Capital Punishment (essay 4)

Will Armijo
English 102
Matthew Jolly
April 27, 2007
Capital Punishment
Today the United States is the only Western Industrialized nation that continues to use capital Punishment as a penalty for violating criminal law, executing on average 75 people per year. Is this type of punishment unjust or unmoral? Considering this is the most controversial act in the modern word, nations and states are making numerous attempts to abolish it. Capital Punishment has been practice for as long ago as we can remember. Today hundreds of people, half innocent, are being executed each year. We ask ourselves why? Is the death penalty really deteriorating crime rate and benefiting our society? How is killing one person going to solve a problem or crime that has already been committed? All of these questions can be answered but some people don’t want them to be because they think killing someone is the easy way out. Let’s take a deeper look into the reality and brutality of Capital Punishment itself and open the doors to new solutions.
A long time ago, back when executions were very popular in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, they were typical because once someone was executed they were never to be worried about again. Some typical types of executions were crucifixion, stoning, drowning, burning, hanging, and beheading. Let’s jump ahead a few centuries; in the late 18th century all murders in the US were punishable by death (Anderson 76). The murder was divided into two categories, first degree and second degree. First degree was allowed execution and second degree was only allowed imprisonment. This was just a stab at the attempts to abolish Capital Punishment. States and countries then began to replace the death penalty with a life sentence but keeping the death penalty legal. Although many states began to limit numbers of executions, no government had formally abolished it until Michigan did in 1846. Within the next 20 years Venezuela and Portugal had eliminated the death penalty and from then on it was a domino effect. After World War II and the break up of the Soviet Union, a burst of countries were able to abolish the death penalty. The Unites States was not one of them.
Capital Punishment in the United States is primarily a matter of state law and practice because it is a federal system of government. Federal law provides the death penalty for more than 40 crimes (Official Bureau 17). Each state chooses its own criminal penalties and they are responsible for defining their crimes, this also holds true for their say so on the executions. Only twelve states do not have a death penalty. All other 38 states provide some sort of punishment by death, including murder, drug trafficking, hijacking, treason, and sexual assault. However, for the past 15 years all persons sentenced to the death penalty have been convicted of some form of murder (Kerrigan 25). Although in the 1972 decision of Furman v. Georgia the Supreme Court ruled that it was cruel and unusual punishment to allow a jury to decide whether a convict be sentenced to death or imprisoned for life, this invalidated every state death penalty statue and an official moratorium on executions was initiated that year until 1976.
The controversy and debate over whether government should utilize the death penalty continues today because unlike the US other Eastern counties began to emphasize the worth of the individual and realize how unjust the practice is. Capital Punishment is brutal and degrading, while some people consider it a necessary form of retributions for terrible crimes. People think that by killing convicts they are deterring crime. Killing is a crime itself. Killing people is just abusing government power, it’s not necessary at all.
Since 1976 more than 900 executions have taken place in the United States( Official Bureau 130). Most executions are conducted in the southern states (two-thirds). In 2003 Texas and Oklahoma put to death 38 prisoners combined. Every year in the US juries sentence between 200 and 300 criminals to death. Yet this far exceeds the number of executions that take place due to a long delay period. In 2003, 3,400 prisoners were under death sentence in the United States alone. When executions do happen in the United Sates they usually happen a decade or more after the prisoner has been convicted. Most of the time its due to legal appeals that must be finished before they can actually execute the person. Another reason is called “exhaustion of remedies’ meaning the court has time to go over errors in their court before the federal court steps in (Lawry 56). This gap between execution and sentencing frustrates supporters of capital punishment because they want them killed right away, but why? The prisoner is doing no harm in jail so why should they be killed? If anything, why not council and try to help them while keeping them imprisoned?
Let’s step into the brutality of the act taking place. Did you ever think executions are still just a public spectacle for a government to get money? They were back when hanging and electrocuting was around. Yeah times have changed but the government is always looking for ways of displaying its power. Every aspect of execution is brutal in all sense, it doesn’t matter if it’s by lethal injection or chemical gas, it is all unjust and inhumane. Although supports see nothing wrong with government’s deliberately killing terrible people who commit crimes, they are blind to the fact that is degrading and immoral to the individual and humanity itself.
Social scientists have collected statistical data on trends in homicide before and after abolishment of capital punishment in certain states. Statistics show that presence or absence of capital punishment or executions does not visibly influence the rate of homicide. With this in mind, why is capital punishment even necessary and why do we continue to use it? Since the late 70’s more than 100 people sentenced to death have been exonerated (found innocent) (CQ Researcher 17). There is not doubt that many other inmates on death row are innocent but most of them will run out of time and be executed before then. Two governors since 2003 have completely cleared their death row and are looking for ways at abolishing capital punishment. There will be no end to the madness unless we just stop executing all together. Capital Punishment is only causing more problems, not only is it immoral and inhumane but our government is not only killing people but killing innocent people as well. Once again it’s just a show of power not a matter of life.