Capital Punishment And The Death Penalty Are Important For Public Safety

For example, Turow illustrates that even people, who show anger towards the hideous crimes, still criticize the punishment, questioning the government capacity to distinguish between the innocent and the guilty. Furthermore, “in the last decade the murder rate in states without the death penalty has remained consistently lower than in the states that have had executions.” (Turow 2003) He includes that to show that the system is faulty and not essential because it doesn’t discourage criminals. Also, he points to the fact that Illinois, which has a capital penalty, has a higher death rate than Michigan, which doesn’t apply the penalty law, even though both of them have similar racial makeup, income levels, and population arrangement between cities and rural areas. Moreover, he argues against the belief that “death penalty saves money, because it avoids the expense of lifetime incarceration”, (Turow 2003)

Being on death row often prolongs the pain for the inmate. They spend their time in prison fearing the inevitable which for them is death. Today, we live in a society that is very divided on this issue. There are many in support of the death penalty, suggesting that it acts as a positive deterrent against future crime. There are also many

From healthcare to personal safety, inmates are suffering illnesses, abuse, excessive sentences, and maltreatment at an astronomical rate. There has been a vast debate on the issue. There are many arguments for lesser prison sentences and better prison conditions. Mass Incarceration on Trial, A Remarkable Court Decision and the Future of Prisons in America, written by Jonathan Simon, illustrates how our nation has become far removed from treating prisoners as human beings who deserving dignity and our nation has failed to properly address this grossly flawed prison system; particularly California. We as a society know very little about mass incarceration and the atrocities that happen behind the concrete walls of the numerous prisons in

Capital punishment is the legalized killing of criminal offenders based on the severity of the crime. We can trace capital punishment as far back to the eighteenth century. The King of Babylon, Hammaurdi wrote a set of codes for twenty-five crimes. If they were broken you could be killed. Killing during this time was more severe than it is now.

The placement of so many people into prisons for general, popular, frequent non-violent crimes has lead to such an extravagant number of people inside the walls used to punish people of horrific

“‘Death sentences represent less than one-tenth of 1% of prison sentences in the United States…,’” (Von Drehle, 9). Furthermore, death row is just a small fraction of the criminal justice system and can not be based on that alone. For instance, what many don't take into account is the justice systems allows for many states, such as the populous state of New York, to ban the death penalty. (state laws, p1)

Advocating for the Vulnerable: Lessons from Two Powerful TED Talks Law and Society has been a very informative class and has greatly enriched my understanding of the American justice system. However, one particular section of the course stands out in my mind as the most potent example of how dysfunctional the American justice system can be. David R. Dow — Lessons from Death Row Inmates. In his Ted talk Dow argues that the death penalty system in the US is deeply flawed and that it fails to address the underlying issues that lead people to commit crimes. He suggests that we need to focus more on prevention and rehabilitation rather than punishment alone.

The death penalty provides closure for the victim(s) family and people want to protect their family at any cost. The physicians and other doctors there are not there to kill them but to make sure they are comforted at their last minute of life instead of in pain. These doctors make sure the criminal is not in pain while he or she dies. Jail is actually a nice place, people who are homeless often commit crimes to go to jail. There they get fed good, they're clothed, they have a roof over their heads, and most of all they benefit from our tax money.

There has been an exceedingly high increase in the population in federal prisons. “The Federal prison population has grown by 750 percent since 1980 and our Federal prisons are approximately 30 percent over capacity” (). We are overflowing our prison cells with criminals of all degrees. We need Smarter Sentencing to keep people from have long drawn out sentences and crowding up our cells for people who actually need to be there for that amount of time. Over capacitated cells are actually ridiculous.

As of 2014, the state of California has barred capital punishment, having been declared unconstitutional by U.S. District Court Judge Cormac Carney. He stated that the decades-long delays caused by California failure to provide lawyers for nearly 350 of its death-row prisoners made its death penalty system unconstitutionally cruel and unusual and the random few whom California eventually executes to date, just 13 out of more than 900 individuals sentenced to death will have languished for so long on death row that their execution will serve no retributive or deterrent purpose and will be arbitrary (“Ninth Circuit,” 2015). However, California’s death penalty is back on the clock moving slowly toward resuming executions. In the works, is the revision of lethal injection protocol from the three-drug cocktail that some have argued as flawed and inhumane to a new single drug procedure,

Our judicial system should prioritize incarceration and how lengthy a sentence someone should receive based on the crimes committed. The death penalty may claim to serve justice, but its fatal flaws expose a fundamentally broken and

Even if you're sentenced to death, you're probably not going to get executed. That's why it's not a deterrent,”(Horn). People don't even see the death penalty as a punishment so people aren't afraid of commiting crimes. With how dangerous prisons are with overcrowding they are just costing more money for providing the medical attention the inmates need. ” There have been any number of reports about overcrowded and dangerous prisons, and while the Commission presented its conclusions and recommendations to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, it's not clear what - if anything - will come of that,”(Horn).

However, the death penalty reduces overcrowding, provides closure for victim’s family, and is true justice. Capital punishment can deal with overpopulated prisons in the United States. Prison overcrowding is one of the contributing factors to poor prison conditions. Its consequences can prevent prisons from fulfilling their functions as well (penalreform.org). For example, it can increase sickness among the inmates and prison guards.

Death penalty is like the ‘’tooth for a tooth – eye for an eye’’ theory. Instead of acting inhuman to our fellow beings we should find a better way to solve the mind of criminals. Making the problem vanish is not a good idea. We should do psychological researching instead! I, myself have a lot of faith in humanity.

Not only for the criminal, but for the executioner. This has been a long issue over many years. Hanging was the way to execute a criminal starting in the 1800‘s then there was the gas chamber, firing squad, electrocution, and lethal injection. Over the years they keep chaning due to the inhumanity of each of them. The effect they have on the