Capital Punishment

Capital Punishment, or the issue of the death penalty, has been one of the most hotly

debated topics in the world up till this day. Crimes being punishable by death can be dated back

to 1750 B.C. with the Code of Hammurabi. This document stated that crimes such as committing

adultery or helping slaves escape were so illegal that the consequence was execution. In the year

1608, the first recorded execution was taken place in the British American Colonies and the

crime was for treason. During the time of the American Revolution, the treason and murder

crime rate were extremely high, bringing all thirteen colonies to start using the death penalty for

such crimes. The first call for an end to the death penalty was penned in 1764 on a famous

document titled Essays on Crimes and Punishments by Beccaria. This essay sparked up a small

group of abolitionists who were looking to rid the colonies of the death penalty. Soon after the

American Revolution, the founding fathers allowed the death penalty when putting together the

world renowned American Constitution. Since the allowance of the death penalty in the

Constitution, many abolitionist groups have been formed, multiple states have deemed it

unconstitutional and have abolished it, and an abundance of arguments have been formed

questioning it. These arguments range from the constitutionality of the death penalty to the

morality of it. The death penalty is favored by many as it gives the criminal no right to his or her

own life for taking away the life of someone else and it gives the family of the victim peace of

mind. However, many find the death penalty to be cruel and severe, as well as hypocritical.

Many people view capital punishment as a very cruel method to punish someone no

matter what the method of execution is. Throughout the years, we have seen different techniques

on how to carry out the death penalty. There has been lethal injection, hanging, shooting, electric

chair, gas chamber and beheading. No matter the procedure, many people against the death
penalty still see the killing as inhumane. They argue that all capital punishment does is

“perpetuate the cycle of violence” (Healey 29). This meaning that it creates more violence in the

world, causing more pain to those affected by the crime committed. Enforcing the death penalty

doesn’t alleviate the pain from those affected but instead causes more violence and guilt into

their lives. People also add on that the death penalty is also against the 8th amendment which

states that there will be no cruel and unusual punishment. Someone who is for the death penalty,

much like myself, would argue that the criminal who killed someone is inhumane. They took

away someone’s right to life, therefore they shouldn’t have their own right to their life. If they

take someone’s rights away, their own rights should also be taken away from them. This deals

with the argument about the 8th amendment, the criminals no longer deserve that right if they

took the victims right to life away. Also there are different ways to perform capital punishment,

lethal injection recently was upheld as not cruel and unusual according to the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court not long ago established four questions in order to determine if something was

cruel and unusual. These four questions are “Is it degrading to human dignity?”, “Is it

arbitrary?”,” Is it rejected throughout society?”, “Is it unnecessary?”. Lethal injection is not

degrading to human dignity because it contains drugs that are legal almost everywhere in the

world and also it kills the incarcerated in a timely matter. Lethal injection is arbitrary as the

outcome of death penalty trials have a large amount to do with factors other than the crime such

as gender, race and geography. Lethal injection isn’t rejected throughout society as polls show

that a third of the population says that the death penalty is an appropriate consequence to murder.

Lethal injection isn’t a necessary penalty as crimes haven’t shown a deterrence due to it. Out of

these principles, lethal injection passed three out of the four of them. Due to this, lethal injection

should not be seen as a cruel and unusual punishment, or as an inhumane way to punish
someone. (http://www.criminaljusticedegreehub.com/death-penalty-v-the-8th-amendment/) (I

will change this, I’m just not sure how to cite this website or if I need to cite it if I didn’t quote it

but just paraphrased it.)