FREE ESSAY ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

Capital Punishment
Capital punishment is defined in the Encarta Encyclopedia as the legal infliction of the
death penalty. The death penalty is currently used as punishment for crimes of murder.
The State of Florida supports capital punishment and carries it out by electric chair
execution. According to The Death Row Fact Sheet published by the Florida Department of
Corrections, 44 people have been executed since 1976 and another 372 inmates are
currently on death row in Florida. ......Thesis....
Deterrence defined as....... By the Encarta Encyclopedia. Under this
concept, the individual committing the crime and society are prevented from committing
this action again. In the case of the death penalty, an individual kills another human
and he is punished for it by death. Punishment is supposed to be a temporary penalization
for a wrongful action. Death is far from temporary. One is to learn from one's mistakes.
How can the person learn if they are paying for their mistake with their life? In George
Anderson's article, Organizing Against the Death Penalty he states, The death penalty is
our harshest punishment. It is irrevocable: it ends the existence of those punished,
instead of temporarily imprisoning them. (13). By imposing the death penalty the
individual does not learn from their mistakes and neither does society. Moreover, there
are no reliable methods to measure the effectiveness of the death penalty as a deterrent
of future crimes. People who commit capital murders generally do not engage in
probability analysis concerning the likelihood of getting the death penalty in they are
caught (Freedman 48). In Louisiana, for example, during the summer of 1978, eight people
were executed. During that same period the murder rate in New Orleans rose 16.9%, the
highest in years (Cohen 29).
Most of the costs of the death penalty are incurred before and during the trial, not in
the appeals process after convicted. A 1982 New York study estimated the death penalty
cost conservatively at three times that of life imprisonment, the ratio that Texas (with
a system that is on the brink of collapse due to under-funding) has experienced (Freedman
49). As Anderson points out, ...the monetary cost of appealing a capital sentence is
excessive. (14). Further, ...actual monetary costs are trumped by the importance of doing
justice. (Anderson 14). Additionally there are specific costs associated with keeping an
inmate on death row, (i.e. the cost of the specially built prison blocks, the need for
maximum security, etc.) and more. These costs clearly out weigh the regular costs
incurred to house a regular inmate. With the millions spent executing prisoners, the
government could use that money more effectively trying to solve violent crimes, and
developing methods to improve public safety.
Society demands that the punishment should fix the harm it has done. By sentencing a
person to death no harm has been fixed. You can not bring the murdered person back by
taking the prisoner's life. Punishment-regardless of the motivation is not intended to
revenge, offset, or compensate for the victims suffering or to be measured by it. (Vila
128). 
The community demands that justice be served. Would justice not equally be served and in
fact may be better served by life imprisonment? I believe it would be a worse punishment
to endure a life sentence in prison. The individual is deprived of his liberty. He will
then suffer and live the rest of his or her life within three lonely walls and a set of
bars. It gives the individual time to think and wallow in his own guilt. 
.....Someone kills another person. The State then proceeds to kill him for doing so. This
is not punishment but revenge. Revenge is inconsistent with society's demands that
justice be served because the punishment has to fit the crime. Justice Brennan has
insisted that the death penalty is uncivilized,  inhuman, inconsistent with human dignity
and with the dignity of life. (Freedman 50). Brennan speaks of moral imperatives. It is
morally wrong for someone to kill another person. If so, then the state is committing a
morally wrongful act. As they say, two wrongs don't make a right.
Society desires for its members to reintegrate themselves into society. Punishment
includes preparing the person to reenter society and lead a productive life. Without
doubt, if you impose the death penalty there is no opportunity for rehabilitation. 
Bibliography
Anderson, George M. "Organizing against the death penalty." America Jan 3 1998: 10-14.
Death Row Fact Sheet. United States. Florida Department of Corrections. [Online]
Available
http://www.dc.state.fl.us/oth/deathrow, October 5 1999
"Capital Punishment." The 1997 Encarta Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. New York: Microsoft,
1997.
Cohen, Adam. "A Life For A Life" Time 8 March 1999: 28-32. [Online] Available
http://www.fau.edu/library, October 5, 1999. 
Freedman, Eric M. "The Case Against the Death Penalty." USA Today 9 March 1997: 48-50.
Radelet, Michael L. "Deterrence and the Death Penalty: The Views of the Experts." Journal
of 
Criminal Law and Criminology. Fall 1996: 1-16.
Vila, Bryan. And Cynthia Morris. Capital Punishment In The United States. Conneticut:
Greenwood Press, 1997.