Brendan Taylor Taylor-1 Professor Reynolds Ethics 03 March 21, 2013
The Death Penalty: Defining Justice and Its Application
The death penalty is an ongoing ethical debate that transcends any specific time period. It permeates multiple aspects of our culture, from movies to modern day media. It has been in practice for hundreds of thousands of years, and even though it is used currently as an ends to the means of societal injustices, it is important to look at its moral permissibility under a finer magnification by looking at it in pieces. Throughout the course of this thesis, I will be dissecting the ethical values of the death penalty and why it would be allowed to end a person's life, presumably one who has committed crimes against another.
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In this essay, I will delve further into this premise with thoughts from Immanuel Kant and the Categorical Imperative. The second premise logically follows that, "any and all policies put in place to protect the innocent and condemn the guilty to death is just". The sole purpose of laws is to protect innocent citizens from the harmful and potential deadly actions of criminals. I use the term "just", which would imply that there is some greater, overarching theme of "justice" that dictates what is good and what is bad in society, this will also be covered. Lastly, and most importantly, the thesis. From the first two premises, it can proposed that inferentially, and therefore ultimately, the death penalty is a just action. We will begin with the first premise and work through from there. "The death penalty is a policy which results in the death of the guilty". This seems simple enough at first glance, however, there are some imbalances in this statement and raises a few questions such as, "When should the death penalty portion of law be utilized?" or "How do we determine if a guilty individual is deserving of death?" The premise is loaded with unsolved definitions that must be refined further. We will refer to a specific stance on the death penalty in order to base our idea, called "retributivism". This is the view that "offenders deserved to be punished, or "paid back", for their crimes and to be punished in proportion to the …show more content…
Socrates' sentence, according to lex talionis, does not match the crime he committed. Another, more recent case of miscarriages in justice was the trial of Italian immigrants Sacco and Vanzetti. They were treated unfairly and with a good influence of racial bias, and were wrongly sentenced to death in the early 1900s for a murder they did not take part in. It is important, therefore, to realize that some small margin for human error does exist in the law system when it comes to capital punishment and the condemnation of those presumed to be guilty of crime. The second premise is ultimately the hardest premise to define for my argumentation for the ethical soundness of the death penalty. Everything in the syllogistic argument that I have provided hinges on one key word within the premise: "just". The second premise, referring back to the justness of any policy that applies the death penalty, implies that there is an overarching moral compass that each crime is held against. In this case, the theme of justice is that which each crime worthy of the death penalty is being held to. Inferentially moving from the first premise to the second, it can now be said that the only crime that, under the policies of the law, is worthy to be "just" in and of itself, is the act of murder. We must now equivocate the ending of a murderer's life with that of justness and how the two can relate to
The death penalty has been one of the most controversial debates in the United States. Some believe that an eye for an eye is an effective mean of punishment while others believe that such mean of punishment is not effective in modern society. Edward Koch believes the death penalty affirms the sanctity of life. In the article by Edward Koch, published in The New Republic, “Death and Justice: How Capital Punishment Affirms Life,’ he utilizes the rhetorical devices of ethos, pathos and logos to justify his position for the death penalty towards the people opposing the death penalty.
Capital Punishment Punishment is the imposition of a penalty as retribution for a crime, and the retribution deserves those who do the crime. The main idea of this chapter is whether the killer deserves to die or not, and we ought to kill them or not. Stephen Nathanson argues against the punishment that leads to execution. He said that the actual and moral beliefs based on the death penalty are wrong and must be repealed. Many people said that the death penalty is the best way to deter murder and thus save lives.
Many innocent lives are taken due to the death penalty which are often the direct result of bias and discrimination. Needless to say, the death penalty is a poor and definitive response that cannot be undone. Combating this matter requires government intervention, and entails prohibiting the death
Oshinsky did a remarkable job explaining the history of the death penalty in a clear and concise way. While the text was fairly short, he effectively provided his readers with well documented and relevant information on how controversial the death penalty has been throughout the past few centuries. He undertook an exceptionally important issue that many Americans do not know much about, or may have conflicting feelings
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT Capital punishment is typically considered as a human way to approach to kill the most wickedness criminals and to discourage others from carrying out intolerable crimes. However, the unrestrained expenses of capital punishment cases have states thinking about whether it's justified regardless of the price tag. The lethal established ailment in the discipline of death is that it treats 'individuals from mankind as nonhumans, as articles to be toyed with and disposed of. It is along these lines conflicting with the essential reason of the Clause that even the most awful criminal remains a person had of normal human respect.
Currently, the death sentence is only applied to those who commit murder, however, in the past, it has also been used for rape and armed robbery. Arguing in favor it can seem justifiable to take the life of a person who unjustifiably took the life of someone else. And with murder being the only way to be sentenced to the death penalty it seems fitting. Along with that, it provides deterrence from committing murder for possibly many people. The deterrence that execution provides is a debated topic nested into another controversial topic.
Some see the death penalty as the only means to extract justice for victims. Others see it as a morally reprehensible act where a second wrong is committed in order to make something right. With recent issues surrounding the death penalty in which execution hasn 't gone as planned sparking a nationwide debate, this is my outlook on why I 'm for the death penalty not only being abolished in the state of Texas but in addition to the entirety of the US..
This is definitely the best definition of justice that has ever existed or ever will exist. Listed above are some reasons found that America should oppose the death penalty alongside of personal views on summarizing what the information means, this should be an eye opener for many. First, to speak
There have been many controversies on the topic of capital punishment and its role within society. It is not likely that there will ever be a unified view on this topic. One of the first reasons why the death penalty should never be imposed is because of the possibility of killing an innocent person. True enough the DNA technology has decreased this probability but due to administrative bias innocent people can still be killed. There is no retribution for a dead man who was wrongly put to death.
Have you ever wonder a few decades ago how people lives were punished for being a part of a crime? Many of these individuals are rather influenced by the crimes or were affected by their devastated childhood. As you can see a writer name Truman Capote have demonstrated us how an investigation has reflected us on law, discipline, and the important factors of using capital punishment. Capital punishment is defined as the death penalty, in which you penalized people who has done wrong in the world or violated an act/law. If has been used today and in ancient times for various accusation or offenses.
Dom Crafa Mrs. Spellman-Frey Criminal Justice 13 April 2016 The Death Penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, has been part of society since the Fourteenth Century. Capital punishment is defined as “The use of the death penalty to punish wrongdoers for certain crimes.” (Gaines 289) There have been many debates that have arisen whether or not it should be enforceable under the United States Law.
Support for capital punishment requires valuing retribution over rehabilitation. Those who favor capital punishment value highly the closure it provides to the families of the victims, and they believe that it deters would be murderers from killing. Retribution, closure and deterrence are the main reasons in favor of the death penalty. Opponents of capital punishment generally believe that it is hypocritical and immoral for the state
Death Penalty is a very ominous punishment to discuss. It is probably the most controversial and feared form of punishment in the United States. Many are unaware, but 31 of the 52 states have the Death penalty passes as an acceptable punishment. In the following essay, I will agree and support Stephen Nathanson's statement that "Equality retributivism cannot justify the death penalty. " In the reading, "An Eye for an Eye?", Nathanson gives objections to why equality retributivism is morally acceptable for the death penalty to be legal.
The controversial question regarding the Death Penalty in the United States is still a topic that calls for attention. The death penalty area is indistinct due to the fact that it involves death, which is an irreversible permanent act. Nevertheless, crime is a ubiquitous problem in the U.S., and finding a solution to reduce and deter the homicide rate is the main objective. However, when it comes to the death penalty, there are two sides to the standpoint. Those who believe it is justice; an eye for an eye, and those who believe that it is inhumane and a form of cruel and unusual punishment.
Different philosophers have related to the subject of the death penalty have interpreted the great thinkers and schools of philosophy differently. Some philosophers might like Kant to be in favor of capital punishment and others might argue against. . It is clear that this criminal regarding the gravity of the act must give his life to pay for what he has done. Michael Woodmansee who killed a 5 years old boy is going to get out of jail after 28 years and not 40 as planned. The boy’s father John Foreman as already express his feeling to kill this man (New-York Times, 2011).