Inmate Spending : Death Penalty Position Paper

Death Penalty Position Paper

Introduction:

The death penalty has been a controversial and very debatable issue for centuries. People have been sentenced to capital punishment since the beginning of civilization it has been accepted as fair punishment by governmental bodies of any period in time. Over time capital punishment has become more human going from beheadings, to electric chairs, to now a lethal injection, however the execution may be processed the point is that they still take place in civilization today. The issue with the death penalty is that some people think it is inhumane or immoral, even unconstitutional, while others think the exact opposite and believe that it is necessary for a well established governmental system.

The death penalty is supported by all members of the Supreme Court (abcnews2012) meaning that in fact it is constitutional, if it is legal and takes place in the United States today it is because it is in fact following all guidelines within the constitution such as the 8^th and 14^th amendments. The issue then becomes about how capital punishment has lead to executions of innocent people living many people arguing how it is an abomination to have such punishments specially when innocent people go through flawed trials and are executed or in other words murdered in vain. Those are the main issues with the death penalty today.

Discussion:

As I supporter of the death penalty, it is clear that this form of capital punishment is not only proper for severe cases when criminals have committed unthinkable crimes, it is necessary. Certain people such as Jeffry Dahmer who murdered 17 men and children, and who not only dismembered his victims’ bodies, he also ate some of his victims (biography2012); or John Wane Gacy who murdered 33 men and children while dressed as a clown and before murdering them raping the victims, this man’s last word were “kiss my ass” (biography2012). These two particular example are extreme cases were serial killers obviously got pleasure from murdering their victims and felt no regrets of the crimes they committed, there for the death penalty was a correct punishment for these people. After all the pain they had brought to the victims’ families and the violations of the law in such extreme manner the only reasonable and well earned capital punishment was death.

The point is not to give the death penalty so freely to every criminal who murders a person, but only those very extreme and severe cases where the person committed the crime was a serial killer or someone who got pleasure form murdering the victims. The death penalty should only be given after much investigation and a certainty of who the criminal is in order to prevent executions of innocent people. However it is certain that this punishment is necessary for several reasons. For starts one of the biggest upsides of the death penalty is that once the criminal is executed the families of the victim gets closure and feel safer that that person is no longer a threat to them. Also this is a way of the legal system to show potential criminals that capital punishment will be issued and perhaps stopping people from committing certain crimes out of fear of being prosecuted to the point their life will be taken away. In only special cases then, the death penalty is not only a reasonable punishment it is necessary.

Conclusion:

Being a conservative Texan and having old conservative morals I agree with this particular quote form student daily “To a conservative Texan politician the death penalty it is neither ‘cruel’ or ‘unusual’ executing a murderer is the appropriate punishment for taking an innocent life” (studentsnewdaily 2010) The death penalty does not seem cruel or unusual in any way. Certain people just deserve to be punished in such harsh manner due to the crimes they committed. The death penalty follows the constitution and does not break any amendment, it might seem immoral to some people or even inhumane but that is not the point, the point with this form of capital punishment is to serve justice and bring comfort to those affected by these criminals, the point is to have a strong sense of justice in the country to stop men and women from becoming serial killers and struck fear to those who feel pleasure when killing innocent people. There for I know that if a family member of mine was a victim of a serial killers killing spree I would want that person to be prosecuted and get the death penalty, some people just simply deserve it.

Abstract:

The death penalty is indeed controversial and has many issues with it but one thing is very clear, it is constitutional and major body figures such as Rick Perry the Governor of Texas and the Supreme Court members are strong supporters of it (Alarcon 2012) (prisonpolicy.org.). These people support it for a good simple reason, it works. If the system was flawed or simply cruel or unusual the punishment wouldn’t even be an option. Criminals convicted to death row are extreme cases where the right and constitutional thing to do is convict them to the death penalty. To have justice and a strong control on crime capital punishment is needed as an example to show that murder and rape will not be tolerated here, giving civilians a sense of security and comfort that they are well protected against these psychopaths, and giving myself a sense of security.

References:

http://www.studentnewsdaily.com/conservative-vs-liberal-beliefs/

http://www.biography.com/people/john-wayne-gacy-10367544

www.Abcnews.go.com

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/

http://www.thisnation.com/question/018.html

http://www.deathpenalty.org/