Capital punishment



Capital punishment

Introduction

The concept of capital punishment in the country is restricted, particularly after the implementation of Eighth Amendment act in USA, and is being given to criminals that have committed aggravated, unexpected crimes that have the potential of shocking the humanity (Garland, 2005). Before the implementation of eighth amendment's this punishment was used to punish criminals involved in felony criminal act, however, currently this death penalty or capital punishment is being incorporated around 32 states of country, and in legal structure of country army and in other regulations.

The process of implementation and the offense issue related to the punishment is different in different legal system, and this prevailing different in expected to become broader with the passage of time. Meanwhile there numerous method through which death sentence could be completed, but the most commonly used method in USA is lethal injection, for example in year 2012 more that 43 criminals were under the procedure of trial and around 3146 criminals has been awarded with death punishment.

For over the years death sentenced has become the most debatable topic, primarily because of its dark history, as it was initially carried out in year 1608, and this process was continued by colonies until year 1910. Meanwhile, during the period of 1930-2002, more than 4500 criminals were executed with death sentenced, and around 135 soldiers were provided death penalty during the period of 1916-2012(Garland, 2005). In addition to this, USA has the record of convicting 38 people at a single time in year 1862; these people were convicted of charges like rape, and murder during the period of Dakota war.

Discussion

Abolition before statehood

Traditionally, numerous states of the country have not incorporated the concept of capital punishment in their legal structure. For example, Michigan was the first country that has not provided death sentenced to any criminal since being included in the Union. However, soon after achieving the tag of state Michigan eliminated the concept of death concept from their legal structure, and thus become the first country and government to eliminate this concept for majority of its criminal activity. Since then several attempts have been made by the government officials and federal government, but have not able to reformulate the concept of death penalty in their legal system. Other than Michigan, two others states as if Hawaii and Alaska have also eliminated the concept of death penalty before getting the status of statehood. In addition to this, several other states including (Wisconsin, Maine, Rhode Island, and others) have removed the concept of death row from the legal structure, but after failing to stand by their stand, several parties reincorporated the act in year 1984.



Suspension by Supreme Court

Death sentence or capital punishment because of its complexity level, and issues raised by several parties resulted in the suspension of this conviction by the supreme court of the country for years 1972-1976 during the proceeding of case Furman v. Georgia in year 1972(Sarat, 2002). During the proceeding of this case, the supreme court ...