Death Penalty Research Paper free essay sample

The Death Penalty Research Paper English Composition ENG101 03 December 2011 Abstract The death penalty is a subject of much debate amongst the American people. Some people support capital punishment while others do not. Examination of sources and analyses of important history regarding the death penalty will hopefully add to the understanding of why it is so important in our day and age to have such a penalty to deter and deal with the most violent of offenders in our modern day society. A major influence on my position is my uncle being murdered when I was younger. The points I use to support my argument for being Pro Death Penalty are the history of the death penalty, the death penalty as a deterrent, cost comparison between the sentences of life and death, and is victim’s justice served. Knowledge of this personal influence, and the points mentioned above adds to the understanding of being Pro Death. The Death Penalty The position I take on the issue of the death penalty is one of deep conviction due to personal experience with a murdered family member. Many people might say that this would cause me to have a biased view. This experience if anything gives me a better understanding of the importance of such a punishment, and I truly believe that you can not accurately speak on such a topic unless you yourself has been affected by the outcome of such a heinous crime. Therefore the death penalty should not be banned as a form of punishment and should be implemented in a much more aggressive manner. Besides the murder of my uncle influencing my decision, there are a few other reasons to support my position on the death penalty, and those are, looking at the history of the death penalty, the death penalty as a deterrent, cost comparison (Life vs. Death), and victim’s justice served (retribution). The history of the death penalty in America was derived from the British. The first recorded execution in America was that of Captain George Kendall for being a spy for Spain in 1608. All throughout colonial times the death penalty was evolving from Duke’s Laws of 1665 which meant you could be sentenced to death for stealing grapes, or striking ones own parents, to Thomas Jefferson proposing a bill to only enforce death sentences for the crimes of murder and treason. In 1794 Dr. Benjamin Rush with the support of Benjamin Franklin led Pennsylvania to become the first state to consider degrees of murder. That same year Pennsylvania repealed the death penalty for all offenses except first-degree murder. As we came into the nineteenth and twentieth century some states began abolishing the death penalty while some states held onto capital punishment recognizing the importance of ridding society of worthless human beings. Surprisingly as time goes on from then till present day people continue to become a weaker and weaker society losing the backbone that our forefathers once had. Unfortunately our justice system shows more sympathy for criminals than it does victims. People would rather coddle a violent criminal instead of giving them the sentence they deserve, death. The fear of death is by far a person’s greatest fear, it does not matter who you are, or what you do for a living, no person wants to die. There is no better deterrent to violent crime than capital punishment. (Clemson University Professor Shepherd) found that each execution results, on average, in five fewer murders. The problem we face with deterrence is the speed in which the death penalty is carried out, to instill the fear that you will be dealt with swiftly for your violent crimes. Without a shadow of a doubt the death penalty is a deterrent and saves a lot of innocent lives. Actual testimony from convicted individuals states this fact. One example is of an Iowa prisoner, who escaped from a transportation van, with several other prisoners. While this escape took place he made sure that no harm or assault came to the guards because they were in Texas and he feared being sentenced to death if one of those guards were killed. He was already a twice-convicted murderer in Iowa where there is no death penalty for murder. So although he was already a convicted murderer the threat of the death penalty deterred him from killing or allowing any of the other prisoners to kill any of the guards. Another example is of a woman who robbed a store with an unloaded gun. When asked by police why she didn’t have a loaded gun she replied, if things got out of hand she did not want to lose her cool and start shooting people, and possibly kill someone for fear of being sentenced to death. The topic that is at the forefront of every death penalty argument these days is the cost-comparison of â€Å"life in prison vs. death†. There are a couple different ways to dissect this issue. It is true that a capital case is more expensive than a life sentence case. This is because of the long drawn out nature of these cases. The appeals that are associated with them cost the court even more time and money. Finally the burden on the taxpayer for having to foot the bill for their housing in prison while they wait for years on death row. California is home to the largest death row population in the U. S. , it costs an extra $90,000 per inmate to imprison someone sentenced to death, an additional expense that totals more than $63. 3 million annually for 667 inmates on death row. Today this seems to be the major argument for the population that does not support capital punishment, that it just costs too much money to sentence somebody to death. That is because the inmate generally will sit on death row for 20+ years bleeding the taxpayers dry. The easy solution to this problem is to speed up the process in which a guilty verdict, with the sentence of death is imposed and carried out. With the advancements in policing, evidence gathering, and evidence processing, when a sentence of death is imposed it should be done so without a shadow of doubt. Once that has been done, within a week the individual should be executed, saving the state and the people a lot of money. This is the only way to cut costs and to make the death penalty a more effective deterrent. The ones that pay the most and lose the most in a capital case is the victim’s family. They not only have to deal with the loss of a loved one, they have to go through the long drawn out process of dealing with a criminal trial and every painful memory that is brought up along the way. The entire time all the family is seeking is retribution for the loss of their loved one. People often confuse retribution with revenge. Vengeance signifies inflicting harm on the offender out of anger because of what he or she has done. Retribution is the rationally supported theory that the criminal deserves a punishment fitting the gravity of his or her crime. As a victim these two closely mirror each other with the scale leaning more towards vengeance. In a perfect world I believe it should be up to the murdered victim’s family to decide whether or not the death penalty be carried out, because they are the only ones that should have a true voice in the matter, not some reporter so far detached and removed from the actual occurrence speaking about something that they have no emotional attachment to. The only attachment or opinion they have is of something they will not fully understand until it happens to them. Then I bet they would be singing a different tune. In most cases when an inmate is executed this brings some form of closure to the family of the victim in knowing that justice was served â€Å"Eye for an Eye†. The death penalty as a form of punishment, the ultimate punishment will always be up for discussion and debate as long as it still exists in our society. Whether you are pro death penalty or against it altogether, I hope you will never have to be brought so close to this topic as my family and I have been.