Penology

The Sacco and Vanzetti case was one of the U.S’s first case with immigrants. After being accused of killing a guard and a paymaster, Sacco and Vanzetti were sentenced to death, after a seven-week trial convicting both of first-degree murder, though not being executed until 1927 (Frankfurter). Sacco and Vanzetti’s trial in the 1920s American’s view of Sacco and Vanzetti's criminality derived from their status as Italian-immigrants, Anarchist beliefs, and the country's social divisiveness, and…

Chapter Four, Show Trial, of Amy Bach’s Ordinary Injustice depicts a case of wrongful conviction that occurred over twenty years ago. Michael Evans and Paul Terry, both ages seventeen, had been charged with raping and murdering nine-year-old Lisa Cabassa. The crime occurred the evening of January 14, 1976, when Lisa and her eleven year old brother Ricky were walking to a friend’s house and got separated. Later when Ricky returned home he and his family realized Lisa never made it home. The only…

In this paper I will give you facts from both sides of the death penalty. The death penalty is a very controversial subject. Some people believe that it is wrong to kill a man ever and some believe that if a person kills that they should be killed as well. The arguments that we will see are whether the value of life is enough to not execute a convicted person, if the reason the person is being kills is for vengeance or justice and whether the crime decreases or stays the same if the death…

While this may be a more daunting topic to undertake, I believe the death penalty is one that should be dealt methodically in ordered to reach my desired point. It is excepted that death penalty laws were first set in place in eighteenth century B.C., there were many discrepancies along the way. However, in the present day twenty first century or the first century of the third millennium, the death penalty is becoming less and less know in the United States. It is customarily thought that the…

Juvenile Life Sentences Imagine being forced to live in a prison full of adults where your development means nothing to the institution, how would one feel? How could one live in such a place where your age and maturity mean nothing to anyone? How would one feel never finishing the teenage years that everyone is so fond of? Juveniles are not fit for being sentenced to life in adult prison because, even though they committed the crimes, they cannot measure the consequences because they are…

In response to the mass incarceration issue in America’s prison systems, Arafa and Burns the authors of Judicial Corporal Punishment in the United States? Lessons from Islamic Criminal Law for Curing the Ills of Mass Incarceration, argued in favour of reinstating Judicial Corporal Punishment in the prison systems of America; similar to the ones that Islamic criminal law advocates for. Throughout the article, the authors’ work to prove how Judicial Corporal Punishment is more compassionate to…

The Death Penalty Do the laws of the United States outweigh the life of a human being? Throughout the world and the United States, capital punishment claims the life of many people. The death penalty was first established around the Eighteenth Century B.C. ("Part I: History of the Death Penalty |"). Today, in the Twenty First Century, we live in a progressive society that by now should have surpassed barbaric punishments such as the death penalty. The death penalty is harmful to the economy,…

To see another side of something, one can try to put themselves in someone else’s shoes for a day and see their point of view. This is exactly what I was able to experience while visiting the Gouverneur Correctional Facility. Not only did I experience the life of an every-day inmate, but I also had lunch and in-depth conversations with convicted felons. We arrived at the correctional facility around 9:30 and spent the day there until around 1:30. To start the day off, two guards explained to our…

Within the spectrum of today’s society, there are vast inequalities existing throughout various groups, religions, and cultures. It is essential to take time to analyze issues within the Canadian Correctional system, which enable society to move away from the concept of social justice. The ideology behind the concept of social justice, is one of great complexity; however, there are numerous avenues in which social justice can be defined. One of those avenues defines social justice as the ethical…

I took off my shirt. I tried to keep him alive. The bright red Fendi shirt I was wearing was initially white but my uncle’s cold blood changed everything. After that day, nothing was ever the same. His death was incomprehensible but lying in a pool of blood, not even two inches away from my body, was the closest family I had. Money. The Montblanc watches, Zanotti shoes, and Louboutins could not compensate for what I had done throughout my lifetime because after all, it did not make me a better…