The Death Penalty

        In American society, the threat of capital punishment stands as the ultimate sentence for a criminal. The moral complications of the taking of another life, whether it is by murder or as legally accepted punishment, remains an unresolved conflict between Americans. Despite the fact that capital punishment, otherwise known as the "death penalty", is legal in only a handful of countries in the world, the majority of Americans regard it as acceptable retribution. In the 1981 Gallup Poll, two-thirds of Americans voted general approval of capital punishment. By 1994, the same poll concluded that a tremendous 80% of Americans approved of capital punishment (Moore, 1994:5). It is no wonder that many of our countries leaders approve of the death penalty. The former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich,
believes that mass executions of "27 or 30 or 35 people at a time" would be effective in the reduction of the importation of illegal drugs in to America (Taylor, 1995). In 1972, capital punishment was eradicated in the United States when the Supreme Court declared that under then existing laws "imposition and carrying out of the death penalty... constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the 8th and 14th amendments." (Fruman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238). This decision, however, was withdrawn in 1976 by the Supreme Court. Advocates of capital punishment claim that it is an effective deterrent against crime and that it is morally just. The statistics, however, point to the opposite direction, showing that capital punishment has little to no effect on the amount of crime and is strongly prejudiced.
Americans are sincerely concerned with crime rates and the safety within their communities. The most widely used argument for the death penalty is the claim that it is an effective deterrent against murder. The argument suggests that defending one's life against the threat of potential legal execution would remove any desire to commit murder, also assuming that the potential murderer is able to make rational decisions (i.e. isn’t mentally challenged or disabled). Capital punishment has little effect on the rate of such crimes. Only a small proportion of murderers are sentenced to death and even fewer are executed. Although death sentences since 1980 have increased in number to about 250 per year, this is still only one percent of homicides known to the police. Of all those convicted on a charge of homicide - only two percent and about one in fifty, are eventually sentenced to death. Most deterrence research has found that the death penalty has virtually the same effect as LWOP on homicide rates. Former New York Police Chief Patrick V. Murphy wrote, "Like the emperor's new clothes, the flimsy notion that the death penalty is an effective law enforcement tool is being exposed as mere political puffery" (Murphy, 1995). The claim that deterrence of crime is an effect of capital punishment is statistically incorrect. The death penalty violates the American constitutional guarantee of the identical protection of the laws. It is applied aimlessly at its best and unjust at its worst.

        To summarise, I believe that the Death Penalty is morally unjust and that it has no clear or obvious system. Some of the points made by the party against the reinstatement of the Death Penalty are valid and can be dignified, but in my eyes, capital punishment can’t be morally justified, and only God has the power to give and take lives, so who are we to meddle with business that isn’t ours?