Argumentative Against Death Penalty
Abolishment of Capital Punishment
Capital punishment should be abolished for the following reasons. 1) It violates the Eight Amendment of the use of cruel and unusual punishment, for which the Supreme Court has vacillated. 2) It is a form of premeditated murder. 3) It promotes racism. 4) It can be administered to innocent individuals through tainted evidence. 5) The death penalty does not deter criminals from committing violent crimes.
The death penalty is a form of cruel and unusual punishment that violates citizen’s Eighth Amendment which has forced the Supreme Court to step in and evaluate this form of punishment. The death penalty has not always been practiced in the United States; however, there have been about 13,000 people who have been legally executed since colonial times. In 1972, the Supreme Court effectively nullified the death penalty. However, in 1976 another Supreme Court found capital punishment to be Constitutional (White 1). One must wonder why they made this decision. In 2007 the court put executions across the country on hold for eight months while it examined whether lethal injection, the most common means of executing prisoners, violated the Eight Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment (Lacayo). How can they not see this form of punishment as cruel and unusual? Individuals are killed by electricity seeping through their bodies, or drugs that cause their organs to shut down one at a time. It’s difficult to unerstand what the government perceives as cruel and unusual punishment. Maybe to them this would mean lining individuals up and killing them at point blank range. What could be crueler than strapping individuals to a chair and sending electricity through their bodies essentially cooking their insides, or putting a lethal dose of drugs into their body that causes organ failure. The method of taking another human’s life is cruel no matter how it is achieved. This gives too much power to individuals in
Capital punishment should be abolished for the following reasons. 1) It violates the Eight Amendment of the use of cruel and unusual punishment, for which the Supreme Court has vacillated. 2) It is a form of premeditated murder. 3) It promotes racism. 4) It can be administered to innocent individuals through tainted evidence. 5) The death penalty does not deter criminals from committing violent crimes.
The death penalty is a form of cruel and unusual punishment that violates citizen’s Eighth Amendment which has forced the Supreme Court to step in and evaluate this form of punishment. The death penalty has not always been practiced in the United States; however, there have been about 13,000 people who have been legally executed since colonial times. In 1972, the Supreme Court effectively nullified the death penalty. However, in 1976 another Supreme Court found capital punishment to be Constitutional (White 1). One must wonder why they made this decision. In 2007 the court put executions across the country on hold for eight months while it examined whether lethal injection, the most common means of executing prisoners, violated the Eight Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment (Lacayo). How can they not see this form of punishment as cruel and unusual? Individuals are killed by electricity seeping through their bodies, or drugs that cause their organs to shut down one at a time. It’s difficult to unerstand what the government perceives as cruel and unusual punishment. Maybe to them this would mean lining individuals up and killing them at point blank range. What could be crueler than strapping individuals to a chair and sending electricity through their bodies essentially cooking their insides, or putting a lethal dose of drugs into their body that causes organ failure. The method of taking another human’s life is cruel no matter how it is achieved. This gives too much power to individuals in
Cited: "Another Reason to Abolish the Death Penalty." Workers.com. 2009. 11 Mar. 2013. <htpp://www.workers.org/2009/editorials/death_penal>. Ballard, Scotty . www.findarticles.com. 2003. 11 Mar. 2013. <http://findarticles.com/p/ariticles>. Lacayo, Richard . "The Tide Shifts Against the Death Penalty." www.time.com. 3 Feb. 2009. 12 Mar. 2013. <http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,187>. Liptak, Adam . "Does Death Penalty Save Lives? A New Debate." The New York Times. 18 Nov. 2007. 12 Mar. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/us/18deter.html?>. Sheenan, Paul . "The Race War of Blacks Against Whites." heretical.com. 20 May. 1995. 11 Mar. 2013. <http://www.heretical.com/miscella/sheehan.html>. The Holy Bible, King James Version. New York: Oxford Edition: 1769; King James Bible Online, 2008. http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/. White, Deborah . "Pros and Cons of Death Penalty and Capital Punishment." About.com US Liberal Politics. 12 Mar. 2013. <http://usliberals.about.com/od/deathpenalty/i/Deat>.