FREE ESSAY ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

The issue of capital punishment has been an ongoing controversy for many centuries.
Punishment by death has been in practice since its first appearance in Babylonian
writings by Hammurabi dating to 2000 B.C. This form of punishment was later termed as
capital punishment. Abolitionists of capital punishment rely on the eighth amendment for
support. Stating that the execution of an inmate regardless of its manner is cruel and
unusual punishment. Abolitionists also believe that the punishment is unnecessary and is
not cost effective for the American taxpayers. Finally, abolitionists depend on the moral
issue of the death penalty to band capital punishment. Capital punishment advocates
depend on religious sanctions to justify the death penalty. Those who are for capital
punishment believes that it maximizes public safety through incapacitation and
deterrence.
In 1972, Furman v. Georgia, a case about the death penalty, was brought before the
Supreme Court. The court held that the death penalty was given in an arbitrary way for a
variety of crimes. At this time the court also held that the death penalty focused mainly
on African Americans and the under privileged. This ruling stopped short of actually
outlawing the use of the death penalty, but it gave the states fair warning that the
death penalty was in dire need of modification. Later in 1976, in the case of Woodson v.
North Carolina, the Supreme Court ruled that mandatory death penalties were
unconstitutional. However, later in 1976 in the case of Gregg v. Georgia the Supreme
Court ruled that under adequate guidelines, the death penalty was not considered cruel
and unusual. Therefore was not protected under the eighth amendment right that prohibits
cruel and unusual punishment.
Studies have been done contradicting the Supreme Court's ruling stating that the death
penalty is not cruel and unusual punishment. The process in which the body goes through
during an execution is in its self-cruel and unusual. In most cases, the execution is
very slow and painful. It is cruel to dispose of a human life just to incapacitate them.
With these reasons, the death penalty can be easily seen as cruel and unusual.
After a person is convicted and put on death row, one of five methods of execution can be
used; depending on what state the inmate is in. The average death row inmate spends 10
long years awaiting their execution. This long arduous wait is cruel and unusual in
itself. Lethal injection, electrocution, gas chamber, hanging, and firing squad are the
five options an inmate has to choose from for death. Since 1976, 400 people have received
lethal injection, 142 electrocution, and 11 by the gas chamber, three hanged, and two
people have been killed by firing squad. During the process of lethal injection, many
horrific problems may arise. For example, one man had a long and agonizing reaction to
the chemicals used before dying. In addition, executioners needed assistance finding a
usable vein in another inmate. During electrocution, the prisoners strapped into a char
and their shaven head and legs are attached with electrodes. The temperatures inflicted
through the human body reach 1,900 degrees Fahrenheit and the brain can reach boiling
point. Due to the high temperatures of the first volt, the body begins to jerk
involuntary and the eyes may pop out of the sockets. These reactions are often prolonged
because the body is not yet dead. After shocks may occur to finally kill the inmate. In
the gas chamber, the prisoner is strapped into a chair that is in a small room, harmful
gasses are emitted causing suffocation. In many instances, it takes eight to ten minutes
for the person to die.
The cost effectiveness of putting an inmate to death or keeping them for life is an
arguable point in itself. One piece of evidence shows that it is cheaper for an inmate to
stay in prison for life than be put to death. Overall, 2 million dollars of taxpayers is
spent per execution whereas lifetime incarceration is $600,000 to $800,000 per inmate
depending on their life expectancy. Therefore, the death penalty is unreasonable for the
prisoners and the American people. The same Abolitionist State that the money spent on
executions would be better spent on rehabilitation, but it has been found by John Douglas
a FBI agent. He has been put on many of the premiere investigations of some of the most
famous serial killers and the author of Journey into Darkness states, Where there is no
hope for rehabilitation-and this is based on years of research and experience-when we
deal with serial killers and sexual predators, the people I have spent most of my career
hunting and studying. These people do this because it feels good, because they want to,
and because it gives them satisfaction. However, according to the book Capital Punishment
in the United States, in 1992 the state and federal prisons reached a record high of
883,593 prisoners, therefore 1,143 prison bed spaces are needed per week due to
overcrowding. These numbers translate as such that an average prisoner cost $22,000
dollars per year, and the cost of new construction averages $54,000 dollars. Thus,
883,593 prisoners are costing the taxpayers approximately $19.4 billion plus another
$61.7 million for the construction of the 1,143 added spaces. This compared to a death
row inmate who has to spend an average of nine years and six month in jail has a cost of
$22,000 per year, plus the cost of construction during those nine years, in addition to
the execution comes to $690,000 dollars. While the inmate with a life sentence of 60
years, the jail time plus construction would approximately be $4,560,000.
Abolitionist of the death penalty believe that there is also a moral issue involved. They
believe that the death penalty has a brutalizing and corrosive effect on society. The
death penalty teaches that it is right to be vengeful against your wrong doer. It also
desensitizes society by destroying the natural horror of bloodshed. The most important
reason the death penalty is corrosive is that it cheapens the sanctity of life. If
society is willing to kill, its killers then that makes society as a whole more savage
and uncivilized than the executed. Studies have also shown that states with no death
penalty have a lower crime rate (3.5 percent as an average) than to those those do have
it (6.6 percent). 
Another converging fact is that the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime. Police
chiefs placed the death penalty last in reducing violent crimes with reducing drug abuse
as being the first. The death penalty is not a deterrent because most violent crimes are
committed in fits of rage, drug abuse, or because of psychological problems. Others say
that capital punishment maximizes public safety through incapacitation and deterrence.
Webster's definition of incapacitation is depriving a person of the physical or
intellectual power of natural of illegal or legal qualifications. Therefore executions
take away the ability of a person and forcible prevents the reoccurrence of violence.
Webster states that deterrence is the act or process of discouraging and preventing an
action from occurring. Therefore, with the possibility of execution a potential murderer
thought process would pause and the image of the execution could potentially prevent the
reoccurrence or occurrence of murder.
Capital punishment is found rectifiable by its religious decent. The Bible clearly states
many different laws and situations in which the death penalty can be used. In Genesis,
9:6 it states whoso sheddeth man's blood; by man shall his blood be shed; for in the
image of God man is made. This passage states the killing of a human is an offense
against God because man was made in the image of God. Within the biblical books of
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, which are in the Old Testament text, many
other crimes other than murder were punishable by death. Practicing another religion was
ground for execution, Exodus 22:20 states he that sacrificeth unto any god; save unto the
LORD only; he shall be utterly destroyed. Explicit sexual activity was grounds to be put
to death as well as adultery. Several other crimes are punishable by death, which
include: bestiality, sexual activity before marriage, rape, kidnapping, incest, and human
sacrifice. Although the New Testament does not have a code of laws, which indicate which
crimes, are punishable by death there are some indications and references to capital
punishment that show it was still being followed. For example in Romans 13:1-5 Paul
writes in verse 4: For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong be afraid,
for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to
bring punishment on the wrongdoer. The Islamic religion also has strict laws and
stipulations towards the death penalty. Lebeed Alkadhi who is a member of the Islamic
Center of Raleigh states, That there are scriptures that specify the crime and the
punishment. He also states The law is very clear cut and there must be witnesses of the
crime for the penalty to be imposed.
Because of the controversies, surrounding capital punishment there is little common
ground between the tow sides. Many hope that the ineffectiveness of capital punishment as
being a deterrent would convince others to abolish it. The future of the death penalty
does however rest primarily on the legislative authority. The future of capital
punishment may soon depend on popular opinion.