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Many Americans today still feel that capital punishment is a fair and necessary method of punishing their most violent criminals. One argument for the death penalty is the deterrent effect. In a 1985 study, published by economist Stephen K. Lesson at the University of North Carolina, he found that every execution of a murderer deters, on average, 18 murders. The study also demonstrated that raising the number of death sentences by one percent would prevent 105 murders.
However, only 38 percent of all murder cases result in a death sentence and of those only 0. 1 percent are actually put to death (Pro Death Penalty Online) They have also seen the greatest reduction in murder from 701 murders in 1981 down to 261 in 1996 (Justice for all Online). Therefore, the evidence of these two respectable studies illustrates that implementation of the death penalty correlates with a drop in the homicide rate. Another argument for the death penalty is that putting a murderer away for life is not good enough. As long as the murderer is still alive, there is a chance that he or she may kill again. Fortunately, there is no chance that he will commit another murder again as he was executed by the state of Virginia in 1997 (Wesley Lowe s Pro Death Penalty Webpage, Online) This argument in support of capital punishment goes to show that this is the reasoning why people who truly value public safety, believe there is no substitute for the death penalty. The argument of the constitutionality of capital punishment is also an extremely controversial argument.
Many abolitionists claim that the death penalty is unconstitutional and forbids cruel and unusual punishment (Wesley Lowe s Pro Death Penalty Webpage, Online). However, closer examination of their argument goes to show that cruel and unusual has never been defined in any of the American doctrines. One final argument in favour of the death penalty is the paradigm of the morality of it. In the words of Edward Koch, it is by exacting the highest penalty for the taking of human life that we affirm the highest value of human life. Murder is a horrendous crime and therefore anything less than the death penalty would be an insult to the victim and society. Capital punishment is very capable of deterring crime.
It not only keeps the criminal behind bars for life, but it also prevents parole boards and criminal rights activists from giving hardcore criminals the chance to repeat their crime. The sentencing objective based on the principle of an-eye-for-an-eye, which means that what one person has done to another should also be done to that person in return. Is that not justified, especially in cases of premeditated murder of another human begin, another life? Also, another point to consider is that today prison terms are not enough. Many people are allowed out early on parole and / or remission resulting in criminals just serving one third of their prison terms and being released back into society.
Free research essays on topics related to: cruel and unusual, capital punishment, prison terms, human life, death penalty
Research essay sample on Cruel And Unusual Death Penalty
