Critical Thinking: Capital Punishment

Julia Henderson
CAP 9
Red Group
May 5, 2015

Critical Thinking: Capital Punishment

Because capital punishment is an expensive, lengthy and inhumane process, all states
who havent already, must abolish the death penalty. Capital Punishment has recently become a
highly controversial topic. The term is defined by Oxford Dictionaries as the legally authorized
killing of someone as punishment for a crime. While it currently is, the killing of someone as
punishment for a crime should not be legally authorized. As children, many of us were taught
that two wrongs dont make a right. People have different views on whether the murder of a
murderer is a wrong, and while I believe it is, such argument of ethics is invalid and will not be
used. The 8th Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the federal government
from imposing cruel and unusual punishment. The 8th amendment supports that the death penalty
is unconstitutional. The Constitution, however, is simply a government document, and cannot
logically support an argument either. My religious beliefs and ethics as a Quaker may impact my
stance on the death penalty, however, there are so many other reasons that support its
abolishment.
The execution of criminals dates back to 18th century B.C. when the death penalty was
established by King Hammurabi of Babylon. In 1600s colonial America, seeing that there was no
prison, crimes of espionage and witchcraft were punished by death. During the mid-19th century,
certain states limited death as a punishment for only the most heinous crimes. Rhode Island and
Wisconsin abolished it all together. Death by guillotine was used up until 1878, when the
Supreme Court ruled that while the firing squad was a legitimate method, the guillotine was
unconstitutional. Between 1907 and 1917, eight states abolished or limited capital punishment,
but by 1920 almost all of them had reinstated it. Public hangings were a common practice until

the last one in 1936. Around the same time, the electric chair and gas chambers were introduced.
In 1965, 13 states abolished the death penalty, and in 1972 it was suspended by the Supreme
Court for going against the 8th amendment. It was again legalized four years later. Lethal
injection was first used in 1977. Approximately one decade later, the Supreme Court ruled that
executing anyone under the age of 16 was unconstitutional; and the age was raised to 18 in 2005.
In 1997 the American Bar Association calls for a moratorium until courts "(1) ensure that
death penalty cases are administered fairly and impartially, in accordance with due process, and
(2) minimize the risk that innocent parties may be executed." This was a step in the right
direction, but it was hardly acknowledged, even when it was called for again in 2007. In a similar
effort 2 years later, The United Nations Human Rights Commission called for an end to capital
punishment but the U.S. and nine other countries voted against the resolution. In 2004, New York
found the death penalty to be unconstitutional. Illinois abolished it in 2011, and Connecticut did
in 2012. In the past two years, both Washington and Pennsylvanias governors have called for
moratoriums. Laws and opinions on capital punishment have been on a roller coaster ride for
thousands of years, but they are currently headed in the right direction. The number of executions
and states that allow such executions have been decreasing, but a permanent solution must be put
in place.
The whole process of capital punishment including prosecution, appeals, jail time, and
execution, is downright exorbitant. According to an Idaho Legislature review of the death
penalty costs in 2014, the average cost of the execution itself costs on average 50,000 tax payer
dollars. Another study, in 2008, of Marylands (no longer active) death penalty, inferred that a
successful prosecution costs $3 million per person. Between 1978 and 2014, tax payers have
spent over $4 billion on capital punishment. These statistics make it pretty clear that executions

are costly. These taxpayer dollars should be going to something more useful, like paying teachers
or police officers to rid crime in the first place. The length of time that the process takes only
adds to the cost.
The system is incredibly inefficient. The process of appeal takes on average at least a
decade in most states. Californias system is so dysfunctional that it takes around 25 years to
finish. In the past 36 years, 900 Californians have been sentenced to death row, but only 13 have
been put to death. The American justice system is incredibly flawed. The process of putting a
criminal to death takes such a long time that it just isnt worth it. The criminal suspect may
sometimes die naturally before having the chance to be executed.
There is always a possibility of accidentally convicting an innocent person and
sentencing them to death. In one case, two brothers were sentenced to death row in 1983. It
wasnt until 2011 that they were found innocent when previously overlooked evidence was
reexamined. If they hadnt found this evidence, two innocent men -convicted at the ages of 15
and 19- would have been killed. The American prosecution system allows for mistakes that can
result in false criminals being executed.
The constitution put aside, it simply isnt right treat humans cruelly. The death penalty
matches up with the definition of cruel, willfully causing pain or suffering to others. All
methods used to put criminals to death are cruel and inhumane but a particular case was
torturous. Criminals are supposed to be put to death as immediately as possible. In January of
2014, a convicted killer in Ohio was executed using an untested lethal injection. According to
Elizabeth Barber, in the Christian Science Monitor, the inmate took almost 25 minutes to die
during which he gasped and snorted. The majority of executions use lethal injection. From the
sound of it, lethal injection is terribly painful.

The most effective way of taking care of all the problems brought about by capital
punishment, is to completely abolish it. Often times, life in prison is a worse punishment for
criminals than being put to death. Death can be used to escape the punishment of prison. Life in
prison means no escape from this. The longer the person lives, the more time they have to think
about the wrong that theyve done. With its abolishment, would come extra taxpayer money and
the notion that an innocent person hadnt been wrongly killed. Quite a bit of time would also be
saved. Humans would be spared from inhumane punishment.
If the death penalty were to remain in place, a multitude of problems would remain
unfixed. While family members of crime victims may gain closure, it is just about the only
benefit.

Criminals will continue to be killed unethically.

The system will continue to take so many years that it become ineffective and a waste of
money.
Innocent convicts may be sentenced to death.
Taxes will be used for something inhumane and unconstitutional rather than for an
important and beneficial cause.
Executions will continue to be cruel and unusual.
Capital punishment uses an arbitrary legal system that is ineffective, as well as unethical,

exorbitant, and in some cases unconstitutional. The abolishment of the death penalty will be
successful by using tax payers dollars for better things. While a good percentage of the
population favors the death penalty, it has also been the case in other gross human rights
violations that we recognize as unlawful today. Lets not look back 50 years from now and say
Wow, I cannot believe such an unethical practice existed through half of the 21 st century.
Instead, we should abolish it now.