Capital Punishment

Capital Punishment



Abstract

Critics argue that capital punishment is, contrary to popular belief, more expensive than life imprisonment. They point to numerous studies on individual states such as California, Indiana, and North Carolina, as well as comparative studies, which have found that on average, costs of initial capital trials, and lengthy periods of incarceration on death row, mandatory appeals, and the execution itself exceed those of life incarceration. Such monies, argue critics, could be better spent on furthering the reduction of crime through increased law enforcement or other proven avenues of reduction. The argument that capital punishment disproportionately targets minorities, and in African Americans, is most immediately related to social inequality in the United States, but as many legal theorists have argued, it also intersects with retributive theories to the degree that they assume a requisite net balance of justice. Critics point out that, since the reinstatement of the death penalty, 35 percent of those executed have been black, within a general African, American population of about 13 percent in the United States. Aside from the argument that capital punishment does not deter crime, critics also argue that the death penalty does not, in fact, result in increased justice for either victims or society. Many critics are opposed to the idea of retribution on moral or religious grounds, and argue that for a variety of reasons, the death penalty constitutes a violation of the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Another common argument against the use of capital punishment as a morally or socially necessary form of recompense is the fact that, for centuries, modern Western societies have substituted other forms of punishment in lieu of the types of offenses committed by criminals.

Capital Punishment

Introduction

There are many lively debates surrounding the ethics, efficacy, and policy implications of capital punishment as they pertain to its use within the United States. Globally, the United States is one of about 60 nations that regularly employ this punishment. However, within the group of Western industrialized nations, it remains the only country that routinely puts people to death. To the extent that the United States shares similar legal and political systems with other Western industrialized countries, it has not followed the trend of most European and Western-hemisphere states that have abolished the use of capital punishment within the last four decades. There are compelling arguments for and against the use of capital punishment, particularly as they pertain to its use within the United States.

Discussion

Capital punishment has been used for thousands of years. The earliest codified forms of law such as Mosaic Law and the Codex Hammurabi, detailed, numerous crimes for which a person could be executed. The Greeks, Romans, and other empires employed it frequently, both as punishment for a host of criminal offenses, as well as a tool of political, economic, and cultural domination (Goldman, 2002). Prior to the 18th century, the use of capital punishment was both common and unremarkable, and there was little controversy surrounding the idea that some people deserved ...