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Trevor Paul

Mrs. Wines

CCP Composition II

6 March 2020

How Does Capital Punishment Stop Crime?

Why does the death penalty currently exist in the United States? The death penalty has

been a very prominent topic in America today. It has exsisted for many years under the support

of the United States government, but recently things have started to change as well as the out

look of many American citizens on the death penalty. Many have started to question its current

existence under the American constitution and if it should be allowed to stay at all in our society

as it stands today. The death penalty and capital punishment around the world and especially in

the United States does very little to prevent or deter people from commiting crimes across the

nation and therefore should be abolished as it has been in many other democratic nations around

the world. This is not only because it does very little to help with deterring crime, but it is also

inhumane and is unconstitutional and does not belong in a nation as great as the United States.

Constitutionality has been a big topic of debate in the United States for the entirety of its

existence in the world, since 1776. The United States of America was founded on the belief all

men should be free and protected under our constitution. Whenever the bill of rights was added

to the constitution very shortly after it was created it made individuals and states rights clear as

well as stating ground rules for trials and convictions in the new country. The eighth amendment

to our constitution as part of the bill of rights states that no excessive fines, bail, or cruel and

unusual punishments be inflicted. It is this line the brings in the consitutionality of the death
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penalty for many Americans. “More recently, Justice Stevens likewise concluded that the death

penalty was no longer constitutionally viable” (Steiker 353). This is a quote showing Justice

John Paul Stevens of the supreme court issueing that the death penalty is no holds its

constitutionality and is therefore unconstitutional for the United States government to carry out

unto its citizens. The death penalty violates the eighth amendment of the United States

consitution as it is a cruel and unusual punishment being carried out against its citizens. This

should not be tolerated in a government which holds itself to be so close to the constitution and

yet so far at the same time.

The death penalty, even in its current for today, is an inhumane punishment to carry out

onto the citizens of a country as great as the United States of America. For a country that

considers itself to be the greatest in the world and ahead of the game in just about everything, it

is striking to believe that something so ancient and inhumane as capital punishment still exists in

American society today. Looking around the world, it is evident that in most western countries

the United States would like to exist alongside and be associated with have already outlawed and

banned the death penalty in their boarders for this exact reason as well as more authoritarian

countries like China and Russia have always had the death penalty and their numbers are higher

than anywhere else in the world. In the book, ​An eye for an eye: The immorality of punishing by

death​ by Stephen Nathanson, he states that, ¨. . . it seems obvious that it is inherently barbaric.

The deliberate killing of a living human being in the most calculating manner, even after that

person has ceased to be a threat to society at large, appears to be ghastly and inhuman”

(Nathanson 97). It this idea of killing someone in a calculated way that makes the death penalty
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so barbaric, like burning someone at the stake. Yet another reason and another way that capital

punishment in the United States is seen by many as barbaric and inhumane.

Capital punishment and the death penalty in the United States of America does nothing to

deter crime and potential commiters of such crimes in our country. In the US, capital punishment

is little more than just another topic to debate about in Washington. For many Americans, it

affects their lives very little but for many, many others, it can destroy their life if they or a loved

one is caughted in its sights. It often does nothing but show a government's power, this shown

many times overseas when in authoritarian countries like china will execute their leaders

political opponents for minor crimes. That is almost the same idea as what is often being used in

the States, executing people to show political power from the government. It does very little to

stop any future similar crimes from happening but does indeed show the government's power

over its citizens. “The effective Coeficienty of E, however, takes on a perverse sign and is not

significantly different than zero: no capital punishment deterent is in evidence”( Passell 69). This

was written in the article, “The Deterrent Effect of the Death Penalty: A Statistical Test.” by

Peter Passell. In the article he goes over the different effects of the death penalty and what it does

to crime in the United States, In this one sentence, he shows that there is no evidence that the

death penalty does anything to deter crime in the United States of America.

Those opposing this argument often say things and use evidence that says that the death

penalty does infact help to lower crime rates and brings down the number of violent crimes in an

area when it is employed. In the book, “The Death Penalty: What’s Keeping it Alive” by Andrea

Lyon, she states that the United States government will seek the death penalty for one of the men

involved in the boston bombing a few years ago, she then goes on to say that many of those
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involved in the prosecution state that they are seeking it in the hopes that it will deter others in

the future (Lyon 26). This is the main reason that many look to the death penalty and keep it

going in the United States, in order to deter others from commiting the same crime. However, it

doesn’t matter how much you believe that it will prevent crime, the facts stay the same. That

there is no evidence to support that capital punishment does anything to deter crimes and prevent

violent actions in the future (Passell 69). It is for this reason and many others that the death

penalty should be abolished in the United States.

In the future, it would be hopeful to say that the United States would look passed the

death penalty and rejoice in the fact that it is no more. Capital punishment in the United States

should not exist much longer, it should not be able to go one to change and affect anyone’s life

any further. Capital punishment, as it is enforced in the United States not only does not help to

stop or prevent further crime, it is inhumane to those who must live through it or have a loved

one that does so, but it is borderline unconstitutional and should not be tolerated in the United

States any longer.

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Sources Cited

Lyon, Andrea D. “The Failure and Fate of Capital Punishment.” The Death Penalty: What's

Keeping It Alive, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2014, pp. 91–108.

Nathanson, Stephen. An eye for an eye: The immorality of punishing by death. Rowman &

Littlefield, 2001.

Passell, Peter. “The Deterrent Effect of the Death Penalty: A Statistical Test.” Stanford Law

Review, vol. 28, no. 1, 1975, pp. 61–80. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1228227.

Accessed 26 Feb. 2020.

Steiker, Jordan M. "The American death penalty: constitutional regulation as the distinctive

feature of American exceptionalism." U. Miami L. Rev. 67 (2012): 329.