Capital Punishment

A detailed Summary of Capital Punishment

Today's system of capital punishment, the legal infliction of the death penalty on persons convicted of a crime, is fought with inequalities and injustices. The commonly offered arguments for the death penalty are filled with holes. "It was a deterrent. It removed killers. It was the ultimate punishment. It satisfied the public's need for retribution. It relieved the anguish of the victim's family." (Grisham 120) Realistically, imposing the death penalty is expensive and time consuming. Morally, it is a continuation of the cycle of violence and "...degrades all who are involved in its enforcement, as well as its victim." (Stewart 1)

Next month Timothy McVeigh is scheduled to be put to death for his part in the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed over 160 people. In a recently published book, he freely admitted his own guilt and even defends what he did. This would appear to be a good test case for the debate over capital punishment. The question might be put this way: Are there crimes so horrendous that the only civilized response is for the state to say that the persons involved should be put to death?

At approximately 9:02 am on April 19, a car bomb went off, destroying the Alfred Murrah Federa

However, retentionists, or people who support the death penalty, argue that these high costs are due to "the lengthy time and the high expense result from innumerable appeals, many over 'technicalities' which have little or nothing to do with the question of guilt or innocence, and do little more than jam up the nation's court system. If these 'frivolous' appeals were eliminated, the procedure would neither take so long nor cost so much." (Kronenwetter 29). This is the most common argument used by death penalty supporters. Others include the idea of it providing safety for our society, and that there is no way to prove whether or not the death penalty serves as deterrence towards potential murderers. They believe that you can not provide statistics for these sorts of people, who may or may not be influenced by the idea of dying themselves.

Another frequent argument of opposition is supported by the idea that it does not always create deterrence. A lot of people believe that the enforcement of the death penalty will dissuade other criminals from committing similar violent acts, and numerous studies have been brought about in attempt to prove this belief. However, "[a]ll the evidence taken together makes it hard to be confident that capital punishment deters more than long prison terms do." (Cavanagh 4) Going ever further, Bryan Stevenson, the executive director of the Montgomery based Equal Justice Initiative, has stated that "...people are increasingly realizing that the more we resort to killing as a legitimate response to our frustration and anger with violence, the more violent our society becomes...We could execute all three thousand people on death row, and most people would not feel any safer tomorrow

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Approximate Word count = 1163
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous