Capital Punnishment And The Death Penalty

Capital Punishment and the Death Penalty

The issue of capital punishment is a controversial topic that involves many moral and empirical aspects of human justice. The key issue regarding the death penalty is whether it's an appropriate form of punishment for our judicial system to impose. The empirical issues are based on whether or not the death penalty is imposed with bias, whether it serves as deterrence for future crimes, and whether it's economically beneficial for the country. The moral concerns include the idea of justice as being "an eye for an eye," whether or not capital punishment is "playing God," and whether or not it's a cruel and unusual form of punishment.

There have been arguments on whether or not the death penalty is objective. Supporters of the death penalty may indicate that there is roughly the same number of black death row inmates as there are white. Also, the number of executions of blacks and whites is virtually the same. However, this is not proof that the death penalty is not biased. In the case of interracial murders for instance, almost sixteen times more black defendants were executed than white ones.

Another claim is that the death penalty deters crime. However, in general, the rates of homicide or other violent crimes are lowest in those states which do not employ the death penalty. A poll taken by Americans showed that 65% of Americans support the death penalty, while 53% of them felt that the death penalty did not deter crime. Possibly the best evidence against the deterrence theory comes from an international perspective of capital punishment. The United States with its use of the death penalty finds itself in the company of mostly third-world countries. Most first-world countries, including our neighbor, Canada, have abolished the death penalty, and are better off as a result. The murder rate in the United States is roughly 3 times higher than other first-world countries.

Another important topic of debate concerning the death penalty is cost. As an alternative to the death penalty, life imprisonment can be very expensive for the state.

However, there are high costs that are sometimes overlooked involved in the measures taken during a capital punishment case as well. The logical assumption would be that it must be far more costly to imprison an offender for life than to prosecute a death penalty case. Usually around $25,000 a year in a maximum security prison for someone serving a life sentence. At the same time, this assumption fails to recognize other costs of capital punishment. A capital punishment trial itself is far more expensive than a normal criminal trial because extra precautions are taken as a result of the high stakes involved. Both prosecution and defense spend increased time and money building a much more difficult case.

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