Running head: IS DEATH PENALTY A JUST PUNISHMENT?

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Is the death penalty a just punishment?

The death penalty is disproportionately discriminatory. This term is frequently used to

attack those who are least capable of defending themselves, including impoverished individuals,

ethnic and religious minorities, and those with intellectual impairments. It has also been used to

suppress political opponents in many countries. The possibility of killing an innocent person is

ever-present where judicial systems are faulty and unjust trials are widespread. The death penalty

is carried out once and for all when it is carried out. You can't undo mistakes. People every day

are put to death and given prison sentences by the state as punishment for a variety of offenses,

ranging from crimes that should not be illegal to violent crimes that should be penalized.

Depending on the country, it can be used for drug offenses, terrorism or murder, or all three.

In my research paper, I advocate against executing death sentences to offenders since it is

unjust and unethical. Hence, it results in undermining human rights and overpowering the

government institution.

The death penalty violates most uncompromised basic human rights; it breaches one of

the most basic tenets of universally recognized human rights law—those nations must

acknowledge the right to life.

To conduct a human rights analysis, the beginning and conclusion points of the study

must follow human rights principles. Besides the right to life, other essential rights are also

regularly infringed upon when it is implemented. Recent findings indicate that the death sentence

also breaches the ban against cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, and international human

rights legislation prohibits torture. Also, death sentence practices frequently involve racial and

other forms of prejudice, as evidenced by the UN Human Rights Committee found.

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Public authorities have the ability to assault the physical body and the mental well-being

of a prisoner, rather than just the body or intellect? Torture is one of the terrifying types of

punishment, and threats to murder prisoners are used as one of the most effective torture

methods. Torture is banned. How might this identical threat, expressed as a death penalty,

transmitted to the jail personnel by a court of law, be allowed to be used on a prisoner? In

addition to the prisoner, the death sentence inflicts brutality on his family, corrections officers,

and execution officials.

According to recent findings, performing the duties of an executioner is disconcerting

and even traumatizing for the person in charge of carrying out the death. Additionally, judges,

prosecutors, and other authorities may sometimes encounter morally complex situations because

of the conflicting responsibilities they must play in carrying out the death penalty. Death

sentence arguments frequently center on these two human rights which includes, the right to life

as well as the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. As with capital

punishment, the death penalty also strikes at other civil liberties.

Those who assert that the death sentence can be justified on the grounds of deterrence

carry the onus of demonstrating it. Deterrence studies conducted over many years have shown

that capital punishment is, at most, equal to a sentence of life imprisonment. While some

criminologists argue that the death penalty increases criminal activity, not decreases it, they cite

William Bowers of Northeastern University, who claims that capital punishment brutalizes

society and causes more crime. Now, even most advocates of the death sentence disregard

deterrence as a convincing argument for the ongoing use of capital punishment.

Deterrence is compatible with the idea of deterrence in that states in the United States

that do not use the death penalty tend to have lower murder rates. When the United States is
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compared to other countries, it is the same. While the United States has a higher murder rate than

Europe and Canada, which do not use the death penalty, the number of murders in the United

States is somewhat greater than the number of murders in Europe.Most criminals are aware that

the death sentence is conceivable, and as a result it does not function as a deterrent. More often

than not, murders are done in instances of wrath or passion, or as a result of those who have a

drug problem and behaved rashly. It does not give the presence of the death penalty legislation a

second thought. Murder most likely occurred under the influence of serious drug and alcohol

addiction."

There is no clear evidence that showing people that they will die if they are convicted of

a crime would make it less likely that they will commit crimes. More than three-quarters of the

previous and present presidents of the country's leading academic criminological associations

took issue with the claims that science had proven the death sentence to be an ineffective

deterrent.

In jail, those who have been sentenced to life are more likely to settle into a pattern and

so pose less of a threat to others. Life in prison without the possibility of parole is most states'

normal penalty. These prisoners will never be freed from prison as a result of this punishment.

Thus, society can be protected while avoiding the use of the death sentence.

The disproportionately high number of situations in which individuals are sentenced to

death in which convictions are eventually proved to be erroneous. By doing this, it is feasible to

determine the total rate of erroneous conviction in death sentences using data on death row

exonerations. Execution appears to be a motivator for the high exoneration rate among death-

sentenced defendants, yet nearly all death-sentenced prisoners are eventually taken off death row

and sentenced to life imprisonment, after which the chance of being exonerated quickly declines.
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Poor people are more likely than affluent people to be condemned to death. The fact that

the death sentence is reserved for persons from lower socio-economic categories is a criticism

against the death penalty. Most nations treat it as a kind of class discrimination, making it the

equivalent of a random killing.

For numerous reasons, the death sentence disproportionately affects the poor. In addition,

they are obvious targets for the cops, can't afford a lawyer, and obtaining expert evidence or

locating witnesses is pricey. For many, the inability to pay bail keeps them in jail until their

trials, complicating their preparation.

Some legal aid systems only become active during trial, leaving low-income defendants

routinely probed and examined without a counsel. By the time the matter reaches court, a fair

trial may be impossible. Corruption of law enforcement is also harmful.

Poverty exacerbates problems faced by vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in society.

African-Americans and those who face discrimination because of their gender, ethnicity, color,

or migratory status are included in many nations.

Migrants facing criminal accusations confront several challenges, including unfamiliarity

with legal terminology and processes, limited knowledge of their rights, financial restrictions,

and even a lack of a supporting social network. They may also encounter bias from judges, cops,

and detectives, affecting the verdict and increasing their chance of being executed.

It is worth noting that some argue that the death penalty should be encouraged since

society has traditionally used punishment to deter potential offenders. Because society is most

interested in avoiding murder, the death sentence should be used as a deterrent. If murderers are

put to death and executed, potential killers will think twice about killing.
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People fear death more than anything else, therefore capital punishment deters more than

other penalties. They fear most death imposed by law and planned by judges. What individuals

dread most will dissuade them. Death threats may dissuade some killers who otherwise would

not be deterred. And certainly, the death penalty is the only penalty that might discourage life-

sentenced convicts from killing a guard, or future life-sentenced offenders. Maybe they won't be

discouraged. But nothing would stop them. We owe special protection to police enforcement

personnel.

“Even though statistical demonstrations are not clear, capital punishment is likely to

discourage more than other penalties because individuals have an impending dread of death,”

said Ernest van den Haag, a law professor at Fordham University.

In conclusion, death sentences do more harm than benefit to society; they violate the

sanctity of life, do not discourage crime, are discriminatory towards the poor and people of color,

and hurt the economy more than a life sentence in prison. It also violates civil freedoms and

fundamental democratic ideals. The death sentence is unjust and inequitable in principle and

practice. We seek to abolish capital punishment via litigation, legislation, and lobbying in order

to save human kind from extrajudicial killing.

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References

Bessler, J. D. (2017). The Concept of Unusual Punishments in Anglo-American

Law: The Death Penalty as Arbitrary, Discriminatory, and Cruel and Unusual. Nw. JL &

Soc. Poly, 13, 307.

Reiman, J. H. (2019). Justice, civilization, and the death penalty: Answering van

den Haag. In Retribution (pp. 281-314). Routledge.

Bedau, H. A. (2019). 8. The Eighth Amendment, Human Dignity, and the Death

Penalty. In The Constitution of Rights (pp. 145-177). Cornell University Press.

Broughton, J. R. (2017). The Federal Death Penalty, Trumpism, and Civil Rights

Enforcement. Am. UL Rev., 67, 1611.

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