MINISTERUL EDUCAŢIEI NAŢIONALE ŞI CERCETĂRII ŞTIINŢIFICE

UNIVERSITATEA „1 DECEMBRIE 1918” DIN ALBA IULIA

SPECIALIZAREA ȘTIINȚE PENALE ȘI CRIMINALISTICĂ
FORMA DE ÎNVĂŢĂMÂNT ZI

The Death Penalty

Coordonator științific Masterand

Lect. univ. dr. BĂRBULEȚ GABRIEL Pătrînjan Darius Andrei

Alba Iulia
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 2017
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." This is another way for someone to say they are
supportive of the death penalty.
Death penalty, also called capital punishment, is when a government or state executes
(kills) someone, usually but not always because they have committed a serious crime. A crime
that can be punished with the death penalty is called a capital crime or a capital offense.
Executions in most countries have become rarer in recent centuries. The death penalty is
a disputed and controversial topic.
About one third of the countries in the world have laws that allow the death penalty. [1]
The United States, the People's Republic of China, Japan and Iran are examples of countries that
have a death penalty. Canada, Australia, Mexico and all members of Council of Europe are
examples of countries that have abolished the death penalty. 75 countries have gotten rid of the
capital punishment for all crimes. Another 20 can be considered abolitionist in practice. They
retain the death penalty in law but have not carried out any executions for the past 10 years or
more.
Most of the countries that have a death penalty use it on murderers, and for other serious
crimes such as rape or terrorism. Other countries especially ones with Authoritarian or
Totalitarian governments, however, also use it for smaller crimes like theft, drugs, or for saying
bad things about the government.

Death Penalty has been existing really a long time. With it, also the advocates and the
abolitionists.
There are today 73 states, which have abolished Death Penalty at all. 13 states use Death
Penalty only for exceptional crimes like war crime or some faults in accordance with the military
rights. 22 states abolished Death Penalty in practise, but not in law.
Consequently 108 states don't use Death Penalty at all, but 87 still use it.
There's a movement for abolishing Death Penalty, and year-by-year the circle of the countries
which abolish Death Penalty is getting larger. Since 1985 there have been 40 states all over the
world which have abolished Death Penalty, unfortunately 4 states came back to Death Penalty in
this period of time (Gambia, Nepal, Papua- Negaunee and the Philippines).
Regrettably the field of application of Death Penalty has got larger in a small number of states.
In Cuba someone could be executed since 1999 for dealing with drugs, corruption and for armed
robbery.
In 1998 there were 2.327 people executed in 37 states, and 4.845 persons in 78 countries
were sentenced to death. But these are only the numbers for the public, in fact there have been a

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lot more. Most of the executions have been in VR China, Congo (ex Zaire),the USA and in the
Iran.
There are also death sentences for juveniles who are under 18, although it is forbidden in
the human rights declaration. Since 1990, amnesty international knows 6 states which have
executed juveniles: Iran, Jemen, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabian and the USA. According to the
public facts, the USA has executed 12 juveniles since 1990.
Until today, there's no academic explanation if Death Penalty is a greater deterrence than any
other sentence. A lot of people think that if Death Penalty were abolished, the crime rates would
rise, but the latest statistics show, that in countries in which Death Penalty had been abolished,
the crime rates slump.
There also exist three international agreements from states, which have made up their
minds not to use Death Penalty.
As long as Death Penalty has been existing, there's always a risk to execute innocent people.
According to a study, 23 people in the USA were killed innocently between 1900 and 1985.
Since 1972, 48 prisoners had to leave Death Row because their innocence could be proved.
In 1999, 98 prisoners were executed in the USA. 35 out of them in Texas and 14 in Virginia.
This is the greatest number of executions since 1951, as 105 people have lost their lives.
In 2000 there have been already 25 executions, 12 of them in Texas. At the end of 1999
there have been more than 3625 people who were waiting for execution in prisons in California,
Texas and Florida. Among them, 63 who were juveniles at the time the crime was committed.
38 out of the 50 federal states in the USA use Death Penalty, and since 1972, 95 people could
leave Death Row because their innocence could been proved.

The death penalty, to me, is revenge. It kills innocent people every year. Many of the
families of victims do not want the criminals to be put to death. The death penalty costs more
than a life sentence in jail. It is also racists. "Since 1976, there have been five hundred twenty-
three executions in the United States, twenty-three in 1999 alone. There was only eleven before
1984. Then the number rose to twenty-one that year. The number of execution stayed around
twenty then dropped to eleven in 1988. Then it steadily rose from there to seventy-four
executions in 1997. That was the highest since 1976."(Death Penalty Information Center, P.1)
There are many different methods of execution used by the government. The most common is
lethal injection used by thirty-four states. Electrocution is another method, which is used by ten
states. The gas chamber is used in five states. There are still two states today that use hanging as
a method of execution. And two other states use a firing squad. The death penalty is also
extremely racist. There have been significantly more executions of minorities than white
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Americans. Capital punishment also goes against the Constitution of the United States.
Amendments eight and fourteen state that no cruel and unusual punishment can be inflicted, and
no state can deprive any person of life liberty or property. The death penalty clearly takes these
privileges away from American citizens.

"More than 2000 people are on death row today. Virtually all are poor, a significant
number are mentally retarded or other wise mentally disabled. More than forty percent are
African American and disproportionate numbers are Native American, Latino, and Asian."
(American Civil Liberties Union) It does not seem fair that only these people are dying. The
Constitution states that everyone should be given a fair trial. These statistics do not prove to me
that these people had a fair trial. Everybody makes mistakes. If a jury makes a mistake and a
person is falsely accused of murder when they find out they messed up they want to take the
sentence away. If the sentence is life in prison, they can tell the person they are sorry and they
can go free. It does not work that way if they sentence a person to death.

If a jury falsely accuses a person of a crime they did not commit with a sentence to death,
they can not take it back. It will be too late. The person will not be able to get their life back.
Every year four innocent people are put to death. "Since 1976, seventy people on death row were
found innocent of the charges they were accused of." (Death Penalty Information Center)
Although some people feel the death penalty is a good thing, I think it is wrong. When someone
has committed the crime of murder it creates a great loss for the victims family. Does putting the
killer to death make the family of the victim feel any better? They still have to live with the loss
of their loved one for the rest of their lives. Taking the life of someone else does not redeem the
life of the person that was killed. In many cases, the families of the victims do not want the
murderer to be put to death. One case I read about a nine year-old girl was abducted and
murdered. Her father said, "She was shy, joyous, and happy she would never hurt anybody.
Hurting someone for her would not really be for her, would not honor her, or help us." (Diego
Ribadeneira, p.2) What he said is true, it does not help the victim or the family to kill the
criminal. Her father knew she would not want anyone to be hurt for her so the death penalty
would not help in any way.

When we put criminals on death row for committing the crime of murder, we are
stooping to their level. Murderers are not role models. Why should we follow what they do and
kill them in return? "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."(Ghandi) If we kill people
for killing other people we are basically saying murder is a good choice. If the government can
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say that a person deserves to die then why can't an ordinary person do the same? Last year in
Boston, a fifteen year-old boy was killed in a fight over jewelry. The boy, Cerrone Hemingway,
was shot in the head and died. A family member said, "The notion that your child must die
because my child died? That does not satisfy. It does not bring peace. It only turns our hearts to
stone." (Diego Ribadeneira, p.3) This family experienced the great loss of having a loved one
killed. Yet they still do not feel it is right to put the killer to death. If the family of the victim
does not think the killer deserves to die, who has the right to say they should die? The family is
the one who is suffering so they should have the right to say they do not want to kill anyone.

Sometimes murderers will kill themselves after committing the crime so they will not
have to face the consequences of what they have done. That, to me, is taking the easy way out.
These people would rather be dead, as well as the people they killed, then spend the rest of their
lives in jail. It is a proven fact that the murder rates are lower in states that have done away with
the death penalty. No one wants to spend his or her life wasting away in jail.

The death penalty is another easy way out. If a person commits a crime as horrible as murder
they would probably rather die themselves then sit in prison for the rest of their lives. They have
so much free time to think about how they mad the wrong choice. I feel they should have to
suffer through that in jail not end their lives right away. Life in prison should be their
punishment not death.

There is a debate going on now in Massachusetts on whether or not the death penalty
should be implemented. Cardinal Bernard Law, the leader of the Archdiocese of Boston, said,
"The teachings of the church are clear, for a well-informed Catholic to support capital
punishment, it would be morally wrong. And if one knowingly rejects the teachings of the
church it is wrong, morally evil, and a sin." (Boston Globe, Diego Ribadeneira) People who call
themselves Catholics usually follow the church's rules. If they know it is a sin and it will go
against their beliefs why would they support the death penalty? Cardinal Law was talking to
Governor Paul Cellucci on this topic. The Governor, who is a Catholic himself, strongly supports
capital punishment. He stated "I'm trying to do what I think is right for Massachusetts. I happen
to believe putting the death penalty on the books will deter a certain amount of horrific violent
crime." (Boston Globe, Diego Ribadeneira) Through these statements it shows that Governor
Cellucci and Cardinal Law have two different views of how Catholics should think of the death
penalty. Looking at it as head of the church in Boston, Cardinal Law feels it is morally wrong
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and it is a sin to have the death penalty. Paul Cellucci, being a Catholic and the head politician in
Massachusetts, feels it is a good thing.

The Cardinal feels Cellucci, being a Catholic, should not want to have capital punishment
in his state. How can he call himself a Catholic when the Cardinal flat out told him God is not for
the death penalty? A person's fait is in the hands of God not a jury.

"Certainly, in general, the punishment should fit the crime. But in civilized society, we
reject the, an eye for an eye, principle of literally doing to criminals what they do to their
victims. The penalty for rape cannot be rape, or for arson, the burning down of the arsonists
house. We should not, therefore, punish the murderer with death. When the government meets of
vengeance disguised as justice, it becomes complicit with killers undervaluing human life."
(American Civil Liberties Union)
In conclusion, capital punishment is morally wrong. It is legal murder. The government
does not have the right to end a person's life or say when it should end. The punishment should
fit the crime. That is why criminals should spend their lives in jail. Capital punishment should
not be implemented on Massachusetts.