Morality Of The Death Penalty in The United States
Death Penalty execution rates have been falling a substantial amount over the past decades. This warrants the question whether the death penalty was effective and just, in ruling or if more people are denouncing the punishment. The death penalty is morally just in the United States for capital and heinous crimes, and the majority of the public tend to agree. In the United States more than 80 percent of the population believes the death penalty is a just punishment for murder or capital crimes. “Nearly 80 percent of the public supports the death penalty while 5 percent were undecided and the rest were opposed.” (Gale). No doubt is this a powerful factor in favor of the death penalty. Supporters …show more content…
“There is no way to tell how many of the more than 1,450 people executed since 1976 may also have been innocent. Courts do not generally entertain claims of innocence when the defendant is dead.” (Death Penalty Information Center) However, opponents to capital punishment will still oppose it even when there is absolute proof the defendant committed the crime. “If there was a video of a man burning a family alive opponents of capital punishment would still oppose taking that man's life.” (Prager) Murderers who are kept alive setting their peers at risk of being murdered as well such as guards and other inmates. This moreover cheapens the cost of human life as if keeping this one person alive is worth more dead. And now with Forensics and DNA the idea of someone getting falsely persecuted is virtually zero. The idea that opponents to the death penalty think that innocent people will be murdered is a paper thin argument and doesn’t change the fact that they support a murderers right to live. This also stems from the fact that opponents of the death penalty use the claim that it violates their 8th Amendment right. “This new punishment is categorically cruel and unusual under the Eighth Amendment.” (Sun) Was the victims life taken in a cruel and unusual way? Most would say
Death Penalty execution rates have been falling a substantial amount over the past decades. This warrants the question whether the death penalty was effective and just, in ruling or if more people are denouncing the punishment. The death penalty is morally just in the United States for capital and heinous crimes, and the majority of the public tend to agree. In the United States more than 80 percent of the population believes the death penalty is a just punishment for murder or capital crimes. “Nearly 80 percent of the public supports the death penalty while 5 percent were undecided and the rest were opposed.” (Gale). No doubt is this a powerful factor in favor of the death penalty. Supporters …show more content…
“There is no way to tell how many of the more than 1,450 people executed since 1976 may also have been innocent. Courts do not generally entertain claims of innocence when the defendant is dead.” (Death Penalty Information Center) However, opponents to capital punishment will still oppose it even when there is absolute proof the defendant committed the crime. “If there was a video of a man burning a family alive opponents of capital punishment would still oppose taking that man's life.” (Prager) Murderers who are kept alive setting their peers at risk of being murdered as well such as guards and other inmates. This moreover cheapens the cost of human life as if keeping this one person alive is worth more dead. And now with Forensics and DNA the idea of someone getting falsely persecuted is virtually zero. The idea that opponents to the death penalty think that innocent people will be murdered is a paper thin argument and doesn’t change the fact that they support a murderers right to live. This also stems from the fact that opponents of the death penalty use the claim that it violates their 8th Amendment right. “This new punishment is categorically cruel and unusual under the Eighth Amendment.” (Sun) Was the victims life taken in a cruel and unusual way? Most would say