Capital Punishment

Applied Ethics

Capital Punishment is defined as the legal infliction of the death penalty. The death penalty is corporal punishment in its most severe form and is used instead of life long imprisonment. Putting people to death that have committed extremely terrible crimes is a practice of ancient condition, but it has become a very controversial issue in todays society. Capital punishment has been used for centuries, even the Bible contains over thirty stories or incidents about a person put to death for a crime they committed. Public executions stopped after 1936. The death penalty has been inflicted in many different ways. Today in the United States, there are five ways that the death penalty is done. These criminals are put to death by a lethal injection, electrocution, lynching, a firing squad, or the gas chamber. These punishments are much less severe than the forms of execution in the past. In the past, people were executed by crucifixion, boiling in oil, drawing and quartering, impalement, beheading, burning alive, crushing, tearing, stoning, and even drowning. The methods used today compared to those of history are not meant for torture but instead for punishment for heinous crimes and to rid the earth of these dangerous people. The majority of America supports the death penalty.

There are many reasons why capital punishment is a good thing, and should be enforced and used more. First off, capital punishment is a good thing because it deters crime. For example, in the 1960s while the number of executions was decreasing, the homicide rate was increasing. As execution started to increase, statistics show that the homicide rate slowly decreased or stayed the same, but it did not increase. Fear of death deters people from committing crime. The death penalty puts forth a positive moral influence by putting disgrace on crimes such as manslaughter causing attitudes of horror and disgust to such acts.

If people are thinking of committing murder and are aware that they will be released because of early parole, then it will not effectively stop any future crime from happening. Most murderers would think again about committing murder if they knew that their own life was at stake. Executions increase public safety by completely ending the chance that the murderer would ever return to the streets to murder again. It prevents a reoccurrence of violence, and also discourages an action from occurring. Studies show that increasing the number of death sentences would prevent at least 105 murders. Expelling capital punishment on the grounds that it does not deter crime, than we must also eliminate all prisons because they are not a more effective deterrent of crime. In the state of New York, the death penalty is now in effect and there are many death penalty cases in progress, and the murder rate continues to drop faster than ever. In Africa, because of the high percentage of AIDS, rapists are less likely to attack a grown woman because they fear the lethal consequence of AIDS. This shows that criminals are possible of being stopped if their life is at stake. Evidence shows that whenever capital punishment is utilized consistently, it has always brought a decrease in the number of murders committed. Although, capital punishment is very capable of deterring murder, several reforms need to be made in our justice system so the death penalty can have a larger affect on the crime rate. Out of the 38 percent of all murder cases that result in the death sentence, only about 0.1 percent are actually executed. Until we begin to fight crime by using the death penalty, every person who dies at a criminals hands is a victim of our ineffectiveness.

The death penalty is more economical than a life sentence. Life sentences are very costly to the taxpayers, not only for the cost of housing and feeding the prisoner but because of the numerous appeals that waste peoples money. If there is not threat of death to one who commits a murder, than that person is guaranteed shelter and food, better than the living conditions of many people in America. Tax money is paying to build new prisons because of their overcrowding. However, if the death penalty were used there would be no need of all of these new prisons. The death penalty saves tome and because of the limited appeals and time, money is saved due to reduced court and imprisonment fees. Life in prison without parole serves just as well, if one ignores all the murders criminals also commit within the prison walls: when they kill prison guards or other inmates or the murders they commit when they escape. Life imprisonment tends to deteriorate with the passing of time. The average prison sentence served for murder is five years and eleven months. As long as the murderer lives, there is always a chance, no matter how small, that he will strike again. Capital punishment is the only thing that forever hinders the murderer from killing again. Also, it prevents parole boards and criminal rights activists from giving the criminal another chance to repeat his crime.

Some people believe that violence does not solve anything. First off, this is not violence, it is punishment and this statement has proven to be very wrong throughout history. Violence has settled more issues in history than any other factor. Americas freedom was brought about by war, which was very violent, same with the freedom of the African Americans during the Civil War, and the Jews during World War 2. It has also been said that capital punishment is barbaric, but murder in the first place is barbaric, and death is a reasonable punishment for such an awful crime. Every country in the world is ready and willing to kill thousands of human beings in brutal, merciless ways to defend their country from attacks by other countries. The safety of the people should be just as important and have as much protection as a nations national security does. Supporting armies and war is much more barbarous than the death penalty. A huge reason why nations and governments exist is to defend their citizens from crime and chaos, and to protect their rights. When the country fails to do this, then it becomes worthless to its citizens. When society ignores their moral duty to defend the safety and security of their citizens it leaves them at the mercy of violent criminals.

Another reason people use to defend their belief that capital punishment should be abolished is that putting the murderer to death does not bring back the victim. Justice is not about brining back the dead, nor is it about revenge. Justice is about enforcing consequences for ones own actions, and to enforce personal responsibility. We cannot expect anyone to take liability for their own actions if there are no consequences for them. Another myth about capital punishment is that it costs more than life without parole. This is untrue. Life without parole is