Immanuel Kant's The Capital Punishment Debate

The Capital Punishment Debate Immanuel Kant justifies his support for the death penalty by stating in his work Metaphysics of Morals that “if he has committed murder, he must die.” (Kant 1996) In Kant’s opinion, the death penalty is justified only when regarding murder and no other crime, unless it causes substantial damage to society. In Kant’s time, the eighteenth century, people seemed to believe in an eye for an eye. Do people still have the same mentality about the death penalty in modern times? According to statistics from the Bureau of Justice, there are approximately 3,260 death row inmates in the United States today. In today’s society, the death penalty law is in place to punish the alleged criminals who commit the most heinous
According to studies at the Death Penalty Information Center, crimes have been on the rise since the 1990s. Not only are crime rates rising in most states, but the crimes that are being committed are becoming more violent. There are currently thirty four states in the United States with the death penalty. Studies from the Death Penalty information Center show that states without the death penalty consistently had lower crime rates over the past 20 years. The Bureau of Justice studies show that on average, there were about 20,000 murders in the year of 2010. Out of these 20,000 murders, only about 15,000 arrests were made; and 115 death penalty sentences handed down. These are shockingly high statistics for a system that has a capital punishment law in place. These studies tell me that the death penalty is not preventing would- be criminals from committing murder or any other type of
Studies from the American Civil Liberties Union show that the color of the defendant and the victim’s skin plays a role in deciding who receives the death penalty. The same study shows that white victims account for about one-half of all murder victims and 80% of all capital cases involve white victims (1996). The United States Department of Justice released a study in the fall of 2000 that shows the death penalty law is used unequally against people of color. African Americans account for 48% of the death row population (1996). This seems like a pretty high percentage when African Americans account for 12 percent of the US population. Criminal justice statistics show that with murders involving white and black people, 90% involve a white individual killing a white and a black individual killing a black (1996). If these are the statistics, why do killers of the white victims get sentenced to the death penalty more