Pros and Cons of Capital Punishment essays

Pros and Cons of Capital Punishment essays Capital punishment is a subject you can always count on for a lively discussion with plenty of opinions and lots of questions. "Capital Punishment is a term which indicates muddled thinking. The dilemma of kill or be killed, which confronts civilized society daily and inexorably, is bedeviled by the jumble of panic, superstition, and angry resentment we call punishment, expiation, propitiatory blood sacrifice, justice, and many other imposing names. The dilemma is a hard fact which must be faced and organized." (1) In today's world, terrible crimes are being committed daily. Many believe that these criminals deserve one fate: death. Capital punishment, the death penalty, is the maximum penalty used in punishing people who kill another human being - and is a very controversial method of punishment. Criminals guilty of murder receive a verdict of capital punishment. Murder is the unlawful killing of another human being with an intentional or criminal intent. First-degree murder is usually premeditated or by deliberate design. In most states, a person convicted of first-degree murder can be sentenced to the death penalty. Debate over the merits of capital punishment continues on a daily basis. Proponents of capital punishment defend it mainly on two grounds: death is a fitting punishment for murder, and executions maximize public safety through incapacitation and deterrence. Capital punishment is meant to be a deterrent to crime, specifically murder. Gordon Tullock, of Virginia Polytechnic Institute, states: "Eighty percent of the people who seriously think about crime think of punishment as a deterrent - except for the sociologists, and they wrote all the textbooks." (2) According to statistics, for each execution there are 50 murders averted. This was documented in the U.S. between the years 1967 - 1984. (3) Murders began to rise during the years that capital punishment was not allowed w...