Pros And Cons Of Capital Punishment Essay

, Research Paper

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: PROS AND CONS

Capital punishment is a subject you can always count on for a lively discussion with plenty of opinions and lots of questions. “Capital Punishment is a term which indicates muddled thinking. The dilemma of kill or be killed, which confronts civilized society daily and inexorably, is bedeviled by the jumble of panic, superstition, and angry resentment we call punishment, expiation, propitiatory blood sacrifice, justice, and many other imposing names. The dilemma is a hard fact which must be faced and organized.” (1)

In today’s world, terrible crimes are being committed daily. Many believe that these criminals deserve one fate: death. Capital punishment, the death penalty, is the maximum penalty used in punishing people who kill another human being – and is a very controversial method of punishment.

Criminals guilty of murder receive a verdict of capital punishment. Murder is the unlawful killing of another human being with an intentional or criminal intent. First-degree murder is usually premeditated or by deliberate design. In most states, a person convicted of first-degree murder can be sentenced to the death penalty.

Debate over the merits of capital punishment continues on a daily basis. Proponents of capital punishment defend it mainly on two grounds: death is a fitting punishment for murder, and executions maximize public safety through incapacitation and deterrence.

Capital punishment is meant to be a deterrent to crime, specifically murder. Gordon Tullock, of Virginia Polytechnic Institute, states: “Eighty percent of the people who seriously think about crime think of punishment as a deterrent – except for the sociologists, and they wrote all the textbooks.” (2) According to statistics, for each execution there are 50 murders averted. This was documented in the U.S. between the years 1967 – 1984. (3) Murders began to rise during the years that capital punishment was not allowed while states were reinstating new guidelines.

Edward Koch, former mayor of New York City, said:

“Had the death penalty been a real possibility in the minds of .murderers, they might

well have stayed their hand. They might have shown moral awareness before their victims

died.Consider the tragic death of Rosa Velez, who happened to be home when a man

named Luis Vera burglarized her apartment in Brooklyn. “Yeah, I shot her,” Vera

admitted. “.And I knew I wouldn’t go to the chair.”

The difference between murder and execution, or between kidnapping and imprisonment, is that the first is unlawful and undeserved, the second a lawful and deserved punishment for an unlawful act. The physical similarities of the punishment to the crime are irrelevant. The relevant difference is not physical, but social. (4)

A value on human life is placed by capital punishment. That value says, in essence, “If you take a life, yours will be forfeited.” But, man did not originate the concept of capital punishment. God originated capital punishment

. The Book of Mormon, Nephi 9: 35 states, “murderer who deliberately kills shall die”. Alma 1: 13-14 states, “Nehor condemned to die because he shed blood of righteous man”; 1: 18 (30: 10), “he who murders is punished unto death”; 34: 12, “law requires the life of him who has murdered” The Doctrine and Covenants of the Book of Mormon state in Chapter 42: 19, “he who kills shall die”; Chapter 42: 79, “those who kill will be delivered to law of land.” These are all descriptive of the words “capital punishment”.

On the view of “murder” the Book of Mormon states in Nephi Chapter 9: 35, “wo unto murder who deliberately kills.” In Mosiah 2: 13, “the Lord commands that men should not murder.” In Alma 30: 10 (34: 12) “if a man murder, he was punished unto death.” In Alma 42: 19, “if no law was given, would a man fear he would die if he murder.” In the Doctrine and Covenants, Chapter 42: 79, “any who kill shall be delivered up to laws of land.”

The Bible states in Exodus 10: 13, “Thou shall not MURDER.” (This is the translation taken directly from the original Hebrew version.) And murder is defined in any dictionary as the UNLAWFUL killing of a person with malice and aforethought. John 8:7, “Let he among you who is without sin, cast the first stone.” Matthew 7:1 states, “Judge not, that you be not judged.”

“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” -Matthew 5: 17-19.

There are many quotes from the Bible that state that the religious should be in favor of the death penalty. One of these in Revelations 13: 9-10 states, “He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.”

“Certainly, capital punishment shouldn’t be promoted as a deterrent to

murder. The people who commit atrocities often say they already feel dead

inside

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