An Eye for an Eye: The Death Penalty

The death penalty has had and will always have the danger of judicial errors. As the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center Richard Dieter has emphasized, “every time we have an execution, there is a risk of executing an innocent person. The risk may be small, but it’s unacceptable” (Death to the Death Penalty). According to the Death Penalty Information Center, among all 7,818 people who were sentenced to death since 1977, 1412 people have been executed and 155 people have been proved innocent. Therefore, for every nine people executed, we have found one person is innocent.

Throughout the history of man there has always existed a sort of rule pertaining to retribution for just and unjust acts. For the just came rewards, and for the unjust came punishments. This has been a law as old as time. One philosophy about the treatment of the unjust is most controversial in modern time and throughout our history; which is is the ethical decision of a death penalty. This controversial issue of punishment by death has been going on for centuries. It dates back to as early as 399 B.C.E., to when Socrates was forced to drink hemlock for his “corruption of the youth” and “impiety”.

Capital punishment, otherwise known as the death penalty, is a controversial subject which has been argued for decades due to the ethical decisions involved. People believe the death penalty is the right thing to do and that it is the perfect example of ‘justice’ while others believe that it is immoral and overly expensive. The death penalty is not a logical sentence for criminals, it doesn’t give them the right type of justice and it is immoral.

Capital punishment or death penalty is usually imposed on persons who committed heinous crimes and are those that endanger the safety of the society. Some countries and societies implement capital punishment while others do not. There are various reasons for this policy of countries, including the social view on the

Capital Punishment, also known as the Death Penalty, is described as a government practice where a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for crimes such as murder, treason, espionage, and genocide.

Capital punishment is defined as the legally authorized killing of someone as punishment for a crime. There are many arguments that are for and against the death penalty. Majority of these arguments contain broad categories ranging from morality to attorney quality. Although most would support that capital punishment is the closest penalty for murder it is still used unequally across the prison populations. Capital punishment is a practice that the judicial system should abolish for the future generations.

The Death Penalty The death penalty, also known as capital punishment, is the punishment of execution, administered to someone legally convicted of a capital crime. Capital punishment is enacted by the court through different forms after the court proves that one was directly involved in serious crimes such as murder, rape, or even drug trafficking. This form of punishment has been around for many decades. Much controversy surrounds the death penalty.

Capital punishment is the same as the death penalty. When a person commits such a cruel crime such as murder, their punishment may just be their life getting taken.

We often seek to “do unto others which is done to us”. The concept of revenge is directly mirrored in our prison system. Once someone commits a crime, they are then, through the 7th Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights, subject to go to trial before a jury. If a jury of the defendant’s “peers” then deems the appropriate punishment for the crime that they are being tried for. The evocation of the death penalty grew very controversial mostly due to that reason. Essentially what was implied is that a human’s life is put into the hands of total strangers who in most cases are only knowledgeable of a minimal section of that person’s life and character. In an editorial research report on the death penalty, written in 1963, Jeanne Kuebler includes a quote by A. Francart on the appeal of capital punishment. “Capital punishment, its opponents insist, is revenge, not deterrence or protection, and as such lessens reverence for the sacredness of human life. ‘The lesson the scaffold always provides,’ Francart wrote, ‘is that human life ceases to be sacred when it is considered useful to suppress it…’” (Kuebler). A key point that Francart makes in his quote is the idea of revenge. Our society views revenge as a readily available convention to utilize whenever they see fit. Revenge, in its simplest form, deals with the notion that we all must become equal. In the ancient Code of Hammurabi this concept is referred to as “An Eye for

Capital Punishment, the process by which the government takes the life of an offender for crimes committed against humanity. Capital Punishment also referred to as the “death penalty” has played a role in the correctional process dating back to 1608 in Jamestown. Over the years the use of Capital Punishment has fluctuated. Like most areas of corrections the death penalty has become reformed and altered to needs of modern day society. Like most controversial issues the majority of people have a firm stance, either supporting or opposing.

Subsequently, this leaves the common people, with a very contemplative question in mind, should the U.S. utilize the death penalty for brutal crimes? This is not a matter that can be resolved in days, weeks, or months, this will take years because of the pros and cons on the social aspect of the death penalty. To start of this controversial debate, the most popular motive is the concept of “an eye for an eye” or if a

To understand the meaning of capital punishment, it is should to be looked at three different aspects, that is, from government, victim or the victim’s family, and from people. Capital punishment is known as a death penalty. It is a law that set by a government that is an execution of a person who has committed a crime that needs to be punished by death ("Capital Punishment."). From a victim or the victim’s family aspect, capital punishment is set to serve justice because the person needs to be

Well First let me explain what capital punishment is. Capital punishment, the death penalty, or the execution of somebody is the infliction of death upon a person by a judicial process as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences.

Bright, Stephen B.: "The death penalty as the answer to crime: costly, counterproductive and corrupting"; 35 Santa Clara Law Review 1211 (1995)