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Niko DeAthos

Prof. Cassel

English 1101-02

April 11h 2021

Society Demands Capital Punishment

My Great Aunt lived in North Carolina at the time of her brutal murder. She was brought

into her bathroom as the criminal looted her house in search for valuables. When the looter found

all he wanted, he came back to the bathroom and shot her two times in the head, which he then

put her in the tub; before setting the house on fire. He took her car and fled the scene, and was

found months after the incident during a routine traffic stop. He was then taken into custody

where he was identified as the killer with DNA, and only got charged thirty years for his terrible

acts. This made me grow curious since he did not get a harsh sentence; since murder is

punishable by death and North Carolina is one of the twenty-seven states that allow the death

penalty for capital offenses. He was very cooperative and helped the officers figure out exactly

what happened within the scene of the crime, which was why he received a lighter sentence.

Capital Punishment is deemed as constitutional and is something that America should keep

because it does not violate citizens rights, it helps bring justice to the victim and their family, and

it provides a scary risk when facing a capital offense.

Capital Punishment is not something that a regular citizen deals with on a daily, but it is

something that everyone should understand. The definition of capital punishment is the legally
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authorized killing of someone as punishment for a crime. This means that depending on the

crime that the defendant committed, he/she could be executed as a punishment by the

government. It is not “easy” to obtain a death sentence, most of the time you would have to kill

somebody in order to receive that punishment. The death penalty takes about twenty to thirty

people’s lives each year, sometimes even less, even though there are many thousands of convicts

that are still awaiting on death row. Capital Punishment has been a very touchy subject for over

50 years, but as long as the majority of the public is in favor of it, the death penalty will remain.

Capital Punishment has been around for centuries, but legally it has been around since the early

1960s, where they used a firing squad or would hang the convicted. Lethal injection is the

primary method of carrying out executions throughout the United States at this time, while the

method before was the electric chair. The federal government provides many crimes that are

punishable with death, including murder, treason, and committing a crime that leads to

someone’s death (kidnapping).

Being able to prohibit future offenses that can be as detrimental as a capital offense is

something that the death penalty does really well. This serves as a deterrent in order to stop or

slow down the number of capital offenses committed throughout the United States. “As Ernest

van den Haag hypothesized, imagine that those who murder on Monday, Wednesday, Friday,

and Sunday receive life imprisonment while those who murder on Tuesday, Thursday, and

Saturday receive the death penalty. On which days are murders more likely to be committed?

This thought experiment ought to give us pause when we are told that cost is irrelevant to those

who pay it, which is in effect what is being said by those who insist capital punishment has zero

impact on deterrence” (Weinberger 3). This quote taken from an article called “Why Morality

Demands the Death Penalty” by Mr. Weinberger perfectly describes what charts and graphs over
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time couldn’t. It is believed that capital punishment does not deter crime what-so-ever, but the

vast majority of studies done only look at the number of capital offenses committed when

America didn’t have capital punishment vs. when it did. This is not a fair test because there are

many other factors other than capital punishment that can either deter crime or even increase the

amount of crime tremendously. An example of this could be wars that are going on or riots

throughout America, there even can be a heavy increase in gang wars at the time. There have

been no real studies that support the fact that the death penalty has not deterred crime.

Capital Punishment also provides a huge incentive to help police in investigations. When

you comply with the court and officers, they are more likely to be lenient on the charges

presented because it shows that you have regret for the decisions and want to set things right. If

you are upright bragging about the charges and crimes committed, that will not get you any

lenience. If a criminal is denying the offenses thrown at him even though it is clear evidence that

he committed the crime, he could be punished a lot more because it seems like he has no regret

for what took place. If a capital offender is being disrespectful and not telling the absolute truth

in court, he or she can have increased sentences for not cooperating with law enforcement and

being a threat to the public.

One of the biggest reasons that we have the death penalty is to bring justice to the victims

and the victim’s families. Being a victim of a capital offense is very heartbreaking; one of the

main questions a victim would have is why would a person do this? “Retribution in punishment

is an expression of the community's disapproval of crime, and if this retribution is not given

recognition then the disapproval of crime may also disappear. A community which is too ready

to forgive the wrongdoer may end up condoning the crime” (A.L. Goodhart). This quote is from
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Mr. Goodhart who was a former member of the ASCAP and was a very honored writer. His

quote basically means that if we do not keep the death penalty we will begin to grow accustom to

these terrible crimes and the treatment of these horrible people will be lessened overtime. If we

show heavy consequences for these terrible crimes committed by these corrupt people, it is

proven that people will be less likely to commit those crimes and the victims will be more

satisfied with the outcome of the court ruling.

Retribution is defined as punishment inflicted on someone as vengeance for a wrong or

criminal act. The main reason why we even have the death penalty is to bring that retribution to

society so the people can recover from the horrible crimes committed. “Consider Khalid Sheik

Mohammed (KSM), the mastermind of 9/11 and the executioner who sawed the head off of Wall

Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl on camera. He's been kept alive for seventeen years after he

orchestrated the murder of nearly three thousand Americans. While the victims' families suffer,

he's been held at Guantanamo Bay, where prisoners enjoy watching movies and news programs,

and often relax in cushy recliners while doing so” (Weinberger 12). This quote taken from “Why

Morality Demands the Death Penalty” by David Weinberger goes into depth about a cold-

hearted terrorist who is spending the rest of his life practically care free. It makes it seem like

there has been no retribution for the tragedy of 9/11; which is why it is such a heartbreaking

terrorist attack for everyone who lives in America.

Vindication, which is when someone has been proven right or justified for their actions,

is another huge reason for the death penalty. When facing death, the defendant does not receive

vindication, but rather the people who had to suffer through the horrible things done receive that

vindication. This follows along with bringing justice to the victim and their family and goes hand
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in hand with retribution. Being able to have that closure when suffering from a tragedy is

something that the family needs sociologically in order to recover from the despicable acts. The

death penalty provides this justification to the public to show them that this is what happens

when someone commits and capital offense.

Rehabilitation is one of the lesser-known reasons for capital punishment, but it does

provide a really good wake-up call for a lot of the inmates that are convicted of these despicable

acts. A lot of the inmates begin to regret their decision, and not just the fact that they get caught

but also the fact that they even thought of it in the first place. Once someone gets sent to death

row, it is not the end, it can always be overturned in court with appeals. This encourages a lot of

inmates to be respectful to one another, considering they may never make it out. Death Row is

known to be one of the safest places to be where there are very few inmate-on-inmate-related

deaths.

Being able to prohibit future capital offenses followed out by someone is another huge

reason behind the death penalty. When someone is a huge threat to society, like a murderer who

swears to kill again, the death penalty is the most viable option. If that criminal were to just get

locked up for multiple life sentences, he would endure more suffering. It is cruel and inhumane

to keep someone locked up in jail to rot for the rest of their lives, some would argue that is more

painful than death itself. Not all people who are convicted to death row permanently stay on

death row; it all depends on their appeals and how they act within that jail system. This means

that it isn’t “the end of the world” for a criminal when they do get convicted of this, but it is

pretty close.
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One of the most impactful things we have in our country is our justice system and how

we treat criminals. In a lot of other countries without heavy restrictions on crime, there usually is

no real justice when it comes to retribution of those criminal acts unless you take it upon yourself

to do something about it. People in America do not realize how efficient the death penalty is

because they do not realize that other countries just execute their criminal citizens by barging in

with military equipment and executing them. If we did not show this force that the federal and

state government have, there would be even more outrage in America as of now because there

would be no consequence for their action. All in all, I would not want someone who purposefully

killed another human being back out on the streets, and I think it is fair to treat them how they

treat others.

There have been many organizations formed to try and bring capital punishment down,

one of them being the “National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty”, which was started in

1976. This organization focuses on educating people about the death penalty in order for people

to have a better understanding of what is really going on. Although, a lot of the information they

publish is really biased towards the fact that they do not want the death penalty. A really big

common misconception is that people usually think that because we have the death penalty, that

will keep people from committing crimes that are punishable by death, but in reality, the crime

rate has not been affected by capital punishment. The death penalty does provide a huge threat

towards people who want to commit violent crimes though and makes them a little less likely to

want to participate in that crime considering they could be killed.

In 1972 The Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty violated The Constitution in the

case Furman v. Georgia. William Furman was sentenced to death after just one day on trial for
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murder. The reasoning behind this action was that the death penalty was unconstitutional when it

“was applied in an arbitrary or discriminatory manner, which violated the Equal Protection

Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment” (LII Furman v. Georgia II). This meant that states had to

redevelop legal standards for the death penalty in order to make sure that the sentences given out

are equal in the severity of the offense/s. Since they had to redevelop legal standards, it took

almost four years for it to be reintroduced in the Gregg V. Georgia case.

In 1976, The Supreme Court ruled in the case of Gregg v. Georgia that mandatory capital

punishment laws were too inflexible. The Supreme Court also stated that the death penalty does

not violate The Constitution and serves as a viable deterrent. The court indicated that biased

death sentences could be prevented by holding two hearings. The first one was to establish guilt,

while the second one was to determine the sentencing. This is now what we know today as our

Justice System. This brough back capital punishment as a means for punishing capital offenders,

however no one was federally executed until the early 2000’s. We did not have the death penalty

in place legally for about four to five years during the 1970’s, which may be why the 70’s are so

known for their birth of serial killers and organized crime.

Cruel and unusual punishment is defined as a punishment that is not deserved and harsh.

The death penalty has found its way around that within the constitution and is seen as a last

resort action. Considering it is a last resort action, out of the hundreds of millions of people in the

U.S. only around 2,500 prisoners are on death row, which is a very small percentage. This proves

that it is super uncommon to be given the death penalty and you would have to be a terrible

person to receive this penalty. If someone understands and is aware of the consequences before
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they set out to complete that action, they should be punished just as harshly as they treated the

victim/s.

Many people who don’t approve of the death penalty focus their argument on the mental

health of the people found guilty of capital offenses. Although, The Supreme Court ruled in

Atkins v. Virginia that executing people with intellectual disabilities violated the Eighth

Amendment; the states were expected to determine the definition of intellectual disabilities. This

helped many get over the fact that these people who commit capital offenses knew what they

were doing before they set out to complete it. The Fifth Amendment also states that “no person

shall be deprived of life without due process of law” (Us Constitution Section 1); which people

think can mean many different things, but it only means the government cannot just kill you

without having a fair trial in court.

The main reason for opposing of the death penalty would be that it is not morally right to

take someone’s life. This is a very valid reason, considering this is a living human being that the

government and the people are executing. Each and every punishment depends on the situation

that the defendant is in, and allowing someone who has killed someone’s daughter or son to live

pretty much scot-free is not a punishment that sits right in many people’s stomachs. If it is the

fact that it is torture, it needs to be realized that letting someone rot in the same jail cell with the

same food every day is more torture than quickly executing a capital offender. There is no

reasonable explanation to why we should let evil live in our country. Tolerating these criminal

acts can lead to a higher increase in these criminal acts because they think that they will get away

with it.
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Concerns about lethal injection have been speculating, one of them being that lethal

injection inflicts a lot more pain than prior methods used. Following these concerns, The

Supreme Court ruled in Bucklew v. Precythe that objections to this method must prove that other

forms of execution would inflict less pain. The decision revolved around the fact that the Eighth

amendment does not guarantee that executions must be painless, but painful executions can be

argued as cruel and unusual punishment. Figuring out how we should execute the people who

commit terrible capital offenses is something that needs to be worked on, and further research is

needed in order to find the most humane way to put another human down. Another huge concern

about the death penalty is that there is very little evidence that it deters crime, or at least slows it

down. This can be argued against because the death penalty has been around for many years, and

there is no prior research done to determine the effects of not having capital punishment in place.

It does provide deterrence for most people when they think about committing a crime because

being killed off by the government is something that nobody would want.

After holding a funeral for our Great Grand Mother Aunt Allie, we were devastated

because no one knew what happened. The only way she was able to be identified within the

burnt remains was the necklace that she always wore. It is truly heartbreaking when no

retribution takes place for the despicable acts committed by these capital offenders. Capital

Punishment provides that justice and retribution to the victims and the victim's family, and is a

lot more humane than locking someone up for thirty years or more in a jail cell where they

cannot do anything but eat and sleep. Society needs to understand the consequences of

committing terrible acts of terror and violence and we should hold everyone to that standard.
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Works Cited

Amber Widgery, Karen McInnes. States and Capital Punishment, 4 Mar. 2020, www.ncsl.org/research/civil-and-
criminal-justice/death-penalty.aspx.

Bedau, Hugo Adam, and Paul G. Cassell. Debating the Death Penalty: Should America Have Capital Punishment?
The Experts on Both Sides Make Their Case. Oxford University Press, 2005.

Blow, Charles M. “Criminal Justice Is a State Issue.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 25 Feb. 2021,
www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/opinion/jail-death-penalty-states.html.

Broadcasting, Louisiana, director. The Penalty of Death | April 2019 | Public Square, Louisiana Public
Broadcasting, 1 June 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyrXPUAgloQ.

Company, Gale Cengage. Capital Punishment, 2019, go-gale-com.sinclair.ohionet.org/ps/retrieve.do?

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Lindemann, Mary. Tales from the German Underworld: Crime and Punishment in the Nineteenth Century, 2000,
go-gale-com.sinclair.ohionet.org/ps/retrieve.do?
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%7CA63699722&searchId=R5&userGroupName=dayt30401&inPS=true.

“State by State.” Death Penalty Information Center, 5 Sept. 2019, deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-and-federal-info/state-

by-state.

Weinberger, David. "Why Morality Demands the Death Penalty." Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection,
Gale, 2021. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/XGHEAD632203008/OVIC?
u=dayt30401&sid=OVIC&xid=3da3b7c8. Accessed 26 Mar. 2021. Originally published as "Why Morality
Demands the Death Penalty," American Thinker, 21 Aug. 2018.