An eye for an eye
The most severe of all sentences is in fact the death penalty. Also known as capital punishment, it's the most severe form of corporal punishment as it requires law enforcement officers to kill the offender. It has been banned in many countries, in the United States, an earlier move to eliminate capital punishment has now been reversed and more and more states are resorting to capital punishment for serious offenses such as murder. Like they say: An Eye for and eye, or a life for a life as it applies in this case. The Bible mentions it, and people have been using it regularly for centuries. One steals from those who have stolen from him, one wrongs those who have wronged him, but do we really have the right to kill those who have killed. Today, there is a big controversy over capital punishment whether or not it works, or if it is morally right. Do we have the right to decide the kind of lives others can or cannot live? We find someone guilty of murder and sentence him to death, does that not make murderers out of ourselves? Those who assist in the death penalty are they not partners in crime? Is the death penalty a "Cruel and Unusual" punishment or is it now a necessary tool in the war on crime? With the increase in crime and
3- Encyclopedia Britannica, volume 16, "Crime and Punishment", pages 812-813, 15th Edition, 1989. violence in our society, how does the death penalty affect a North American family. There are three major issues in the capital punishment debate, the first being deterrence, the second being retribution and the last is the danger of mistake. Now, there are safeguards guaranteeing protection of those facing the death penalty. These safeguards are: The defendant can not be insane, and the man's real or criminal intent must be present. Also, minors very rarely receive the death penalty because they are not fully mature and might not know the consequences of their actions. Finally the mentally retarded are very seldom executed. The reason for not executing the retarded is that they often have difficulty defending themselves in court, have problems remembering details, locating witnesses, and testifying credibly on their own behalf. These safeguards are to try to insure that justice will be served without having it suffer. It costs a lot more to keep a prisoner on death row than it would be to keep them in prison for the rest of their lives. The expense comes from the long drawn out appeals process that we are giving our criminals, and the court appointed attorneys that the poor are receiving. However, it is also a form of insurance that the criminal will never commit another crime again.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1166
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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