ENG 102

Capital Punishment

A RESEARCH PAPER ON. . .

CAPITAL
PUNISHMENT

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Course Code: ENG 102 (sec: 11)

Course Title: Composition and Communication skills
Topic: A Research Paper on


Course Instructor:
Farhana Zareen Bashar

Dept. of English

East West University

Prepared By:

Nusrat Jahan (2008-2-10-107)

Dept. of Business Administration

Submission date: 22thApril, 2009

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Table of Contents

Serial no. Title Name Page no.

1. Acknowledgement
2. Introduction
3. Capital Punishment
4. Historical considerations
5. Types of Execution
6. Changes the Death Sentence
7. Arguments for and against capital punishment
8. Religious views
9. Public opinion
10. Virginia surveys from 1989 to 1999
11. Conclusion
12. References

Acknowledgement

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I can’t thank enough to Almighty Allah for His blessings and help that made this term
paper possible.
My thanks go to my course instructor Farhana Zareen Bashar teacher of the department of English,
East West University. It is because for giving me the opportunity to prepare this Term paper and for
helping me to understand about the structure and format of this term paper.

Abstract
The main purpose of the research and the study of this term paper are to introduce capital
punishment. I tried to give some different people and religious views. I also tried to give a historical

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consideration and how changes the punishment’s methods, and how people tried to give the capital
punishment with more humanism. Capital punishment is a controversial issue. So I give the reason of
arguments for or against capital punishment.

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Introduction
Crimes that can result in the death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offenses. Capital
punishment has been used in societies throughout history as a way to punish crime and suppress
political dissent. In most places that practice capital punishment today, the death penalty is reserved
as punishment for premeditated murder, espionage, treason, or as part of military justice. In some
countries sexual crimes, such as rape, adultery and sodomy, carry the death penalty, as do religious
crimes such as apostasy (the formal renunciation of the State religion). In many retentionist countries
(countries that use the death penalty), drug trafficking is also a capital offense. In China human
trafficking and serious cases of corruption are also punished by the death penalty. It is a matter of
active controversy in various states, and positions can vary within a single political ideology or
cultural region. The methods of execution and the crimes subject to the penalty vary by jurisdiction
and have varied widely throughout time. Some jurisdictions have banned it, others have suspended
its use, but others are trying to expand its applicability. Capital punishment is cruel, inhumane and
barbaric, and does not belong in the penal system of any modern, progressive culture.

Capital punishment
The word "capital" in "capital punishment" refers to a person's head. In the past, people were often
executed by severing their head from their body. The phrase 'capital punishment' comes from the
Latin word. The term capital originates from Latin capitalis, literally "regarding the head" (Latin
caput). Hence, a capital crime was originally one punished by the severing of the head.

Capital punishment is the practice of executing someone as punishment for a specific

crime after a proper legal trial.

It can only be used by a state, so when non-state organizations speak of having 'executed' a person
they have actually committed a murder. It is usually only used as a punishment for particularly
serious types of murder, but in some countries treason, types of fraud, adultery and rape are capital
crimes.

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Historical considerations
Capital punishment for murder, treason, arson, and rape was widely employed in ancient Greece
under the laws of Draco (fl. 7th century bc), though Plato argued that it should be used only for the
incorrigible.

Death was formerly the penalty for a large number of offenses in England during the 17th and 18th
centuries, but it was never applied as widely as the law provided. Beginning in the Middle Ages, it
was possible for offenders guilty of capital offenses to receive benefit of clergy, by which those who
could prove that they were ordained priests (clerks in Holy Orders) as well as secular clerks who
assisted in divine service (or, from 1547, a peer of the realm) were allowed to go free, though it
remained within the judge’s power to sentence them to prison for up to a year, or from 1717 onward
to transportation for seven years.

From ancient times until well into the 19th century, many societies administered
exceptionally cruel forms of capital punishment. In Rome the condemned were
hurled from the Tarpeian Rock; for parricide they were drowned in a sealed bag
with a dog, cock, ape, and viper; and still others were executed by forced
gladiatorial combat or by crucifixion. Although by the end of the 20th century
many jurisdictions (e.g., nearly every U.S. state that employs the death penalty, Guatemala, the
Philippines, Taiwan, and some Chinese provinces) had adopted lethal injection, offenders continued
to be beheaded in Saudi Arabia and occasionally stoned to death (for adultery) in Iran and The
Sudan. Other methods of execution were electrocution, gassing, and the firing squad.

Historically, executions were public events, attended by large crowds, and the mutilated bodies were
often displayed until they rotted. Public executions were banned in England in 1868, though they
continued to take place in parts of the United States until the 1930s. In the last half of the 20th
century, there was considerable debate regarding whether executions should be broadcast on
television, as has occurred in Guatemala. Since the mid-1990s public executions have taken place in
some 20 countries, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria, though the practice has been
condemned by the United Nations Human Rights Committee as “incompatible with human dignity.”

“Death row” is so inhumane. On the basis of a binding ruling by the European Court of Human
Rights (1989), EU countries may extradite an offender accused of a capital crime to a country that
practices capital punishment only if a guarantee is given that the death penalty will not be sought.

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Types of Execution
There are seven main types of execution:

1. Hanging: Hanging where the prisoner is blindfolded and stands on a trap door, with a rope
around his neck. The trap door is opened suddenly. The weight of the prisoner's body below
the neck causes traction separating the spinal cord from the brain.

2. Shooting,: where a firing squad shoots the prisoner from some meters away.

3. Guillotine: A device consisting of a heavy blade held aloft between upright guides and
dropped to behead the victim below.

4. Garroting: in which a tightened iron collar is used to strangle or break the neck of a
condemned person.

5. Electrocution: One of the more recent is electrocution, where the prisoner is fastened to a
chair by his chest, groin, arms and legs. Electrodes are placed around a band around the head,
and then jolts of 4-8 amperes at voltage between 500 and 2000 volts are applied at half a
minute at a time.

6. Lethal Injection :The newest forms of execution are lethal injection where a lethal poison is
injected into the prisoners arm

7. Gas Chamber: Where the prisoner is placed in a room with Sodium Cyanide crystals and
left to die.

Changes the Death Sentence

Actually the ancient forms of execution were often cruel and inhuman. Many historical penalties
include boiling to death, flaying, slow slicing, crucifixion, guillotine, stoning and execution by
burning. . Executions in ancient China were carried out by many painful methods such as sawing the
condemned in half, flaying him while still alive, and boiling. Cruel forms of execution in Europe
included “breaking” on the wheel, boiling in oil, burning at the stake, decapitation by the guillotine
or an axe, hanging, drawing and quartering, and drowning. But as people had been to move
civilization they tried to give the capital punishment in such way that is less painful and more human.

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Following this trend, in the early 19th century in Britain hanging by turning the victim of ladder or by
dangling him from the back of a moving cart, which causes death by suffocation was replaced by
only “Hanging” where the subject is dropped a longer distant to dislocate the neck and server the
spinal cord. Taking this advantage, criminals were realized from death at that time because Neck was
not mentioned. So hanging could be possible by hands or by legs.

1. Crucifixion 2.Flaying 3. Guillotine

SOME ANCIENT FORMS OF EXECUTION

Then the death sentence replaced “Hanging by Neck”. But still there was a link that no time
dimension was mentioned. Finally the death sentence converted into “Hanging by Neck until
Death”. And still this sentence is used in our country to give the capital punishment. Then people are
introduced by some new execution methods which are less painful but more humane such as-gas
chamber, lethal injection, electrocution etc. now many countries used these methods for giving the
capital punishment.

However after this process many alternatives to hanging were introduced such as electrocution, lethal
injection, gas chamber etc. Now these methods are using for giving capital punishment which are
more humane and less painful.

Arguments for and against capital punishment

Arguments for the death penalty

• Appropriate for some crime

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Capital punishment permanently removes the worst criminals from society. It is appropriate for some
crime such as murder, rape.

It is Justice, not Laws that cures the society. And Capital Punishment is the only Justice
that suits a murderer. - Saqib Ali

• Cost

It saves money compared to the alternative of life in prison.

• Retribution

Execution is a very real punishment rather than some form of "rehabilitative" treatment, the criminal
is made to suffer in proportion to the offence.

• Deterrence

The death penalty deters murder and prevents murderers from killing again by putting the fear of
death in to would be killers.

• Public safety

Once a convicted murderer is executed, there is no chance that he will break out of jail and kill or
injure someone.

Arguments Against the Death Penalty

• The value of human life

Human life has intrinsic value. They believe that the value of the offender's life cannot be destroyed
by the offender's bad conduct - even if they have killed someone.

• The right to live

Everyone has an inalienable human right to life, even those who commit murder; sentencing a person
to death and executing them violates that right. An example - a person forfeits their right to life if
they start a murderous attack and the only way the victim can save their own life is by killing the
attacker.

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The medieval philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas made this point very clearly:

Therefore if any man is dangerous to the community and is subverting it by some sin, the treatment
to be commended is his execution in order to preserve the common good... Therefore to kill a man
who retains his natural worthiness is intrinsically evil, although it may be justifiable to kill a sinner
just as it is to kill a beast, for, as Aristotle points out, an evil man is worse than a beast and more
harmful. (Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae)

Aquinas is saying that certain contexts change a bad act (killing) into a good act (killing to repair the
violation of justice done by the person killed, and killing a person who has forfeited their natural
worthiness by killing).

• The possibility of error:

Sometimes a person might be put to death that is innocent.

The death penalty legitimizes an irreversible act of violence by the state and will inevitably
claim innocent victims. As long as human justice remains fallible, the risk of executing the
innocent can never be eliminated.
(Amnesty International)

In 1987, a study was published by the Stanford Law Review. They found some evidence that
suggested that at least 350 people between 1900 and 1985 in America might have been innocent of
the crime for which they were convicted, and could have been sentenced to death. 139 "were
sentenced to death and as many as 23 were executed."

• Capital punishment is cruel, inhumane, and horror

Regardless of the moral status of capital punishment, some argue that all ways of executing people
cause so much suffering to the condemned person that they amount to torture and are wrong. Some
consider capital punishment to be cruel and unusual punishment.

• Unfair Judgment

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Generally, it is observed that Capital punishment is inflicted unduly on the poor and minorities.
Because the poor can offer very low compensation the defense lawyers are often incompetent,
resulting in losing the case.

• Lack of Deterrence

The death penalty has not been shown to be effective in the reduction of the homicide rate. There are
some indications that executions actually increase the murder rate. Actually capital punishment does
not deter violent crime. According to a New York Times study, the last 20 years witnessed 48%
homicide rate in states with the implementation of capital punishment compared to 23% in the states
without capital punishment.

• The prolonged uncertainty

The validity to the deterrence argument is annulled by the delays, endless appeals, retrials, and
technicalities that keep persons predestined to capital punishment waiting for execution for years. In
fact, we are not competent enough to carry out execution. This uncertainty and incompetence offers
another great injustice. It is itself cruel and a form of torture.

• Justifying circumstances

Sometimes, persons suffering from emotional trauma, abandonment, violence, neglect or destructive
social environment commit such heinous crimes. These mitigating situations can have devastating
effect on their humanity. So, it is unfair to hold them fully responsible for their crimes. It is our
communal responsibility to show some sympathy to some extent.

• Suffer criminal’s family

By giving capital punishment, the family of the victim is permanently traumatized and victimized.
They are often punished by their loved ones without their fault, even though they are innocent.

• Effects on society

Capital Punishment is itself a premeditated murder. This is unacceptable even it is inflicted by state
authority as it lowers the value of life. In fact, such act can only brutalize the society. "Revenge is

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essential" can become a society attitude. By witnessing such acts, our own mental makeup starts
believing that violence is necessary to curb the wrongdoings.

• Lack of jury convictions

Some jury members are reluctant to convict in murder trials because of the possibility of executing
an innocent person. Thus, many killers go free and are never punished.

• Capital punishment is unnecessary

Killing a murderer does not bring his victim back to life. It achieves nothing but the death of still
another person.

One way of settling the issue is to see whether states that don't use capital punishment have been able
to find other punishments that enable the state to punish murderers in such a ways as to preserve an
orderly and contented society. If such states exist then capital punishment is unnecessary and should
be abolished as overly harmful.

Religious views


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

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• Buddhism and capital punishment

In terms of doctrine the death penalty is clearly inconsistent with Buddhist teaching. Buddhists place
great emphasis on non-violence and compassion for all life. The First Precept requires individuals to

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abstain from injuring or killing any living creature. The Buddha did not explicitly speak about capital
punishment, but his teachings show no sympathy for physical punishment, no matter how bad the
crime.

If a person foolishly does me wrong, I will return to him the protection of my boundless love. The
more evil that comes from him, the more good will go from me. (The Buddha)

Buddhism believes fundamentally in the cycle of birth and re-birth (Samsara) and teaches that if
capital punishment is administered it will have compromising effects on the souls of both offender
and the punisher in future incarnations.

• Christianity and capital punishment

Christians argue both for and against the death penalty using secular arguments but like other
religious people they often make an additional case based on the tenets of their faith.

For much of history, the Christian Churches accepted that capital punishment was a necessary part of
the mechanisms of society The Roman Catechism, issued in 1566, and stated that the power of life
and death had been entrusted by God to the civil authorities. The use of this power did not embody
the act of murder, but rather a supreme obedience to God's commandments. In the high Middle Ages
and later, the Holy See authorized that heretics be turned over to the secular authorities for execution.

• Hinduism and capital punishment

"An eye for an eye ends up making the whole world blind" (Gandhi)

There is no official Hindu line on capital punishment. However, Hinduism opposes killing, violence
and revenge, in line with the principle of ahimsa (non-violence). The debate on capital punishment in
India was revived in 2004 by the case of Dhananjoy Chatterjee who had been sentenced for rape and
murder. The Indian Supreme Court has ruled that the death penalty should only be used in the rarest
of rare cases.

• Islam and capital punishment

Islam on the whole accepts capital punishment.

...Take not life, which God has made sacred, except by way of justice and law. Thus does He
command you, so that you may learn wisdom? Qur'an 6:151

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But even though the death penalty is allowed, forgiveness is preferable. Forgiveness, together with
peace, is a predominant Qur’an theme. Muslims believe that capital punishment is a most severe
sentence but one that may be commanded by a court for crimes of suitable severity. While there may
be more profound punishment at the hands of God, there is also room for an earthly punishment.

Each case is regarded individually and with extreme care and the court is fully able to impose more
lenient sentences as and when they see fit. Muslim countries vary in the extent to which they practice
capital punishment, though all retain it at present.

Islamic countries that practice a very strict Sharia law are associated with the use of capital
punishment as retribution for the largest variety of crimes. At the other end of the spectrum are
countries such as Albania and Bosnia, which still retain the death penalty as part of their penal
system, but are abolitionist in practice.

Public opinion
Although public support for capital punishment remains strong,
concern about the possibility of wrongful executions is reflected in
the writings of criminologists, lawmakers, and theologians.

According to Gallup's latest update on public support for the death

penalty, 65% favor it as the penalty for someone convicted of
murder, while 31% oppose it. This is based on Gallup's annual

Minority Rights and Relations survey, conducted June 4-24, 2007.

There are significant differences in the degree of support among some of these groups, especially
between Republicans and Democrats; however, in each case, more still favor than oppose it. The
most notable distinction is between whites and blacks because a majority of whites (70%) favor
capital punishment, while a majority of blacks (56%) oppose it.

Public opinion should not determine justice. Justice is not supposed to be up to public opinion. On a
matter that is so centrally about justice, public opinion should play a minimal role.

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Virginia surveys from 1989 to 1999:

A poll conducted by the Virginia Commonwealth University in 1989 asked adults in the state:

 "Do you support the death penalty for convicted murderers?"

 "Would you favor abolition of the death penalty if the alternative were a life sentence with no
possibility of parole for 25 years, combined with a restitution program requiring the prisoner
to?

 Work for money that would go to families of murder victims?"

They found that a majority of subjects surveyed preferred the latter alternative.The Center for Survey
Research at Virginia Tech has conducted a series of annual "Quality of Life in Virginia" polls from
1993 to 1999. They asked the identical questions. The polls showed that support for the death penalty
is high in that state, but is slipping. A strong majority of adults has consistently favored the
suggested alternative.

• Percent supporting the death penalty:

• 82.8% in 1996

• 79.5 in 1997

• 75.4% in 1998

• 74% in 1999

• Percent opposing the death penalty:

• 13.2% in 1996

• 17.1% in 1997

• 20% in 1998

• 20% in 1999
• Percent supported the suggested alternative:

• 56.3 in favor, 37.9 disagree in 1998

• 54.8 in favor, 40.5 disagree in 1999

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Conclusion
Putting to death people who have been judge to have committed certain extremely heinous crimes is
a practice of ancient standing. But now it has become a very controversial issue. Changing views on
this difficult issue led the Supreme Court to abolish capital punishment in 1972 but later turned to
uphold it again in 1977, with certain conditions. Indeed, restoring capital punishment is the will of
the people, yet many voices have been raised against it.

Supporters have drawn a different conclusion that if the judicial system works so well the wrongful
convictions are the rare exceptions. So society must feel that capital punishment ensures safety
among people. So supporters believe that the death penalty is not administered for revenge, but for
safety. With the growing of inner city life, capital punishment is a growing subject that must be used
effectively.

But opponents denounce it as murder, say that it does not cause deterrence but rather promotes
violence and claim that it introduces the chance of an innocent person being executed, capital
punishment is a moral dishonor. Since every person has their own opinion on this topic, either for or
against. Actually we still confused that the capital punishment is better than life imprisonment or not.
So the debate is going on.

As Most Rev. David B. Thompson, Bishop of Charleston, S.C. said, "Capital punishment feeds the
cycle of violence in society by pandering to a lust for revenge. It brutalizes us, and deadens our
sensitivities to the precious nature of every single human life."

The economic malfunctions and cultural diseases in those very societies contribute to the violence.
So, instead of inflicting Capital punishment, it’s our duty to provide opportunities for all people to
accomplish a good life in a rational culture.

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References

• http://www.google.com/search?q=capital%20punishment

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_penalty

• http://wiki.idebate.org/index.php/Debate:Capital_Punishment#Families:_Is_capita
l_punishment_good_for_the_families_of_victims.3F

• http://www.worldcoalition.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=150

• http://www.planetpapers.com/Assets/676.php

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/capitalpunishment/against_2.shtml

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/buddhistethics/capitalpunishme
nt.shtml

• http://www.deathpenaltyreligious.org/

• http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Capital-Punishment/32569

• http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Abolish-Capital-Punishment/159021

• http://www.essaydepot.com/essayme/608/index.php

• http://www.buzzle.com/articles/reasons-against-capital-punishment-death-
penalty.html

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