The capital penalty history has been recorded to go back as far as the 1700 century where people were stoned, beheaded, and boiled to death for crimes such as adultery, witch craft, and theft. As time moved forward throughout the …show more content…
My only question would be so does that mean that rapist should be raped and arsonist should have their house burned down? Some crimes are heinous and unimaginable, and it may warrant the highest punishment possible; when the evidence is substantial and overwhelming.
Like the case of the notorious John Wayne Gacy rightfully received the death penalty, because there was no justice in keeping him behind bars where he would continue to have no remorse and possibility to ever be redeemed for his crimes. People seem to think someone like John Wayne Gacy did suffer in jail, and regretted what he did, however when he hid bodies of young boys and men in his home after he killed them he did show regret or remorse. We as society will never know because he was executed.
As a society we tend to use the death penalty as an absolute justice. But in reality, society makes many people do many things, and a murder has to be triggered by a cause. Most murderers have been exposed to violence and injustice as children, and society has done nothing to help these victims. As in the case of Aileen Wournos (Reynolds, 2003) who killed men in Florida while working as a prostitute after she had been violently raped while working, she herself was abused horrifically sexually and physically at the hands of her own grandfather beginning at the age of 4 years old. Upon being charged with such crimes against his own children …show more content…
People often say the death penalty is to prevent crime, and prevent future deaths perpetrated upon unsuspecting innocent victims. However, we as a society have to take into consideration our flawed and imperfect judicial system and the potentially innocent victims that are being prosecuted.
The judicial system does make mistakes; which gives leverage to the anti-death penalty debate. The possibility of a legal mistake by the judicial system could potentially cause the death of person who was innocent. In the case of Timothy Evans in 1949 (Jesse, 1957) who was accused of murdering his wife and daughter after proclaiming his innocence stating he believed his neighbor committed the murders.
Evan’s subsequent death by hanging, later led authorities to discover evidence 3 years later the neighbor was the one who in fact a serial killer who had killed 6 other women and Evan’s daughter. The judicial system ignored vital evidence during the trial of Timothy Evans that caused the miscarriage of justice leading to his death for a crime he did not commit. It was not until 16 years later a judicial system exonerated him and overturned his conviction; unfortunately it is too late for