The Death Penalty Controversy

During the past few years, the death penalty has been the source of controversy in most countries across the world. Supporters of the death penalty have raised many questions over the years: Do we ignore criminals’ social rights? Do we also ignore the legal right of the state to impart punishment by death? At the current time, approximately 97 countries have done away with the death penalty. The real question is do people believe the death penalty is a good thing or should it be abolished altogether? As we can see, there are always two sides to every story. The death penalty dates back as far as the Ancient Laws of China. In the 18th Century B.C., the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon codified the death penalty for twenty-five
As of April 1, 2008, the Death Penalty was authorized by 37 states, the Federal Government, and the U.S. Military. Those jurisdictions without the Death Penalty include 13 states and the District of Columbia. (Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin). In 2008, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the use of the electric chair as a method of execution violated the Nebraska Constitution. With no alternative method of execution on the books, Nebraska is practically without a death penalty. In 2004, the New York Supreme Court ruled that the existing death penalty procedures violated the New York Constitution. The New York legislature has made no effort to change the procedures, effectively eliminating the death penalty in the state. Over the past three decades, the United States has accepted the death penalty. While most of those countries whose legal systems and cultures are normally compared to the United States have abolished capital punishment, the United States continues to use the death penalty as a tool of punishment. The death penalty has achieved a unique reputation in our public life and left a permanent mark on our politics and culture. It has also caused forceful scholarly debate, much of it dedicated to explaining the roots of American “exceptionalism”. America’s Death Penalty takes a different approach to
One of the pros that people believe its immortal because governments should never take a human life. Just as In the case of Henrietta Lacks. It almost seemed immortal for doctors to do what they did with her and take advantage of her medical condition. Neither Henrietta nor her family knew what the doctors were doing. As a con, we can say is the moral question that most people ask themselves is whether the criminals of those violent crimes deserve to die than with whether state and federal government deserve to kill those whom it has imprisoned. The legacy of racial bias and ethnic discrimination is unavoidably evident in the administration of capital punishment in America. Death sentences are imposed in a criminal justice system that treats you better if you are rich and guilty than if you are poor and innocent. “This is an immoral condition that makes rejecting the death penalty on moral grounds not only defensible but necessary for those who refuse to accept unequal or unjust administration of punishment.” We can also say discrimination was evident in Henrietta’s case. She was poor, black and did not have insurance. She was ignorant as to her medical condition. She did have an idea what was happening to her. The only thing she could do was trust her doctor. Her doctor cut out a small sample of her cancer cells, which