to be sentenced to death, and it does not offer closure for families.…

    • 1248 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Criminal punishment is an immensely ongoing controversial and societal issue in the United States, Europe and other parts of the world. There are thirty-one states that have kept the death penalty as a legal punishment and nineteen states that have abolished the death penalty, including New Jersey in 2007. Statistics show that 39 percent choose life without parole plus restitution, 33 percent would choose Capital Punishment, 13 percent chose life without parole, 9 percent picked life with parole, and 6 percent had no opinion. One of the main reasons people are pro death penalty is because it gives closure to the victim’s family. Defenders think that “taking an offender 's life is a more severe punishment than any prison life term.”…

    • 1054 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Debate: Should America Have Capital Punishment? “For centuries the death penalty, often accompanied by barbarous refinements, has been trying to hold crime in check; yet crime persists. Why? Because the instincts that are warring in man are not, as the law claims, constant forces in a state of equilibrium” (Camus). In America, capital punishment has been a growing issue; it continues to be in the news when a high profile case comes up, or when laws on capital punishment are argued in court.…

    • 784 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Capital punishment is a very controversial issue where can be found with long standing application in countries such as the united states Hugo A. Bedau expresses his opinion that the death penalty is the form of human brutality and stupidity that goes against human dignity. Claiming that the death penalty is ineffective way to deter future offenses. Bedau also argues that the government uses death penalty in hopes of bringing fear to individuals and by displaying superior power that their fate lies in their hands. Deterrence is an act that influences people to not do something, creating fear and thus reducing crimes. Many of us are convinced when a particular punishment receives severe consequences that it will deter behavior from reacquiring.…

    • 722 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For those whom like to act as if they were God and take a life intentionally deserves to be punished. In fact, other than God whom can punish someone are the jails and prison that house these types of individuals. There are some cold blooded killers out in the world, along with some individuals whom are not mentally able to make conscious delinquent actions. In fact these types of people become inmates inside of correctional institutions that are housed in supermax sanctions have prompted arguments regarding people are for or against the death penalty, the bans on executions on the mentally retarded and juveniles are also addressed. Giving that this world is filled with a very mixed cultural background of all kinds of human beings.…

    • 691 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Having individuals that can testify against the false avocation that the death penalty is used to punish those truly guilty for their crimes because it displays the extreme used in the wrong instance through its ruling on the innocent. Capital punishment’s inefficiency shines through the innocents’ conviction because how is providing the wrongful ruling suppose to deter future crime it only works to diminish the public’s trust in the judicial system and the validness of the death penalty ruling. Along with innocent men speaking out against capital punishment, comes the costly and time-consuming misconception that the act of evolving the death penalty has made it more humane even though despite popular belief “the death penalty has not become more civilized with the passage of time” (Stroud III, 381). We an human beings can’t continue to turn a blind eye towards the fact that no matter how the executors of the death penalty make it look it is still the blatant taking of another’s life whether it be with a rope, a chair or lethal doses of drugs. Another reason that both Stroud and myself see as being worth ending the option of capital punishment judicial decision is the appalling conditions that create “an environment conducive to depression and hopelessness” for its inmates (Stroud, 383).…

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Around the vast globe, thousands of people are sentenced to death annually (The Death Penalty V. Human Rights: Why Abolish the Death Penalty?). Should the government execute people who commit heinous crimes? In 2014, in the United States alone, 35 people were ripped of their lives on the execution table (The Death Penalty V. Human Rights: Why Abolish the Death Penalty?). It is a common belief that the death penalty is a sufficient punishment for people who commit hostile and death-provoking crimes. Yet, what justice is served by the taking of another human life?…

    • 859 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    But as researchers, we can determine that we still will always have capital punishment because individuals believe some people deserve that sentence. As much knowledge about capital punishment that we have read about and its beliefs and historical past we can see the flaws. As researchers, we would like to see the difference in giving less capital punishment and giving life in prison without parole. Therefore, maybe this philosophy will change a criminal mind before he acts. Maybe this could stop individual’s from committing murder remember life in prison…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Capital punishment is a government sanctioned law by which person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime. The crimes that result in death are known by capital offences. For example: rape, torture, treason, kidnapping, murder. Capital punishment was common in the past, now a days the large majority discontinued the process.…

    • 869 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this paper I have presented both an argument in favor of the death penalty and against the death penalty. To start with there is a brief history of capital punishment including some important legal cases. Many arguments can be made as to the morality of execution, below I describe the deterrent effects as well as a common view held by Immanuel Kant in support of capital punishment. Both of these views are shared by many people. In opposition to capital punishment I have considered the fundamental view that killing, even a murderer, is wrong and the morality of charging juries with understanding the laws that govern sentencing.…

    • 1862 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Even though many countries abolished the death penalty from their law, there is still quite a few that still practices the act of killing a person convicted of a crime. People have numerous different opinions relating to the issue of the death penalty that is given to a convict. While some may think that the death penalty is necessary for those who have committed a terrible crime, there are others who consider it as an immoral act that goes against the values of humanity. According to the author William Wood, in his text “Capital Punishment/Death Penalty,” there are generally two arguments that suggest capital punishment is an effective way to save lives and deter numerous crimes. Also, it plays a major role in giving justice to victims.…

    • 1628 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The death penalty is a very controversial topic. In this paper I am going to be talking about the conflicts between liberty and security in the death penalty. Liberty can be defined by the dictionary as, “the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one 's way of life, behavior, or political views” and security, by Policy Paradox definition, means “an ideal of perfect safety and the guaranteed absence of bad things and, therefore, a total lack of worry”. Now the questions become, should people be allowed to take someone’s life in the name of the law, or is this refutable justice on the criminals?…

    • 756 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Over time, punishment has changed, and society’s views have as well. Capital punishment has been a largely debatable subject over the past decades, but the government still chooses to keep this punishment. Although the death penalty should be viewed as a good way to keep murderers behind bars, this punishment can send an innocent person to death row for a crime they did not commit, and in cases, there are problems of people being subjective, such as having discrimination. Capital punishment is a place for justice. People say this punishment is for those who have created barbaric crimes.…

    • 1069 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays