Death Penalty as an Equitable Punishment

As former president of the United States of America, George W. Bush once stated, I support the death penalty because I believe if administered swiftly and justly, capital punishment is a deterrent against future violence and will save other innocent lives.” To some the death penalty is the only just thing that will teach criminals that they have to pay for their actions, that they can not commit these hate crimes and think that they will live the rest of their life without a care in the world. While on the other hand, some are completely against this “immoral and cruel” way of punishment. The death penalty shows people that are willing to commit these heinous acts that if they decide to carry through with those acts, they will have to face the consequences of their actions with their own life. Which might discourage them from such behaviors, while also providing a sense of solace and afty to not only victims, but also the community.

For people to really learn their lesson and get the punishment they deserve for the crime they have decided to commit, the only just thing to do is give them a punishment that would keep them from recreating the awful crime they have committed. The death penalty is the only punishment that would nearly be fit for the crimes these people are convicting. Alex Kozinski explains the importance of people deserving what they have done to someone else, 'Immanuel Kant said it best. He said a society that is not willing to demand a life of somebody who has taken somebody else's life is simply immoral. So the question really... when the system works and when you manage to identify somebody who has done such heinous evil, do we as a society have a right to take his life? I think the answer's plainly yes. And I would go with Kant and I would say it is immoral for us not to' (“Death Penalty- Pro con”).

This quote supports my reason for the death penalty saying how its wrong for you to still have your life when you’ve taken someone else's. Shruti Juneja says, “To believe in the death penalty, you have to believe two things, you must believe that there is a category of … murderers who, by virtue [of] their character and the crime they have committed, have no right to life.” (Juneja, Shruti) This supports the reason that no one who has taken the innocent life of someone else then you no longer deserve to live either. Any alternative punishments that people come up with just will not fit the crime of murder or rape or anything else that you deserve to lose your freedom and life for. Life in prison isn't as awful as people make it out to be, prisoners still have freedoms, they are allowed to have time outside, free food, free health care, also they have no type of punishment and they have other freedoms that you have out of prison and even more in some ways. In an article by LII Staff they talk about all the rights prisoners have, “Federal and state laws govern the establishment and administration of prisons as well as the rights of the inmates. Although prisoners do not have full constitutional rights, they are protected by the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. This protection also requires that prisoners be afforded a minimum standard of living.” (LII Staff). Another problem that factors into not giving people the death penalty is that people who are sentenced to life in prison do not always sever that time. Many prisoners get out of prison for good behavior and end up with having parole and sometimes they don't even have that. Niall McCarthy states, “nearly 162,000 inmates are serving a life sentence, one out of every nine people in prison. A further 44,311 individuals are serving 'virtual life' sentences of 50 years or more, defined as any sentence where it's likely the inmate will die in custody” (McCarthy, Niall). Meaning that only those one in every nine will serve their full life sentence and die in that prison. For the rest of them they normally can find a way to shorten their sentence and get out with parole and go on to live their life back in the world not having a care in the world what they have done. Even if they are sentenced to life, it isn't as long as you think it is. This is stated, Parole-eligible offenders serving a life sentence for a serious violent felony (murder, rape, aggravated sodomy, aggravated child molestation, aggravated sexual battery, armed robbery, or kidnapping) committed prior to July 1, 2006, are initially considered for parole after serving 14 years. Those offenders who committed such crimes on or after July 1, 2006, will not be considered for parole until they have served 30 years. Most life-sentenced offenders convicted of serious violent felonies before 1995 were eligible for parole after seven years and have already received their initial parole consideration (“Life Sentences”). Being said the death penalty is what can really install fear into people leaving the thought in peoples head that if they go through with any of the crimes stated, then they could face the punishment and really learn their lesson.

Throughout the Bible death is talked about multiple times, killing people was not an odd thing to occur, so if the Bible is okay with something along the same lines as the death penalty then shouldn't we be along with it too? Like in the old testament, sites various times the need for capital punishment. The old testament law commanded capital punishment for various crimes including, murder “He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death.” Exodus 21:12, kidnapping “Anyone who kidnaps someone is to be put to death, whether the victim has been sold or is still in the kidnapper’s possession.” Exodus 21:16, bestiality “Anyone who has sexual relations with an animal is to be put to death.” Exodus 22:19, adultery “If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death.” Leviticus 20:10, homosexuality “If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.” Leviticus 20:13, being a false prophet “That prophet or dreamer must be put to death for inciting rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. That prophet or dreamer tried to turn you from the way the Lord your God commanded you to follow. You must purge the evil from among you.” Deuteronomy 13:5, prostitution and rape “you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s life. You must purge the evil from among you.” Deuteronomy 22:24. The thing all those quotes have in common is that they are all in favor of taking one's life if they are caught in the wrong doing, even though they don't call that capital punishment it is basically the same thing. Seeing how the Bible supported it there is no reason why people now cannot support it or think that it is wrong because it is clearly stated multiple times in the Bible that its a just way of punishing someone for their wrong actions. This goes to show how it was around even in the past and how it is still around now.

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The majority of Americans, in the past and present, still support capital punishment and believe that it is a good way to keep the community safe and help keep the crimes regulated and prevent them from occurring. This idea of a capital punishment has been prevalent in cultures across the world for longer than the United States has existed. “The death penalty has been around for a very long time, starting over in Europe and then spreading to America. The first established death penalty laws date as far back as the Eighteenth Century B.C. in the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon, which codified the death penalty for 25 different crimes” (Part I: history of the death penalty). That was the first ever time recorded that someone was killed for a crime they commited. However during some time there had to be a time earlier that people were killed for a crime and it just wasn't recorded as anything at the time. Although some U.S. states began abolishing the death penalty, most states held onto capital punishment. Some states made more crimes capital offenses, especially for offenses committed by slaves. After the Civil War a new focus was given to Capital Punishment due to the advances in technology which made it more accessible, including the electric chair. To make the death penalty more likeable by the common people states added ways for the judges to pick and choose what cases should be dealt with the death penalty and which shouldn’t rather than blanketly punishing all who committed a certain crime, “In 1838, in an effort to make the death penalty more palatable to the public, some states began passing laws against mandatory death sentencing instead enacting discretionary death penalty statutes” (Part I: history of the death penalty). Most states in the United States of America still are in favor for the death penalty today. “31 out of the 50 states employ capital punishment” (Why Americans Need To Rethink). A good reason of why all these states still allow it isn't just because they actually do kill all the people convicted but because of the closure that it brings the victims that have suffered or had to be a part in any way of these dreadful crimes.

People say that the death penalty is immoral, cruel, and unusual but isnt raping or murdering an innocent person just as immoral? The biggest problem with the death penalty is that people can be wrongly convicted and then they have faced a punishment and lost their life and no one can ever give that back to them. One example of this is when, “Carlos DeLuna was put to death in December 1989 for a murder in Corpus Christi. But he didn't commit the crime. Today, his case reminds us of the glaring flaws of capital punishment.” (Cohen, Andrew) That story is just one of the many times that someone has been wrongly convicted and found innocent after they have already been sent to death row and already had their life taken away from them. Statistics show that, “Gross and his colleagues calculated a 4.1 percent error rate among people who are sentenced to death.” (Hughes, Virginia). That is the very reason why the death penalty can be found as a default and why it should not be used or brought forward with anymore. People make mistakes all the time and so do these judges and people making the final decision to send someone to death row or not. Because you can always try to get your life back out of prison or even in there you still have your life, but if sentenced to death row and killed, then you can never get that person's life back. Another thing that is just morally wrong and hypocritical is that two wrongs don't make a right. If you're punishing someone for killing someone by killing them then how exactly does that add up. This is shown through this quote, “We don't like people who kill other people, so to show everyone how much we don't like people who kill people, we are going to kill people who kill other people. It seems like capital punishment pretty much goes against everything it claims to be for. The death penalty answers violence with counter-violence” It is also said by the same site that, “Violence breeds violence. Acts of violence committed in ‘justice’ or in affirmation of ‘rights’ or in defense of ‘peace’ do not end violence. They prepare and justify its continuation” (psychology today). Which is why capital punishment is not is not an equal or fair punishment for any crime committed, because we're using an act of violence by taking one's life because of the violence that they have created. With all the defaults that are found in the death penalty, there is no reason that it should still be around and legal in any states, bringing more violence and hate to those who have made a mistake by acting on emotions and feeling rather than by thinking of what they are doing.

Letting these criminals just sit in a prison where they still have their life will not make them learn that what they did was wrong, their life is not an innocent life. When you sentence someone to death row, the life your about to take is not some innocent life. They have commited a crime that has hurt someone else and they should no longer be considered innocent. They are a felon and an awful human being that should not have the chance to go out and do the same thing again to someone else. It is proven that once you have worked up the nerve to kill once, you have no problem killing again. A similar thing is said, “There is no doubt that a murderer should be killed – it is the basic premises of an eye for an eye or a life for a life. People who believe this feel that someone who has taken a life should forfeit their own” (punishment for murder). If you took the life of one person, then you should then have your life taken from you is what this is saying. Which supports my reasoning for why capital punishment should be legal in all states and should be put into action more often. There is also just no other solution that will make a rapist or murder learn their lesson that what they have done is unexceptable. While some people this this, “Everyone thinks human life is valuable. Some of those against capital punishment believe that human life is so valuable that even the worst murderers should not be deprived of the value of their lives.They believe that the value of the offender's life cannot be destroyed by the offender's bad conduct - even if they have killed someone” (Ethics). While on the other hand people will never learn that what they have done was wrong. Another problem people have with the death penalty and try to use as an argument is seen through this quote where it talks about people being in their right mind, it says, “It's generally accepted that people should not be punished for their actions unless they have a guilty mind - which requires them to know what they are doing and that it's wrong. Therefore people who are insane should not be convicted, let alone executed. This doesn't prevent insane people who have done terrible things being confined in secure mental institutions, but this is done for public safety, not to punish the insane person. To put it more formally: it is wrong to impose capital punishment on those who have at best a marginal capacity for deliberation and for moral agency. A more difficult moral problem arises in the case of offenders who were sane at the time of their crime and trial but who develop signs of insanity before execution” (Ethics).

One of people's biggest arguments against the death penalty is that those that commit these crimes that deserve the death penalty is that they are mentally unstable. That in order to punish them they have to understand what they are doing is wrong, and that's what the quote about summarizes so well. However everyone knows what they are doing, in your right mind or not, you have some knowledge of what's going on and what you are about to do. Which is why unless that person has medical records showing that they are truly mentally ill or have a real disability then they should be tried and if found guilty then sentenced to the death row.

Capital punishment is practiced all over the world, even in places where it is not technically legal. It has been around for years and it is a subject that you either agree with or disagree, there is not much of an inbetween view. The death penalty has been around for years and probably will continue to be around for many more years to come, and will serve its good. Staying in the back of people's heads as they go throughout their life deciding what to do and if those decisions are really worth it. The death penalty shows people that are willing to commit these heinous acts that if they decide to carry through with those acts, they will have to face the consequences of their actions with their own life. Which might discourage them from such behaviors, while also providing a sense of solace and afty to not only victims, but also the community.