About Capital Punishment in America
facts/history
Capital punishment is the most serious penalty one can receive in the United States. It has been legal under the Constitution since the country was founded because it is not considered to be a “cruel and unusual punishment.” Despite this, nineteen states have passed legislation that ban criminals from being sentenced to death. Controversy has existed for decades over whether the morality of death penalty and the way it is applied should result in its abolition. Even the Supreme Court has struggled with this issue, outlawing the death penalty in Furman v Georgia only to reestablish less than a decade later in Gregg v Georgia. The United States is one of the nine countries in the world that still regularly execute people and consistently carries out the fifth most executions of any country each year.
why is this important?
A definitive decision needs to be made on the legality of capital punishment in the immediate future, since until that point the criminals will continue to receive unfair punishments. If capital punishment is deemed to be immoral and abolished several years from now, then hundreds of death row inmates will have been unjustly killed in states where it is legal. If capital punishment is deemed acceptable and upheld, then many heinous murderers will have been given too light sentences of life in prison instead of death in states where it is outlawed. In both scenarios, the legal system is failing in its duty to serve justice.
why should i care?
As an American citizen, you will most likely be affected by the death penalty at some point in your life. This effect can be direct, as it is for the unfortunate Americans who are the friends and family members of both murder victims or murderers facing trial and death row inmates. The effect can also be indirect, since the money required to execute a prisoner in a death penalty state or to sustain a convict in prison for life comes out of taxpayers' pockets.
what do others think?
People who hold opinions on this topic include the friends and families of murder victims, defendants in capital cases, attorneys and law experts, judges, the governments of foreign countries, and religious institutions. There are three main positions in the debate about capital punishments. The first is that there is nothing wrong with the death penalty system in America and that capital punishment is should be a legally acceptable form of retribution. A more moderate view is that capital punishment should be allowed in the United States, but that the current way in which the system handles these cases is in need of reform. The final position on the death penalty is that it is barbaric and immoral, and should be abolished nationwide.
Header image can be found at america.aljazeera.com/multimedia/2015/6/the-death-penalty-how-we-kill.html