Death Penalty Many people will argue that capital punishment is inappropriate as a proper means of punishment for murder and rape. The truth is the death penalty is the most effective form of retributive justice for those crimes. The death penalty is a fitting punishment for violent crime because executions maximize public safety through a form of incapacitation and deterrence. The death penalty has been around since the days of Moses and it is still around today. The reason for this is simply because it works.
The Jews believe that the death penalty was God-given and therefore a necessary part of their religious and judicial system. The Jews use the death penalty to punish such grotesque offenses as bestiality and incest to somewhat minute charges of striking, cursing, or mere disobedience to one’s parents. The methods the Jewish people use to inflict capital punishment are as varied as the crimes for which it is used: Stoning, burning, hanging, beheading, and several more less popular methods. If we look at the Roman Empire we see that crucifixion was a popular mode of execution because, not only did it get rid of the problem, it also punished the criminal with a great deal of torture. Crucifixion is probably the most cruel way to execute someone and therefore one of the most effective ways to deter crime.
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Crucifixion involved hanging a person to a device called a cross. The person first had to carry his cross through his hometown and to the place of his death. This further helped to deter crime since few people want their family and friends to witness such a humiliating experience. The criminal was then tied or nailed to the cross with his knees bent. The cross was then lifted up and set into a hole in the ground. This force would dislocate every joint in the body of the criminal.
While the criminal hanged there, he could push himself up on a foot pedestal so that he could breathe. Eventually the man grew tired, suffocated, and died. The French government wanted a much quicker, cleaner, and simpler way to carry out the death penalty. A doctor by the name of Joseph Guillotin suggested the use of the guillotine in 1792 and, hence, it bares his name. The death penalty has almost always been a part of the American judicial system. Although the methods of inflicting the death penalty have changed since America began, the need for punishing lawbreakers has not.
While the firing squad and hanging were used before the turn of the century, more modern executions are now common. These modern methods include the gas chamber, the electric chair, and the lethal injection. The lethal injection is the most widely used form of execution in the United States. Political leaders know the advantages of capital punishment are far reaching, not only for the citizens themselves but for their moral values as well. The death penalty has been around for a long time and it will continue to be around because it is the single greatest crime deterrent. All major world powers have used the death penalty as a means of controlling crime.
Israel conquered all the kingdoms of their region to become the most powerful nation in the world around the time of Moses and up to a few hundred years before Christ. Their law plainly states in Exodus 21:23, “And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life.” The Jews followed that law flawlessly because they knew that if they let lawlessness go on then their government would soon fail. Hammurabi was an Ammorite ruler who conquered Mesopotamia and set up the Babylonian Empire. He is most famous for his code of laws, called the Code of Hammurabi. They were carved on to an eight-foot-high slab of black stone that was set in the middle of his capital city.
Most were harsh, particularly the rule an eye for an eye and a life for a life. It simply meant that whatever a person did to some one else that person would receive the same treatment. The most powerful nation for the last 150 years is inarguably the United States of America. The United States has always used the death penalty. The only exception is the years between 1967 and 1977 when Supreme Court decision Furman v.
Georgia declared capital punishment unconstitutional. This was a time when the people of the United States were in a “peace” movement. Actually, they were so blinded by the use of drugs that they were left incompetent and unable to distinguish right from wrong. Finally, in 1975, when all the drug use and “peace” movement slowed down and people came to their senses, the Supreme Court overruled the Furman v. Georgia hearing of 1967. This controversial 1975 case, Gregg v.
Georgia, stated that capital punishment did not violate the Constitution of the United States of America. As of now, 37 states use capital punishment to help prevent crime and, at one time or another, every mainland state has had the death penalty in effect. The United States or any of these state governments show no sign of falling apart. It could be that the death penalty helps to stabilize their justice system, economy, and the morale of its people. Furthermore, even the United States military enforces the death penalty.
It is the best military in the world. It has beaten the British navy, the German army, the Russian army, and the Japanese marines, just to name the most prominent opposition. The United States military eliminates bad soldiers as a way of strengthening the entire military. A government that does not take care of its people soon loses its people. Despite the facts, many people still feel that capital punishment is wrong for various reasons.
One of those reasons is that someone will be wrongfully executed. Here are several safeguards to protect the rights of criminals facing the death penalty: 1. Capital punishment may be imposed only for a crime for which the death penalty is prescribed by law at the time of its commission. 2. Persons below 18 years of age, pregnant women, new mothers or persons who have become insane shall not be sentenced to death.
3. Capital punishment may be imposed only when guilt is determined by clear and convincing evidence, leaving no room for an alternative explanation of the facts. 4. Capital punishment may be carried out only after a competent court allowing all possible safeguards to the defendant, including adequate legal assistance renders a final judgment. 5. Anyone sentenced to death shall receive the right to appeal to a court of higher jurisdiction.
6. Anyone sentenced to death shall have the right to seek pardon or commutation of sentenced. 7. Capital punishment shall not be carried out pending any …