Capital Punishment - the Death Penalty

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

Crime is a part of our lives, it is everywhere! Controlling or eliminating crime and criminals is no easy task but it can not be ignored. Making sure those that are rightly accused to a just punishment is very important. There are many reasons why people commit crimes; some do it for the shear of enjoyment others do it to be able to survive. The death penalty should not be used for every crime, although I strongly believe it should be used for those who commit very violent crimes, such as murder.

Deterrence is the means to punish those who commit crimes as an example and to create fear in others who might want to commit a crime. The death penalty is one way we use to create fear! Most people fear death one way or another. Ernest van den Hagg, in his article "On Deterrence and the Death Penalty" mentions, "One abstains from dangerous acts because of vague, inchoate, habitual and, above all preconscious fears" (193). Without this type of deterrence what would stop criminals that already in prisons for life keep from killing another inmate or a staff that works there? There are those that are against the death penalty called anti-death penalty advocates, they say that imprisonment by it self is enough to deter criminals, killing criminals is not needed! Hugo Bedau argues in his article, "Capital Punishment and Social defense" says, "Crimes can be deterred only by making would-be criminals frightened of being arrested, convicted, and punished for crimes" (301). According to Richard Seiter in his book "An Introduction Corrections" states that "From 1986 to 1997 the number of males that went to prison increased 70% while the number of females increased 118%" (210). It seems that just going to prison isn't enough for some people. Without the death penalty insane people would kill others thinking they could get away with it and if not what's the worst going to happened to them "Prison for life"! One could argue that the death penalty probably has saved someone's life because it deterred someone from committing that act!

Still anti-death penalty advocates believe that the death penalty is irreversible and that some people who really weren't guilty are sentenced to death. Yes the death penalty is irreversible but the chance that an innocent person gets sentenced to death is extremely low. The judicial system goes threw extreme measures to insure this doesn't happened! They do this by making sure that only when guilt is determined by clear and convincing evidenced be punished. Even so those that receive the death penalty have the right to appeal to a court that is higher. There is far less number of death sentences then life imprisonment sentences without parole given out every year. According to Federal Justice Statistics, in 1998, there were approximately 5000 criminals sentenced to life imprisonment as opposed to 74 criminals sentenced to death (Internet). This is a good example that the judicial system is very careful with death sentences. Yes we don't live in a perfect world and mistakes do happened and when you are dealing with some one life there's no dollar amount or way of returning those years back to those who were really innocent and spent time in