The second essay that I have chosen to write about is #2 which states:
"Your sister, the mother of three first-grade students, has been found brutally murdered. Additional investigation reveals that all four family members were raped before they were burned alive. What do you think the "CORRECT PUNISHMENT" of the offender should be, and why?" "It is often said that American capital punishment fulfill no purposes, serves no functions, and possesses no coherent rationale...David Garland argues that American capital punishment is functional, meaningful, and effective especially in the cultural realm of death penalty discourse...America 's radically local version of democracy helps to explain why the death penalty has persisted in the United …show more content…
The current standard for death qualification comes from a 1985 case Wainwright v. Witt, where the court ruled jurors with strong feelings either way could substantially impair the process, and can be dismissed from service for cause.(Brooke Butler, and Gary Moran 2007, The Impact of Death Qualification, Belief in a Just World, Legal Authoritarianism, and Locus of Control on Venire persons ' Evaluations of Aggravating and Mitigating Circumstances in Capital Trials, Behavioral Sciences and the Law pg. 58) Penalty of death is different from an imprisonment sentence, it is final and differs from life in prison. Because of this difference there is another corresponding difference, the need for reliability, and correctness, in determining that death is the appropriate sentence.(James Acker, Actual Innocence: Is Death Different? 2009, Behavioral Sciences and the Law pg 297) Because of this need for reliability an assurance of guilt, …show more content…
Constitution, written by the framers of that document, authorizes capital punishment when so ordered and after due process has been achieved. This amendment has withstood time and challenges and remains valid today. (Robert Bohm 2012, Deathquest, Anderson Publishing pg43) The Eighth Amendment, which also has received many challenges in court, but still holds today, upholds capital punishment as not being “cruel and unusual punishment” for certain crimes. The 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act lists 50 crimes which are capital punishment eligible, of which 46 of them all involve murder. (Robert Bohm 2012, Deathquest, Anderson Publishing pg72) Section 210.6(2) of the Model Penal Code, death penalty provision sentences for capital punishment can be imposed if at least one of several possibilities of aggravating circumstances is found, along with the absence of any mitigating factors.(Jesse Cheng 2010, Frontloading Mitigation: The "Legal" and the "Human" in Death Penalty Defense, Law and Social Inquiry Vol. 35 Issue 1 pg.39-65) Also that which has been found is that capital juries "would be more likely to impose the death penalty if the following aggravating factors were present: the murder had been especially brutal or involved a child victim, or if the defendant had a history of violent crime or exhibited a lack of remorse." (Michelle Barnett, Stanley Brodsky, Cali Manning Davis 2004, When Mitigation Evidence Makes a
"Your sister, the mother of three first-grade students, has been found brutally murdered. Additional investigation reveals that all four family members were raped before they were burned alive. What do you think the "CORRECT PUNISHMENT" of the offender should be, and why?" "It is often said that American capital punishment fulfill no purposes, serves no functions, and possesses no coherent rationale...David Garland argues that American capital punishment is functional, meaningful, and effective especially in the cultural realm of death penalty discourse...America 's radically local version of democracy helps to explain why the death penalty has persisted in the United …show more content…
The current standard for death qualification comes from a 1985 case Wainwright v. Witt, where the court ruled jurors with strong feelings either way could substantially impair the process, and can be dismissed from service for cause.(Brooke Butler, and Gary Moran 2007, The Impact of Death Qualification, Belief in a Just World, Legal Authoritarianism, and Locus of Control on Venire persons ' Evaluations of Aggravating and Mitigating Circumstances in Capital Trials, Behavioral Sciences and the Law pg. 58) Penalty of death is different from an imprisonment sentence, it is final and differs from life in prison. Because of this difference there is another corresponding difference, the need for reliability, and correctness, in determining that death is the appropriate sentence.(James Acker, Actual Innocence: Is Death Different? 2009, Behavioral Sciences and the Law pg 297) Because of this need for reliability an assurance of guilt, …show more content…
Constitution, written by the framers of that document, authorizes capital punishment when so ordered and after due process has been achieved. This amendment has withstood time and challenges and remains valid today. (Robert Bohm 2012, Deathquest, Anderson Publishing pg43) The Eighth Amendment, which also has received many challenges in court, but still holds today, upholds capital punishment as not being “cruel and unusual punishment” for certain crimes. The 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act lists 50 crimes which are capital punishment eligible, of which 46 of them all involve murder. (Robert Bohm 2012, Deathquest, Anderson Publishing pg72) Section 210.6(2) of the Model Penal Code, death penalty provision sentences for capital punishment can be imposed if at least one of several possibilities of aggravating circumstances is found, along with the absence of any mitigating factors.(Jesse Cheng 2010, Frontloading Mitigation: The "Legal" and the "Human" in Death Penalty Defense, Law and Social Inquiry Vol. 35 Issue 1 pg.39-65) Also that which has been found is that capital juries "would be more likely to impose the death penalty if the following aggravating factors were present: the murder had been especially brutal or involved a child victim, or if the defendant had a history of violent crime or exhibited a lack of remorse." (Michelle Barnett, Stanley Brodsky, Cali Manning Davis 2004, When Mitigation Evidence Makes a