assignment 11

Capital Punishment

Kameron Middleton

University of Memphis

Capital Punishment

The topic that I am interested in is Capital Punishment. Capital punishment is the act of executing criminals of specific crimes after proper legal trials have been concluded. Only the state has powers to execute a person. Non-state organizations cannot execute a person. When they do so, it is considered murder. The crimes that warrant capital punishment are those that are very serious such as certain types of murder, treason, adultery, rape, and certain types of fraud. These are known as capital crimes.

Many countries around the world use capital punishment. The death penalty has been abolished in some countries that is why they cannot use execution. China leads when it comes to executing people. China is closely followed by Iran, the USA, and Saudi Arabia. The United States has a constitutional ban against any punishments that are cruel or unusual. Execution is considered an unusual punishment that is also cruel. The state does not have the right to kill human beings. If anything, the state has to protect its citizens. Execution is a capital punishment that comes with premeditation and ceremony that is why most people consider it inhuman. There has been a lot of dilemma surrounding the topic of capital punishment. The question on whether death penalty should be legal or illegal still remains unsolved. It is a contemporary social issue. The aim of this paper is to carefully examine capital punishment, determine the pros and cons of capital punishment and what can be done to protect human rights as well as ensure criminals are held accountable and deterred from committing further crimes.

Capital punishment was once used in many parts of the world, but the practice is now being discouraged in many countries. Some countries have totally abolished it while others are still in the process of doing so. When it comes to countries that still execute people, China takes the lead. It is closely followed by other countries such as Iran, the USA, and Saudi Arabia. In the United States, there is a constitutional ban against punishments that are cruel or unusual (McRae, 2017). Execution is considered an unusual punishment which is also very cruel. Nobody has the right to kill another human being regardless of the crime they have committed. It is in fact the duty of the State to protect its citizens and ensure they are not exposed to any danger. The reason why most people are against Execution is because it comes with premeditation and celebrations. Some reasons why capital punishment is inhuman is that it violates the value of human rights. The wrong person may be executed, there has been many chases were innocent people have been killed for something they did not do. To many people capital punishment is not necessary. There are plenty of other forms of punishment than death. Every person has the right to live, if a person commits a crime, I feel that death would be an easy way out. That person should pay for what they did by sitting for the rest of their life. Lastly it is cruel and inhumane, and that goes against the constitution.

This is a problem because many of innocent people lose their lives every year on death row. Many innocent people are sentenced to death that did not commit the crime. People recevice the death penalty for crimes that do not deserve it.

References

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Goel, R. K., & Mazhar, U. (2019). Does capital punishment deter white‐collar crimes?. The World Economy, 42(6), 1873-1897.

Kovarsky, L. (2016). Muscle memory and the local concentration of capital punishment. Duke LJ, 66, 259.

McRae, D. (2017). Indonesian capital punishment from a comparative perspective. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, land-en volkenkunde/Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia, 173(1), 1-22.

Moreland, A., & Watson, D. (2016). Women’s representation and capital punishment. Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, 37(4), 490-513.

Rubin, A. T. (2016). Penal change as penal layering: A case study of proto-prison adoption and capital punishment reduction, 1785–1822. Punishment & Society, 18(4), 420-441.

Sarat, A. (2018). When the state kills: Capital punishment and the American condition. Princeton University Press.

Seeds, C. (2018). Disaggregating LWOP: Life without parole, capital punishment, and mass incarceration in Florida, 1972–1995. Law & Society Review, 52(1), 172-205.

Ethics: Capital Punishment. (N.d)). Retrieved November 09, 2020, Form http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/capitalpunishment/