Capital Punishment Essay Example for Free

Capital Punishment Essay Death penalty is one the debatable topics throughout the world. There is a conflict between law and ethics. Public opinion does not coincide with the state opinion. There are 33 countries, which use death penalty as capital punishment. According to Amnesty International Report, in 2011, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and USA topped the list. According to statistics, in USA 33 states use death penalty as capital punishment and other 17 does not. (Amnesty International, 2011) Death penalty’s primary goal is to make people think twice before doing crime. The Death penalty helps to decrease the murder’s rate, however it could violate human right. The main argument in favor the death penalty is the effect of deterrence people from doing something illegal and unethical. The initial purpose of deterrence effect is to set up the highest price for murder, in order to decrease the rate of homicide. The former president of USA George W. Bush stated in the 2000 Presidential debate, â€Å"I think the reason to support the death penalty is because it saves other people’s lives†. However, according to Donohue Wolfres (2006) death penalties deterrence effect is not based on facts. Deterrence effect is good in theory, but in practice the effect is minor. As Ernest Van Dan Haag (1968,p 281) identified : Even though statistical demonstrations are not conclusive, and perhaps cannot be, capital punishment is likely to deter more than other punishments because people fear death more than anything else.† Incapacitation means taking away a persons freedom so that he or she cannot commit another crime. While the typical form of incapacitation is incarceration, and the most common form is relatively mild (probation), the ultimate form of incapacitation is death. Since the goal of incapacitation is to reduce crime by restricting the freedoms of criminals, we could conclude that incapacitation is achieved by capital punishment. However, according to Marquat and Sorensen the possibility of murderer to kill again is one out of one hundred. (Radelet Borg, 2000). The second argument supporting death penalty is providing justice for murder victims. For the most cruel and harsh crimes, punishment should also be strict. And death penalty is the right choice in these kinds of situations. Beccaria (1764) argues that the punishment should be as strict as the sufficient deter others. Justice is taking responsibility for your own actions. The System of Law is not perfect and it makes mistakes. As long as the death penalty is irrevocable process, northing can be changed after the execution. Discovering innocence of the executed can’t return him back. There are many examples of wrongful convictions. According to Amnesty International there Illinois: Madison Hobley, Aaron Patterson, Stanley Howard and Leroy Orange, pardoned in 2003. Sent to death row on the basis of confessions extracted through the use of torture by former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge and other Area 2 police officers in Chicago. They were pardoned by outgoing Governor George Ryan, who also commuted the remaining 167 death sentences in Illinois to life imprisonment. I cannot support a system which, in its administration, has proven so fraught with error and has come so close to the ultimate nightmare, the states taking of innocent life Until I can be sure that everyone sentenced to death in Illinois is truly guilty, until I can be sure with moral certainty that no innocent man or woman is facing a lethal injection, no one will meet that fate. According to Death Penalty Information Centre, since 1973, 141 people in 26 states have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence. (Death Centre Information, 2011). Racial Discrimination is one of the most unpleasant factors in capital punishment process. According to Tabak, sentencing death penalty depend on two factors, first is the race of defendant, and the second is the race of the victim. (1999). However, discrimination is based also in the financial status of the defendant. According to Amnesty International, in January 2003 study released by the University of Maryland concluded that race and geography are major factors in death penalty decisions. Specifically, prosecutors are more likely to seek a death sentence when the race of the victim is white and are less likely to seek a death sentence when the victim is African-American. In 2007 study of death sentences in Connecticut conducted by Yale University School of Law revealed that African-American defendants receive the death penalty at three times the rate of white defendants in cases where the victims are white. In addition, killers of white victims are treated more severely than people who kill minorities, when it comes to deciding what charges to bring. (Amnesty International, 2011). Another important part of the death penalty issue is the financial cost of the trial and executions. A 2003 legislative audit in Kansas found that the estimated cost of a death penalty case was 70% more than the cost of a comparable non-death penalty case. Death penalty case costs were counted through to execution (median cost $1.26 million). Non-death penalty case costs were counted through to the end of incarceration (median cost $740,000).(Survey by the Kansas Legislative Post Audit,2003). In Tennessee, death penalty trials cost an average of 48% more than the average cost of trials in which prosecutors seek life imprisonment. (Report from Tennessee Comtroller of the Treasury Office of Research, 2004). In Maryland death penalty cases cost 3 times more than non-death penalty cases, or $3 million for a single case. (Urban Institute, the Cost of the Death Penalty in Maryland, 2008) In California the current system costs $137 million per year; it would cost $11.5 million for a system without the death penalty. (California Commission for the Fair Administration of Justice, 2008). One of the main alternatives for death penalty is life-long imprisonment without possibility of parole plus restitution. Restitution means that prisoner can be put into labor work, and that’s how he can compensate for the victim’s family. Just killing the killer is not the best solution for the existing problem In conclusion, I would like to say that death penalty is one of the controversial topics. Death penalty abolition is the key of key factor of democratic society. . Actually, in the world there is a trend to abolish the death penalty. However, there is no evidence of deterrent effect of death penalty Nevertheless Death penalty is unethical and inhumane, it helps to achieve the balance in the country. 0