Objections Against Capital Punishment example essay topic

Megan Michaux Capital Punishment As part of a democracy, Americans accept the rights of the county, state and individual. Social order can only exist when people give up the responsibilities of law enforcement to the government. All fifty states have the right to choose whether or not to utilize capital punishment. It is legal in thirty-seven of those states. ( ) I believe capital punishment does not violate the Eighth Amendment because it serves as both a deterrent and retributive purpose. Moral justice can be served through the execution of the convicted and there are humane ways in which the government can execute.

When the Constitution was drafted, capital punishment was practiced widely in this country, yet it was not specified as wrong or as cruel and unusual. Many of the framers and philosophers of the Constitution supported capital punishment. (Locke) Citizens under a social contract agree not to kill only because others also agree not to kill. When that bond of trust is broken, the law must take action to maintain balance within the economy.

I think that it is the function of laws to prevent murder by demonstrating to everyone that it is not in their best interest to take another person's life. Capital punishment is the harshest form of punishment enforced in the United States today. Once a jury has convicted a criminal, they agree on a punishment. If the jury recommends capital punishment and the judge agrees, the criminal will then face some form of execution, a punishment that once performed cannot be reversed. Each year there are about 250 people added to Death Row and 35 executed. ( ) However, I believe the fear of death discourages people from committing crimes and there must be fear and intimidation. to achieve model citizens and a better society Perhaps one of the biggest objections to capital punishment is the immorality of consenting to kill another human being.

Opponents believe that capital punishment is the permissible legal killing of people and no one, not even the State, has the authority to play God. Who decides that the convicted life is less important than the lives of other civilians? Capital punishment can be viewed morally wrong because of its cruel and inhumane taking of a human life. In fact there was a period from 1972 to 1976 that capital punishment was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Their reason for this decision was that it violated the Eighth Amendment and was seen as cruel and unusual punishment. ( ) The different methods of execution can actually involve physical torture.

There have been cases where electrocution has not successfully killed the condemned on the first application and the convicted has had to suffer extreme burns and torment, as they are shocked a second time. (Block) Capital punishment is a retributive justice, and no direct relation to murder rates can be logically applied. In opposition to the objections of capital punishment, I must clearly state that in the case of murder, a crime that receives execution in most cases, the damage cannot be reversed. The life of the victim no longer exists and nothing can be done to retrieve it.

The lesson that the criminal is taught, in turn, should be one that cannot be reversed. Capital punishment teaches a lesson while the convicted criminal awaits the sentence to be carried out. To consider capital punishment as inhuman and immoral would be saying that capital punishment is itself the injustice. Is it not an injustice to let a cold-blooded killer escapes the consequences of a crime?

A society that tolerates injustice can by no means be called just. (Block) In objection to the Supreme Court's decision against capital punishment, there was a reversal when new methods of execution were introduced. Lethal injection is a newer form of capital punishment that provides a more humane way of execution. It is morally imperative to protect the states' rights to decide their own position on the use of capital punishment. How can giving society the opportunity to decide its own definition of morality be wrong? I believe I have clearly refuted the objections against capital punishment and have successfully shown the claim that capital punishment as an inhuman and immoral act to be false.

One idea that cannot clearly be refuted is the idea that there is no direct correlation between capital punishment and murder rates. Actual statistics about the deterrent value of capital punishment are not available because it is impossible to know who may have been prevented from a committing a crime. Capital punishment is a method of retribution it is as old as civilization itself. Biblical times tell of the execution of great heroes such as Jesus and Joan of Arch, whom were killed for moral differences and religious beliefs.

Executions today are used in only extreme cases where the individual is harmful to them self and society. Unfit society members such as Timothy Mckay, who was responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing, should allowed back onto the streets, nor should we use the taxpayers' dollar to sentence them to life imprisonment. The proper justice for such offenders is clearly capital punishment. Capital punishment brings justice to the victims' families and to the members of society whom were affected by the criminals actions in a humane yet permanent way. For these reasons of justice and societal order capital punishment does not violate the Eighth Amendment.

Bibliography

Block, Eugene B... When Men Play God: The Fallacy of Capital Punishment. San Francisco: Crag mont Publications, 1983. Locke, John. Second Treatise of Civil Government. Ch 2, Sec 6 web.