Sociology

In recent years, many studies have been carried out and articles produced on issues that revolve around capital punishment. The people who tend to favor this form of punishment argue that it serves as a strong deterrence against crime. However, many hypotheses have been suggested by authors of modern welfare economics, saying that the question of deterrence in capital punishment is largely irrelevant. The conclusion that comes out shows that capital punishment is not a valid and justifiable form of punishment in a modern society.

The society is increasingly becoming more worried of crime and anxious that violent crime is not being deterred effectively by the current criminal justice system. Peoples quest for tougher sentences can go against the constitution and collide with it prohibition against some unusual and inhuman punishment. Matters to do with unusual and cruel forms of punishment have been debated in relation to capital punishment. Over the years, the American Supreme Court has made several conclusions on what does or doesnt concern cruel punishment, and the current form of the sentence has been shaped by earlier ideas and contributions (Honeyman, Ogloff, 37). Of equal and significant importance is the question of whether the prohibitive and tougher form of punishment achieves its goals and reduces the rate of crime.

People believe that it does, and this acts as the basis for public cries and quest for tougher punishment. Others, like John Whitehead, the head of Rutherford Institute, voiced his opposition against the expansion of death penalty in the Huffington Post. He agued that studies on capital punishment have concluded that when a person is sentenced to death, facts that lead to this punishment have very little correlation with the crime that was committed, but with a high correlation with a persons race, his place of residence and the person who prosecutes the case. Prosecutors tend to seek the death penalty when the victim comes from a white race and less likely, if the victim is an African American (Zimring, 13). Close to eighty percent of defendants accused of killing white people have been executed despite the fact that African Americans account for more than half of the murder victims.

In addition, Whitehead came up with many reasons that opposed the expansion of death penalty, like the possibility of killing an innocent person, the initialization of a prosecutorial overreach, the high cost, and the lack of deterring power of the death penalty. He cited data from Death Penalty Information Center which shows that States without the death punishment had 40 lower rate of murder than in States with the death penalty. On March 4, Judge Kevin Fine from Houston District granted a pretrial motion on a case that involved capitol punishment and announced that the death penalty was unconstitutional in the city of Texas. He stated that the rights of the defendant were violated by the laws of the State due to the risk of prosecuting an innocent person.

From 1976 up to 2001, an average of 718 people have been executed in America, which is a small proportion compared to the executions that have been undertaken throughout the world. Among the five forms of executions that are used lethal gas, electrocution, hanging, lethal injection, and firing squad, major differences have come out concerning the level of complications, the amount of time the condemned spends in the death chamber, as well as the time spent from the beginning of the execution till a person is pronounced dead. Studies have shown that human execution is a complicated procedure to perform since its associated with many physical complications (Haines, 41).

Capital punishment has been in existence in America despite of controversies that it generates and its effectiveness in deterring heinous crimes. The Eighth Amendment of the American constitution forbids the government from using unusual and cruel punishments. This phase is ambiguous and raises the question on whether the death punishment is constitutional. While people may argue that the cruel and unusual phrase stands for acts like severing of limbs, other people say that it applies on the period and the degree of punishment. Both interpretations were disallowed by the Supreme Court thus legalizing the death penalty. In contrast, administration of capital punishment is not applicable constitutionally under every circumstance, against every group of defendants, or for all forms of crimes (Petra, 26).

The American Supreme Court took into consideration what would have been constitutionally permissible in 1791 during the ratification of the Eighth Amendment, may now be cruel and unusual. This involves particular cases where enforcing the death penalty may affect the evolving standards of decency test. In this case, the court considers the opinions of state legislatures, judges, sentencing juries, American public, scholars and the international community to verify if the application of a death punishment is cruel and unusual. An example is a case concerning Penry v. Lynaugh (1986), where the court examined the different issues that were attached to case, and concluded that executing a defendant who is mentally retarded lacked a clear conscience.

 Another factor that supports the abolition of capital punishment is the cost. In 1989, Ted Bundy from the state of Florida was executed after pleading guilty to the murder of 28 people in four States. He spent nine years on death row and cost the tax payers close to 5 million before being executed. In a country where 70 of the population supports death penalty, some may argue that Bundy deserved what he got. Did the Americans receive the worth of their money Retaining a death penalty does not make an economic sense if a single sentence carries with it millions of dollars (Haney, 63). At a quick glance, the entire cost of execution in Florida was less than 1,000.

Although the actual execution is quick and efficient, the State Supreme Court must review every death sentence at over 70,000. If the case proceeds to the federal appeal process, the cost may exceed 275,000 for each appeal. The state foots the bill of both the defendant and the prosecutor, a process that can be delayed for years. According to reports by Indiana Criminal Law Study Commission (2002), the state spends 38 percent more by executing a person than by incarcerating him for life. Similar studies at Duke University (1993) concluded that the North Carolina spent over 1 billion on executions, or an average of 2.16 million for each execution between 1976 and 1992 (Vila, Morris, 28).

Abolitionists argue that the current system can only be changed by abandoning the practice. An alternative sentence, which is life in prison without parole, serves the same purpose as capital punishment, they argue. Similar to the death sentence, life in prison removes a person from the society permanently, and is less costly. In conclusion, other mitigating factors that call for abolition of the death penalty include when a persons kills under the influence of drugs, killing without intention, the age of a juvenile and many others.