Preview

Why Is Capital Punishment Wrong

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2065 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Why Is Capital Punishment Wrong
Capital Punishment Capital Punishment is the killing of a convicted person who has committed a violent and heinous crime. Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is determined through a court of law and is not enforced in all states of the United States of America. It is not used in all murder cases, only those who have been convicted of committing atrocious killings (Hood). The death penalty is solely utilized for the cases in which the convict has committed a crime that has made him or her potentially a threat to society. Some of the crimes committed that receive the death penalty in the state of Texas include: multiple murders, planned murder, repeated crimes, and/or rape and murder. The death penalty has been used since the beginning …show more content…
C., King Hammurabi established the code of Hammurabi. This code contained laws and punishments for his people, which included the death penalty. Surprisingly enough, murder was not included in this document (“Capital Punishment”). The Greek law maker, Draco, wrote the laws for Ancient Greece in 621 B.C. It is said that his laws were “written in blood” to illustrate to the people of that time that all crimes were punished by death (“Capital Punishment”). In the fifth century B.C., the Roman Law of Twelve Tablets was established. This law proclaimed that several crimes were punishable by death. Some of these crimes are as follows: the stealing of crops, loud behavior in public, murder, and treason (“Capital Punishment”). Also, in England some of the crimes that Englishmen thought deserved the death penalty were stealing another man’s turnips, talking to gypsies, picking pockets, and even cutting down trees (“Capital …show more content…
This is true for several different reasons. Life without parole cases usually stay in prisons for about thirty to forty years. This costs the American tax payers anywhere from $1.2 million to $3.6 million for each case (Lowe). On the other hand, death penalty cases cost around $34,200 (Lowe). In both instances, it costs American tax payers money; nevertheless, capital punishment is significantly cheaper than life without parole. The American people should not have to pay for violent murderers to live when they have committed such vulgar crimes and do not even deserve this allowance in the first

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Capital punishment or the death penalty is a legal process whereby a person is put to death as a punishment for a crime. The judicial decree that someone be punished in this manner is a death sentence, while the actual process of killing the person is an execution. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. As of 2010, methods permitted for use include beheading, electric chair, gas chamber, hanging, lethal injection, and shooting.…

    • 851 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Death penalty also known as capital punishment is the ultimate price paid for committing a heinous crime against humanity. It is use today more conservatively (in the western world) than it was used in ancient days to punish all kind of crimes. Adultery, kidnapping and fornication to name a few are punishable by death in the Holy Bible and Holy Koran. Both the proponent and the opponent of death penalty yell and scream when the word death penalty is mentioned. The proponent may argue that it deters crime while opponent may argue that an innocent may be executed. In United States, death penalty is a law in 37 of the 50 of the states.…

    • 296 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Capital punishment is outdated, irreversible, hypocritical, and ineffective and deterring criminals, and should therefore be abolished. There are many things wrong with executing criminals, but some of the most compelling reasons are these: it is barbaric, does not positively affect murder rates, and to put it simply, two wrongs do not make a right.…

    • 863 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Capital Punishment is the use of death as punishment. In the 18th century Parliament was continuously enlarging the list of capital crimes, which were punishable by death, these included stealing in a shop to the value of five shillings, stealing anything at all privily from a person, sending threatening letters, sacrilege, and cutting down a tree. Starting in the 180s, the number of capital crimes slowly decreased. In 1861, murder became the only offence for which the death penalty was used in peacetime.…

    • 2620 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    According to JFA (Justice for All) estimates that life without parole cases will cost $1.2 million to $3.6 million more than equivalent to death penalty cases. In addition, Edwin H. Sutherland President of the American Sociological Society, argued that it’s not cheaper to keep a criminal confined, most of the time the prisoner will cost as much as a convict under death penalty, due to the care that has be given to the prisoners for all the years that they will be imprisoned. (Sutherland 1974) With time, life without parole cases are much more expensive than death penalty cases. Not only is much cheaper in the long run, but it keeps safe American citizens from murderers.…

    • 116 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is the execution of a convicted criminal by the state as punishment for crimes known as capital crimes or capital offences. Capital punishment is a justified form of punishment for murderers and is enforced by most states. The death penalty is a fitting punishment for murder because executions maximize the public safety through a form of incapacitation and prevention. When a person kills another person, their common sense and mental reasoning is lost. As a result of this, the murderer is no longer capable of a mentally stable life not only to himself but also society as a whole. In contrast, moral issues question the accuracy and the benefits of the death penalty as well.…

    • 360 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Capital punishment is a punishment that results in death usually caused by capital crimes or capital offenses. It is commonly referred to as the death sentence. According to an article “Buzzle” not all countries accept capital punishment but there are still a lot of states who do (par.1). Capital punishment has been around for thousands of years, this punishment is said to have helped keep crime level down and alter the minds of future criminals to prevent them from committing atrocious crimes such as: murder, terrorism, and in some situations aggravated kidnapping.…

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sentencing Paper

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Capital punishment is the death penalty. Capital punishment is the most extreme of all sentencing options (Schmalleger, 2011). Capital punishment is sentenced when someone comments a capital offense. In 2008, for example, a twenty eight year old man was sentenced to death in the atrocious murder of a ten year old girl in what authorities said was an elaborate plan to cannibalize the girls flesh (Schmalleger, 2011). Today, the federal government and 35 of the 50 states permit execution for first degree murder, kidnapping, aggravated rape, the murder of a police or corrections officer, or murder while under a life sentence (Schmalleger, 2011).…

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Capital punishment is the penalty of a capital offense resulting in death. Thirty-eight states currently support the death penalty. Human beings have always felt a need to punish those who did wrong and scare those who thought of doing wrong. Capital punishment has evolved over the years due to a never-ending search for a "humane" way to kill: from public hangings, gas chambers, electric chairs, shooting by firing squads, and finally the now leading form of execution- lethal injection (Gerber and Johnson 1-19).…

    • 1951 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Capital Punishment, legal infliction of death as a penalty for violating criminal law. Methods of execution have included such practices as crucifixion, stoning, drowning, burning at the stake, impaling, and beheading. Today capital punishment is typically accomplished by lethal gas or injection, electrocution, hanging, or shooting.…

    • 880 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To many of us death is a scary thing. We will all die one day, but when someone else takes another person’s life we think of that as wrong in many ways. Killing is wrong. If you take someone else’s life in the United States of America you go to jail. Of course you must be proven guilty of that murder before being charged. It doesn’t matter where you live in almost every state, city and town if you kill someone you are looked down upon and you will suffer the consequences of that action. The question is, if murder is wrong then why is the death penalty okay? Is that setting a good example for society? If you kill someone then we kill you. How much sense does that make if we are trying to eliminate killing by killing? We try to teach our children the right thing that killing is wrong. How can we teach them the right thing if we are actually killing those who kill? Yes, what these murderers do is not right in any way but can’t we find a better solution than to kill?…

    • 1053 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    head he took a quick breath. A few seconds later, he looked again in my…

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death Penalty Is Wrong

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Others take their word for it. But is that really true? Common Dreams, a nonprofit independent news center, says “Over the lifetime of a case, executing prisoners can be three times as expensive as life in prison, primarily due to the higher costs of capital punishment trials, automatic appeals, and the heightened security on death row with lower staff-to-prisoner ratios. Commuting all death sentences to life in prison would save hundreds of millions of dollars per year in the U.S. and many billions over the coming decades.” (Dan Brook, “Kill the Death Penalty: 10 Arguments Against Capital Punishment”) Think of all of the things America can benefit on with that money. Education could be better. There could be better schools, colleges, and supplies.With more educated citizens, more people can lead good successful lives. More money can be used in healthcare. More awful diseases could be treated and cure terrified patients. All of that can happen, if only capital punishment is…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Advocates of the death penalty say it is an important tool for preserving law and order,…

    • 178 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    A man sits waiting for his execution. He has been found guilty of murder and the government sees it fit that he should be punished in the same way. But wait- doesn’t an eye for an eye leave the whole world blind? What if this man was falsely accused and he is innocent? He could be an upstanding citizen and a positive attribute to society. He might even have a family of his own to care and provide for. Capital punishment exists because some believe it deters crime. If criminals know their punishment will be death, they will not commit murder. Some believe a death for a death is fair. They believe it gives some closure and peace because the murderer is rid of forever. And that though it might be expensive, it…

    • 1686 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays