Capital Punishment
Uploaded by Brainy81 on Apr 08, 2022
The death penalty has been a lasting part of civilization, dating back to the ancient Anthenians as one of their forms of punishments. Throughout history, from the Roman Republic to the Qing Dynasty to now, the death penalty has been a staple of punishment for grave consequences committed by a person. The United States was no different, and had adopted capital punishment from the founding British Empire, which had laws carrying death sentence since William the Conquerer.
The questions now becomes, whether the death penalty should still be used, and if so, how it should be used. This topic has been hotly debated by politicians throughout the globe, and already over half of the world’s countries have outlawed the death penalty.
In the United States, capital punishment is used for the most serious of crimes such as treason and acts of terrorism. Through lengthy judiciary procedures, there are many avenues of appeal in state and federal courts to overturn death sentences with enough evidence. Furthermore, any one court in the list can overturn the decision permanently, giving a viable route to get less harsh sentences. DNA evidence, and other recognition technology have been able to prevent many innocent individuals from being put on death row, which is a testament that the growing rate of technological advances are only going to help the system properly punish its criminals.
The U.S has an advanced judiciary which does the best that is humanly possible to determine truth from lies. This sort of system effectively puts defendants into their proper verdicts, and is reliable enough to not sentence most innocent individuals to death.
The benefits of the death penalty are numerous, although usually overshadowed. First, it is quick, painless, and humane, which can be a better fate than incarceration in the tough prison system of the U.S. It prevents serious criminals from having the chance of escaping or getting out to continue their criminal activities. Criminals who commit atrocities should not be given the same privileges as individuals who are incarcerated for lesser crimes like drug abuse. Lastly, it prevents a strain on state and federal prison systems to carry prisoners at horrendous costs.
Therefore, it is my theory that the death penalty should remain apart of the Judicary in the United States, although should still be limited to severe cases of active terrorism, hate crimes, and and other undeniable cases.
https://www.greecehighdefinition.com/blog/2019/8/16/the-death-penalty-in-ancient-greece-how-did-ancient-greeks-execute-people#:~:text=Capital%20punishment%20in%20Ancient%20Greece,resort%20after%20many%20other%20punishments.&text=Athenians%20imposed%20fines%2C%20imprisonment%2C%20public,disfranchisement%2C%20exile%20and%20then%20death.&text=Slaves%20breaking%20the%20law%20were%20executed%20and%20their%20masters%20fined.
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-and-research/history-of-the-death-penalty/early-history-of-the-death-penalty
https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/death-penalty/#:~:text=When%20Amnesty%20started%20its%20work,abolitionist%20in%20law%20or%20practice.
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-and-research/crimes-punishable-by-death