capital punishment
Through the course of time, society has been confronted with the problem of what to do with its worst criminals. Society has been faced with this particular conflict and having to decide what is considered just for each particular crime. Many societies have used capitol punishment in on form or another. But no one is really sure of what culture enforced capital punishment first. One thing is certain, many historians believe that the death penalty has been around for as long as humans have been living on earth. The earliest known forms of capital punishment was brought out by the Babylonian Empire in the year 2000 BC The code they used ordered the death penalty to be enforced for many criminal offenses the government believed people should be executed for. "According to Hammurabi's code, a person could be put to death by burning, drowning, or impalement on sharp stakes"( ). The death penalty has been practiced in many different ways and forms by diffe!rent cultures throughout the course of time. In France, after the guillotine was introduced there in 1792, beheading became very popular. Another common form of execution was drawing and quartering which was popular in Eu
"In 1973, the U.S Supreme Court ruled that courts were discriminating against certain classes and races of people when applying the death penalty"(the death penalty, 47). Discrimination is affiliated with the U.S Supreme Court through gender, race, social status and even psychological patients. The U.S. justice system discriminates against these social classes when it concerns the death penalty. In Alabama, 43% of their 117 death row inmates are black even though they only make up for 26% of the total population. This particular percentage is quite high considering the amount of people that live in the state. In South Carolina, 42% of their 50 death row inmates are black, yet blacks only make up 30% of the state population. And in Maryland, 80% of the 14 inmates in death row are black, yet they only make up about 25% of the state population. All of these statistics show the percentage of minorities that are waiting to be executed. It shows the high percentage of minorities can arouse suspicion in the United States legal system. This is what is really hard to determine by the court system. They have to evaluate each case in a very special manner. They do not want to execute people that have no control over their own personal thoughts and judgment. But one thing is for sure, the Supreme Court has to always remember that killers are killers and if one killer is mental, they will need to carefully evaluate the case. izise the discrimination regarding the death penalty, but it will help reduce it as well. "The death penalty is an absolute punishment. If it is to be imposed at all, it should be imposed to people whose sense of responsibility and judgment is such that they fully appreciated the seriousness of what they were doing"(Ross 145). Some of the motives for their being discrimination in the legal system are because a defendants worth might be appraised before the court session begins. This sort of behavior might occur through the judge and the jury prejudging the defendant. Some murder victims can also be seen as more valuable than others. And the killers of these victims received a harsher sentence because of this particular reason. This is because many whites believe to be superior than blacks, leading to harsher penalties for minorities. Many judges in fact do base a victim's worth. If the person who was killed belonged to and organized group, or was well known and recognized in his or her community, then the penalties would be a lot harsher for the particular killer. One of the biggest problems regarding the justice of the death penalty is the discrimination that is affiliated with it. Discrimination is a big controversy, but it being involved in the death penalty makes the problem a lot larger. When deciding to send a criminal to death row, the justice system has to be certain to be extremely unbiased. Throughout the course of United States history, there have been a total of 23 innocent people that have been sent to death by the state. They died for crimes they did not commit. It was just convenient for the courts to condemn them. All of this is considering that the U.S Justice system is not perfect and that they undergo a certain number of safe guards to ensure that only the guilty are punished. All of these figures show how the United States Justice has pampered women when it comes down to correctional laws. Women are not looked at as beasts and animal savages to society like male criminals do. Society views women incapable of taking upon themselves such a rugged role. Society doesn't punish women as harshly as it does men for crimes that are totally similar. Society will continue to act the same way until they realize that both male and female genders are able to commit the same crimes and deserve the same punishments. Cannot set an example if you are committing the same crime. People also believe that capital punishment may cause violence to increase. Allowin
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2737
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)
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