Capital Punishment
Capital punishment is the lawful infliction of the death penalty, and since ancient times, it has been used to punish a large variety of offenses. The penalty of death is reserved for the most serious and detested crimes. The legal system must sentence the death penalty to capital crime offenders. Criminals convicted of murder or rape need to be executed because they are dangerous to the world and the human race. However, America seems to to always want to put people in prison for life, but how is that fair to the criminals who did not commit such a horrible crime, but still gets the same punishment? The death penalty should be used more often, but is the death penalty the answer to crime? The death penalty is not the perfect answer to crime. Criminals should often be put to death; but this supposes a frequency of crimes, and from hence the punishment will cease to have its effect, so that it must be useful and useless at the same time (Black 74). So in other words, in all states where death is used as a punishment, every example supposes a new crime committed. To back these statements, facts show that since the reinstatement of capital punishment there has been over 255 executions with Texas at the top with 84 and Florida with 33 (Bender, Leone 103). Another statistic shows that more murders take place in states that use capital punishment. The common-sense argument that death is the best deterrent of crime rests on the belief that people fear death more than they fear anything else. If this, is true, then threatening a person with death will have a greater effect on their behavior than any other threat. However, according to Stephen Nathanson, people would rather die than spend the rest of their lives in prison (Whittier 14). Despite these facts, capital punishment should still be enforced on more criminals. The death penalty was used in Biblical times for crimes such as kidnapping and witchcraft. Today most countries still use capital punishment for many crimes and with varying frequency. To stop the crime rate from rising, the United States must stop being soft-headed sentimentalists when it comes to penalizing offenders. The murder rate has risen to an enormous figure, and many of the offenders never get punished as the law says they shall be. The United States legal system must start treating criminals like criminals and not like family. We need to start getting tough with criminals. Letting the inmates have seven years on death row trying to change their sentence is crazy. If we would execute them within three years of their conviction, crime would slow down. Another area of concern is that administering capital punishment is inhumane, But that perception needs to change. The most common method of inflicting the death penalty is lethal injection which is when they take the convicted person to a room, strap them down and inject them with poisonous drugs. Electrocution is another common method. Florida, for instance uses "Old Sparky", the electric chair (Mauro 17). Florida is the only state that still uses electrocution as an execution. When they use the electric chair, they strap the criminal down to a wooden chair which sends an electric current through the criminal until he/she is no longer living. The firing squad, and the gas chamber are not as popular as the other forms of execution. David Lawson, who wanted his execution televised on the "Donahue" show, died in the gas chamber. Before he was pronounced dead, he apparently "heaved" twenty times. He was also yelling "don't kill me!" "I'm human!"(Miami Herald). To some people this type of execution seems inhumane, but why isn't that he shot a man in the head at point blank inhumane. What people do not realize is that the person who is getting executed has killed somebody. Furthermore, does capital punishment work as a safe guard for society? The finality of the death penalty instills fear into the heart of every murderer, and it is this fear that protects society. When the death penalty was banned in 1966, less than 50 percent of the American people favored it. Since then support had grown to 66 percent by the time it was reinstituted in 1976. Now every four out of five Americans support the death penalty (Whittier 23). According to those convincing statistics, society must feel that capital punishment ensures safety among the American people. The death penalty is not administered for revenge, but for safety. The man with the life blood of another upon his hands is a menace to the life of every innocent citizen and must be permanently removed from society for the sake of society. In conclusion, capital punishment is used throughout the United States and throughout parts of the world for order in today's society. With the growing of inner city life, capital punishment is a growing subject that must be used effectively. I feel that capital punishment is the right punishment for a murderer, and other capital crime offenders, and it must be taken seriously.
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