Thesis on Capital Punishment
When turning on the television to watch the daily news more than likely you will be bombarded with reports of brutal murders and other vicious acts committed. It is a rarity to view the news without hearing of such inhumane actions. Murder, rape, robbery, and other violent crimes have now been implemented into our society and the rate of crime is rapidly increasing. Since the first European settlers arrived in America, the death penalty has been accepted as just punishment for various offenses. The English Penal Code, which applied to the British colonies, listed fourteen capital offenses, but actual practice varied from colony to colony. In the Massachusetts Bay Colony, thirteen crimes warranted the death penalty: idolatry, witchcraft, blasphemy, rape, statutory rape, kidnapping, perjury in a trial involving a possible death sentence, rebellion, murder, assault in sudden anger, adultery, and sodomy. So how should the perpetrators of these violent crimes be punished? Some people may suggest incarceration, parole, or the death penalty. The death penalty raises many issues of morality, taxpayer’s funds, and other issues.
In eighteenth-century England, some two hundred crimes were punishable by death including pick pocketing and petty theft. The excesses of executions from the eighteenth century and the first European settlers in America have been greatly reduced and reserved for more heinous offenses such as murder. The earliest recorded lawful execution in the United States was in 1622 for the crime of theft committed by Daniel Frank, colony of Virginia. There have been over 20,000 people lawfully put to death in the United States and is still on the rise. Death row can obtain over 900 persons in thirty states at a time, which raises the issue of the taxpayer’s money.
The cost to execute a prisoner comes out of the taxpayer’s pockets and raises many arguments. Many people mistakenly believe that it is less costly to execute a murderer than to keep him in prison for life. Although at one time capital punishment was inexpensive, we are no longer able to walk the condemned prisoner s to their awaiting gallows. There are many costs to be considered including the financial expenses and the wear and tear on our courts and prisons. The trial process is more time consuming and more expensive in a capital punishment case. Ordinarily criminal cases, including murder cases, are resolved by guilty pleas and without the expense of a trial, eighty-five or ninety percent are determined that way. Unlike criminal cases, all capital cases require jury trials, which are longer, more complex, and more expensive than those in other cases, including other murder cases. Navell states, “Concern about costs seems petty when issues affecting life or death are at stake . . .”.(CITE)
Some people consider capital punishment to be state-sanctioned murder. Greeley states, “I for one think it [Capital Punishment] is not a sorrowful mistake and barbarity to do any such thing.” (CITE) Greeley and many others consider capital punishment to be an expression of vengeance. Greeley also states, “there is a natural inclination in man to return injury, evil for evil.” (CITE) Many people believe that human beings should not dictate the lives of another human even if he or she did commit a crime that some may find worthy to apply the death penalty to. Is the death penalty a way for people to play God? Some say yes while others may whole-heartedly disagree.
Challengers of the death penalty generally look at it from a moral point of view and believe that only God should withdraw the life of a man. They contend that the state has no legal right to take a human life even though it is done under legal process. Many opponents of the death penalty argue that capital punishment is contrary to public morals, that it debases society, and that it violates the sanctity of life. They believe that the urge for vengeance is a powerful and sinister motivation for demanding death for killers. Sarah B. Ehrmann of the American League to Abolish Capital Punishment often emphasizes the element of vengeance as an important factor in the death penalty:
The presence of vengeance as a purpose of penology contradicts everything we are seeking to accomplish. The protection of society and the rehabilitation of the offender are complicated and impeded by this destructive and emotional approach. It is for this reason, perhaps, that capital punishment cannot be ‘fitted’ into any rational system of penology. The phrase itself is meaningless. The very concept of punishment implies better behavior by the offender. Putting him to death is not ‘punishment’ at all – it is total elimination for the individual – the end – for the state the brutalizing consequence of this act.
There are many who no doubt would disagree with Mrs. Ehrmann and many challengers on this subject. Some opposers of capital punishment feel as though the death penalty does not end the suffering, it prolongs the process. Each execution draws dozens of people in its web. The circle of tragedy is always expanding and ultimately, all people are affected. The widow of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. , Coretta Scott King agrees with Ehrmann in her disagreement with the death penalty. Coretta Scott King has lost her husband and her mother-in-law to murder but she still continues to speak out strongly against capital punishment:
The truth is, we all pay for the death penalty because every time the state kills somebody, our society loses its humanity, and compassion and we sow the seeds of violence. We legitimize retaliation as the way to deal with conflict. Yes, we all pay. And in this sense the death penalty means cruel and unusual punishment for not only the condemned prisoner but for the innocent as well, for all of us.”
Supporters of the death penalty feel that retribution does play a role. Some feel that unlike revenge, retribution may be exacted when there is no personal injury and no wish for revenge. Supporters believe that capital punishment is an expression of society’s moral outrage at particularly offensive conduct. This function may be unappealing to many, but supporters feel that it is essential in an ordered society that asks its citizens to rely on legal processes rather than self-help to vindicate their wrongs. Many advocates of capital punishment feel that it is not enough to proclaim human life as sacred. Advocates also point out the various methods of execution to prove that the methods are not cruel and unusual and are made to fit the crime.
The United States has five authorized methods of execution. Lethal Injection is the most common used means of execution in the United States of America. The condemned is secured on a gurney and receives several drugs intravenously. Thirty-seven states, the United States Military, and the United States Government use lethal injection. The gas chamber is also another common method used to execute a criminal. The prisoner is restrained in a hermetically sealed steel chamber below which is a pan. Upon a signal, the executioner opens a valve, flowing hydrochloric acid into the pan. On a second signal, about 8 ounces of potassium cyanide crystals or tablets are dropped mechanically into the acid, producing hydrocyanic gas, which destroys the ability of blood hemoglobin to perform. Unconsciousness occurs within a few seconds if the prisoner takes a deep breath and death usually occurs within six to eighteen minutes. Hanging is another procedure used to execute an offender. The prisoner is weighed before the execution occurs. The "drop" is based on the prisoner’s weight, to deliver 1260 foot-pounds of force to the neck. Essentially, the prisoners weight in pounds is divided into 1260 to arrive at a drop in feet. This is to assure almost instant death, a minimum of bruising, and neither strangulation nor beheading. Properly done, death is by dislocation of the third or fourth cervical vertebrae. The familiar noose coil is placed behind the prisoner's left ear, to snap the neck upon dropping. The firing squad is the least used method to execute a prisoner. Only three states utilize this procedure and many consider it to be antiquated. There is reportedly no protocol for the procedure, which according to information involves a five-man team, one of who will use a blank bullet so that none of them knows who was the real executioner. Electrocution is the second most common method used in the United States. In a typical execution using the electric chair, a prisoner is strapped to a specially built chair, their head and body shaved to provide better contact with the moistened copper electrodes that the executioner attaches. Usually three or more executioner’s push buttons, but only one is connected to the actual electrical source so the real executioner is not known. The jolt varies in power from state to state, and is also determined by the convict's body weight. The first jolt is followed by several more in a lower voltage.
Florida has two methods of execution and gives the prisoner a choice between electrocution or lethal injection. The electric chair was constructed in 1923 when electrocution became the official method of capital punishment as authorized by the Florida Legislature. Prior to that date, counties carried out executions, usually by hanging. The chair was originally located at Union Correctional Institution, but was moved to Florida State Prison in 1962. Frank Johnson was the first inmate executed in the electric chair in Florida on October 7, 1924. The executioner is a private citizen who is paid $150 in cash. The executioner is present in the death chamber behind a screen. Information concerning the executioner and the execution team is confidential. The institution’s emergency generator provides the electricity for executions. According to the Florida Department of Corrections, the electrocution cycle is two minutes or shorter. During the cycle voltage and amperage levels peak on three occasions and the maximum current is 2000 volts and 14 amps.
On June 29, 1972, in Furman v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the death penalty in the United States. At that time, Florida had not carried out an execution since May 12, 1964. The death sentences of 95 men and one woman were commuted to life in prison as a result of the Furman decision. The Florida Legislature revised the death penalty statutes in December 1972. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld these statutes on July 2, 1976 in Proffitt v. Florida. John Spenkelink was the first Florida inmate executed in the post-Furman era on May 25, 1979. To date, 234 inmates have been executed in the electric chair, thirty-nine since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. Florida has carried out nine triple executions, three quadruple executions and twenty-one double electrocutions. No multiple executions have been carried out in the modern era. No woman has ever been executed in the electric chair.
In eighteenth-century England, some two hundred crimes were punishable by death including pick pocketing and petty theft. The excesses of executions from the eighteenth century and the first European settlers in America have been greatly reduced and reserved for more heinous offenses such as murder. The earliest recorded lawful execution in the United States was in 1622 for the crime of theft committed by Daniel Frank, colony of Virginia. There have been over 20,000 people lawfully put to death in the United States and is still on the rise. Death row can obtain over 900 persons in thirty states at a time, which raises the issue of the taxpayer’s money.
The cost to execute a prisoner comes out of the taxpayer’s pockets and raises many arguments. Many people mistakenly believe that it is less costly to execute a murderer than to keep him in prison for life. Although at one time capital punishment was inexpensive, we are no longer able to walk the condemned prisoner s to their awaiting gallows. There are many costs to be considered including the financial expenses and the wear and tear on our courts and prisons. The trial process is more time consuming and more expensive in a capital punishment case. Ordinarily criminal cases, including murder cases, are resolved by guilty pleas and without the expense of a trial, eighty-five or ninety percent are determined that way. Unlike criminal cases, all capital cases require jury trials, which are longer, more complex, and more expensive than those in other cases, including other murder cases. Navell states, “Concern about costs seems petty when issues affecting life or death are at stake . . .”.(CITE)
Some people consider capital punishment to be state-sanctioned murder. Greeley states, “I for one think it [Capital Punishment] is not a sorrowful mistake and barbarity to do any such thing.” (CITE) Greeley and many others consider capital punishment to be an expression of vengeance. Greeley also states, “there is a natural inclination in man to return injury, evil for evil.” (CITE) Many people believe that human beings should not dictate the lives of another human even if he or she did commit a crime that some may find worthy to apply the death penalty to. Is the death penalty a way for people to play God? Some say yes while others may whole-heartedly disagree.
Challengers of the death penalty generally look at it from a moral point of view and believe that only God should withdraw the life of a man. They contend that the state has no legal right to take a human life even though it is done under legal process. Many opponents of the death penalty argue that capital punishment is contrary to public morals, that it debases society, and that it violates the sanctity of life. They believe that the urge for vengeance is a powerful and sinister motivation for demanding death for killers. Sarah B. Ehrmann of the American League to Abolish Capital Punishment often emphasizes the element of vengeance as an important factor in the death penalty:
The presence of vengeance as a purpose of penology contradicts everything we are seeking to accomplish. The protection of society and the rehabilitation of the offender are complicated and impeded by this destructive and emotional approach. It is for this reason, perhaps, that capital punishment cannot be ‘fitted’ into any rational system of penology. The phrase itself is meaningless. The very concept of punishment implies better behavior by the offender. Putting him to death is not ‘punishment’ at all – it is total elimination for the individual – the end – for the state the brutalizing consequence of this act.
There are many who no doubt would disagree with Mrs. Ehrmann and many challengers on this subject. Some opposers of capital punishment feel as though the death penalty does not end the suffering, it prolongs the process. Each execution draws dozens of people in its web. The circle of tragedy is always expanding and ultimately, all people are affected. The widow of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. , Coretta Scott King agrees with Ehrmann in her disagreement with the death penalty. Coretta Scott King has lost her husband and her mother-in-law to murder but she still continues to speak out strongly against capital punishment:
The truth is, we all pay for the death penalty because every time the state kills somebody, our society loses its humanity, and compassion and we sow the seeds of violence. We legitimize retaliation as the way to deal with conflict. Yes, we all pay. And in this sense the death penalty means cruel and unusual punishment for not only the condemned prisoner but for the innocent as well, for all of us.”
Supporters of the death penalty feel that retribution does play a role. Some feel that unlike revenge, retribution may be exacted when there is no personal injury and no wish for revenge. Supporters believe that capital punishment is an expression of society’s moral outrage at particularly offensive conduct. This function may be unappealing to many, but supporters feel that it is essential in an ordered society that asks its citizens to rely on legal processes rather than self-help to vindicate their wrongs. Many advocates of capital punishment feel that it is not enough to proclaim human life as sacred. Advocates also point out the various methods of execution to prove that the methods are not cruel and unusual and are made to fit the crime.
The United States has five authorized methods of execution. Lethal Injection is the most common used means of execution in the United States of America. The condemned is secured on a gurney and receives several drugs intravenously. Thirty-seven states, the United States Military, and the United States Government use lethal injection. The gas chamber is also another common method used to execute a criminal. The prisoner is restrained in a hermetically sealed steel chamber below which is a pan. Upon a signal, the executioner opens a valve, flowing hydrochloric acid into the pan. On a second signal, about 8 ounces of potassium cyanide crystals or tablets are dropped mechanically into the acid, producing hydrocyanic gas, which destroys the ability of blood hemoglobin to perform. Unconsciousness occurs within a few seconds if the prisoner takes a deep breath and death usually occurs within six to eighteen minutes. Hanging is another procedure used to execute an offender. The prisoner is weighed before the execution occurs. The "drop" is based on the prisoner’s weight, to deliver 1260 foot-pounds of force to the neck. Essentially, the prisoners weight in pounds is divided into 1260 to arrive at a drop in feet. This is to assure almost instant death, a minimum of bruising, and neither strangulation nor beheading. Properly done, death is by dislocation of the third or fourth cervical vertebrae. The familiar noose coil is placed behind the prisoner's left ear, to snap the neck upon dropping. The firing squad is the least used method to execute a prisoner. Only three states utilize this procedure and many consider it to be antiquated. There is reportedly no protocol for the procedure, which according to information involves a five-man team, one of who will use a blank bullet so that none of them knows who was the real executioner. Electrocution is the second most common method used in the United States. In a typical execution using the electric chair, a prisoner is strapped to a specially built chair, their head and body shaved to provide better contact with the moistened copper electrodes that the executioner attaches. Usually three or more executioner’s push buttons, but only one is connected to the actual electrical source so the real executioner is not known. The jolt varies in power from state to state, and is also determined by the convict's body weight. The first jolt is followed by several more in a lower voltage.
Florida has two methods of execution and gives the prisoner a choice between electrocution or lethal injection. The electric chair was constructed in 1923 when electrocution became the official method of capital punishment as authorized by the Florida Legislature. Prior to that date, counties carried out executions, usually by hanging. The chair was originally located at Union Correctional Institution, but was moved to Florida State Prison in 1962. Frank Johnson was the first inmate executed in the electric chair in Florida on October 7, 1924. The executioner is a private citizen who is paid $150 in cash. The executioner is present in the death chamber behind a screen. Information concerning the executioner and the execution team is confidential. The institution’s emergency generator provides the electricity for executions. According to the Florida Department of Corrections, the electrocution cycle is two minutes or shorter. During the cycle voltage and amperage levels peak on three occasions and the maximum current is 2000 volts and 14 amps.
On June 29, 1972, in Furman v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the death penalty in the United States. At that time, Florida had not carried out an execution since May 12, 1964. The death sentences of 95 men and one woman were commuted to life in prison as a result of the Furman decision. The Florida Legislature revised the death penalty statutes in December 1972. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld these statutes on July 2, 1976 in Proffitt v. Florida. John Spenkelink was the first Florida inmate executed in the post-Furman era on May 25, 1979. To date, 234 inmates have been executed in the electric chair, thirty-nine since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. Florida has carried out nine triple executions, three quadruple executions and twenty-one double electrocutions. No multiple executions have been carried out in the modern era. No woman has ever been executed in the electric chair.
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