An Argument Against the Death Penalty :: Death Penalty Argumentative Persuasive Papers

An eyewitness to the execution of John Evans in atomic number 13 describes this scene from the final moments of a death penalty sentence be carried bulge outThe first jolt of 1900 volts of electricity passed through Mr. Evans body. It lasted thirty seconds. Sparks and attack erupted from the electrode tied to his leg. His body slammed against the straps holding him in the electric chair and his fist clenched permanently. A large puff of grayish smoke and sparks poured out from under the hood that covered his face. An overpowering stench of burnt skeleton and clothing began pervading the witness room. Two doctors examined Mr. Evans and declared that he was not abruptly. It took triple jolts of electricity and 14 minutes before John Evans was declared dead (Radelet, Facing the Death Penalty).Throughout history, various forms of executions such as this one have taken place as a penalty for criminal offence. In 1976, the United States reinstated the death penalty after having r evoked it in 1972 on the grounds that it violated the Constitutions ban on cruel and unusual penalization (MacKinnon, Ethics 289). Since its reinstatement, the morality of such punishment has been extensively debated. I press that the death penalty cannot be morally justified on the base grounds that killing a human being as a form of punishment is wrong.A major argument supporting seat of government punishment is that it serves as a deterrent to disgusts - specifically, death penalty. However, this argument requires that the would be killer whale would take at least a moment to consider what the consequences of murder within our legal system are. This assumes that the killer is capable of such reasoning, and that the crime would be considered before it occurred. In fact, those who commit violent crimes often do so in moments of passion, rage and fear - times when irrationality reigns (Information, smashing punishment 107). Whether or not a murder or crime is premeditated, t here are statistics existing that cause us to question how substantiating an argument of deterrence can be. In 1989, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, appearing before the Senate tribunal Committee said that if we look at other Western democracies, non one of those countries has capital punishment for peacetime crimes, and yet every one of them has a murder rate less than half that of the United States (Information, Capital Punishment 110). The Information Series on capital punishment also says that states that FBI statistics from 1976-1987 order of battle that In the twelve states where executions take place, the murder rate is.