Capttol Punishment

The Death Penalty

Capital punishment is not a new concept to society. Both the Greeks and the Romans used the death penalty for a variety of offenses, from murder all the way down to petty theft. Socrates and Jesus are probably the most famous people ever killed for a crime in the ancient period. Hammurabi, a king of ancient Babylonia, made a code of laws that dates back from the second or third millennium before Christ. This code claimed that "an eye for an eye and a life for a life" was justice. Romans 13 in the Bible implies that it is the responsibility of those who God has appointed in charge to punish offenders for the sake of preserving social order for all of the people. In 1972 the case of Furman vs. Georgia declared that the death penalty was unconstitutional and that it violated the Eighth amendment, stating that it was cruel and unusual punishment, of course, the only methods of execution at the time were hanging, electrocution, and facing a firing squad. It was argued that these methods were too slow and painful. Thomas Edison, a historical genius and respected inventor, assisted in developing electric chair and promoted it heavily. As a result, the electric chair was a popular method of execution from the 1930s to the 1970s. Until 1972, Capital punishment was legal. Then, in 1976 the U.S. Supreme Court reversed this decision in the Gregg vs. Georgia case. A "cleaner" way to bring about death was then found in lethal injection, this method is quick and painless if administered correctly. Though once again legalized, it did not allow for the death penalty to be mandatory for murder cases in those states that requested it. Mandatory death penalty punishments for murder would have ensured consistency in rulings; which was an argument at the time, however it did not leave room for juries to weigh in "mitigating factors" such as abuse, insanity or crimes of passion. Though legal throughout the United States at the federal level, not all states currently implement it; Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin and District of Colombia are the 13 that do not.

The Morality Issue

If an eighteen year old man or woman can be sent to war to their death for their country, and to defend our laws and rights, why then, can't a criminal of the same age who disobeys these same laws and impedes on other people's rights be punished with death? As it was once said "Justice entails receiving what we in fact deserve." (Charles Colston, "The Death Penalty is Morally Just, 1995),

Supporters of the death penalty question opponents; - if the murderer's life is of such value that they should be kept alive, doesn't this show citizens that the State provides more rights to the murderer, than to the victim, as well as showing that it cannot provide the ordinary citizen basic safety? Numerous innocent people die after crimes are pre-planned in detail. People are raped, tortured and mutilated before finally being killed, and after all of this the killer is protected with a slap on the wrist and a guarantee to free ride the rest of his life in a cushy prison cell? It is too late at this point for the victim who was murdered in cold blood. To look at corporal punishment as merely revenge would be saying that capital punishment is itself the injustice. "Wouldn't it be an injustice to let a cold-blooded killer escape the consequences of a crime though?" ("Capitol Punishment" Dwight A. Randall, http://members.iinet.net.au/~life/capital_punishment.html) If the sovereign state says that taking a life is wrong, how can the state then do the same thing to punish the taking of a life? The flaw in this argument is that it implies that the criminal in question has the same power as the government does when it comes to deciding when it's okay to take a life.

And what if an innocent person is executed? Only two people have been proven innocent after their execution in the United States. These wrongful deaths occurred in 1918 and 1949. Since then the justice system has advanced scientifically with the discovery of DNA, as well as the development of more thorough investigation techniques.

Deterrence

Opponents of capital punishment say the death penalty is unnecessary. Countries such as Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, and Belgium have abolished the death penalty and have not experienced an increase in the number of murders. While this is true, deterrence in America can only work if the threat of punishment is combined with the belief that these acts are also immoral, which seems to be decreasing in today's society. Without fear of consequences, more deaths would occur as morality is questioned and people's consciousnesses are less sensitive. Lack of fear and morals cannot be used as an excuse for the toleration of crime; standards still have to be set in order to protect the innocent. No direct correlation to murder rates can be applied with respect to the death penalty's deterrent value because actual statistics about the deterrent value of capital punishment are not available. It is impossible to know who may have been deterred from a committing a crime because it was illegal vice not having committed it just because it is immoral.

Rehabilitation Leads to Repeat Offenders

In a 1994 interview with John Wayne Gacy, Charles Colston noted that Gacy spoke open and freely of his murders, without any signs of remorse, and without any admittance of wrongdoing. It was said that Gacy had almost seemed proud of his accomplishments. His lawyers at the time had tried to plea insanity, saying he could not help himself in the heat of the moment, calling the instances "irresistible impulses." Though it was questioned that if Gacy had actually happened to have had experienced 33 "irresistible impulses," why were some of the graves dug prior to the killings? And if his memory of what he did was scattered, as his defense argued in his insanity plea, how is it that he was able to draw such detailed maps of how and where each body was buried, and where he had scattered the others? Gacy had previously been charged in the spring of 1968. He was indicted by a grand jury in Black Hawk County for committing the act of sodomy with a teenage boy. Four months later he was charged with hiring an eighteen-year-old man to beat up his accuser. Gacy offered the man ten dollars plus three hundred more to pay off his car loan if he carried out the beating. The young boy fought