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Capital Punishment
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This brings me to thesis two. The most compelling arguments against capital punishment can be made on the basis of its actual administration in our society. I will list five of the usual points. 1.The possibility of error. Sometimes a person might be put to death who is innocent. 2. Unfair administration. Capital punishment is inflicted disproportionately on the poor and minorities. 3. Weakness of the argument from deterrence. The claim that the threat of capital punishment reduces violent crime is inconclusive, certainly not proven, extremely difficult to disprove, and morally suspect if any case. 4. The length of stay on death row. If there were ever any validity to the deterrence argument, it is negated by the endless appeals, delays, technicalities, and retrials that keep persons condemned to death waiting for execution for years on end. One of the strongest arguments right now against capital punishment is that we are too incompetent to carry it out. That incompetence becomes another injustice. 5. Mitigating circumstances. Persons who commit vicious crimes have often suffered from neglect, emotional trauma, violence, cruelty, abandonment, lack of love, and a host of destructive social conditions. These extenuating circumstances may have damaged their humanity to the point that it is unfair to hold them fully accountable for their wrongdoing. Corporate responsibility somehow has to be factored in to some degree. No greater challenge to social wisdom exists than this. The conclusion of the matter is that the present practice of capital punishment is a moral disgrace. The irony is that the very societies that have the least right to inflict it are precisely the ones most likely to do so. The compounding irony is that the economic malfunctions and cultural diseases in those same societies contribute to the violence that makes it necessary to unleash even more repression and brutality against its unruly citizens to preserve order and stave off chaos. To the degree that society provides opportunities for all citizens to achieve a good life in a sensible culture, it is reasonable to believe that the demand for capital punishment will be reduced or eliminated. The fact that our prisons are so full is the most eloquent testimony imaginable of our dismal failure to create a good society. Massive incarceration indicates the bankruptcy of social wisdom and social will. It points to the shallowness of our dedication to solving the basic problems of poverty, moral decay, meaninglessness, and social discord. Meanwhile, our leaders divert our attention with the alluring fantasy that capital punishment will make our citizens more secure against violent crime. THE CHURCH AND CHRISTIAN WITNESS What, then, is the role of the church? It is two-fold. (1) Ideally and ultimately, followers of Jesus are the salt of the earth, light of the world, leaven in the secular loaf. As such, Christians go into the world with the aim of moving, lifting, and luring society in the direction of ethical love. The vocation of Christians is to hold up ethical love as "a transcendent gauge exhibiting the moral defects of society and thus spread the infection of an uneasy spirit" (A. N. Whitehead). In particular, Christians should work to overcome the larger injustices, social disarray, and cultural illness that create an atmosphere conducive to violence. This work will involve both political action and cultural transformation. (2) Pragmatically and immediately, Christians will translate ethical love into mandates of secular justice and work for the best approximation of the norm that is possible under given circumstances. Hence, Christian witness may be but is not necessarily directed against capital punishment on moral grounds in principle. The choice is a matter of practical discernment and social wisdom in a particular situation.Christians should insist that if capital punishment is to be practiced, it must be administered in a just way. On this count, present-day society fails miserably. My prediction is that a society that becomes sensitive enough to make sure that the death penalty is administered in a just way will then do away with it altogether in favor of more humane practices such as life imprisonment with no possibility of parole. In short, for the moment the Christian witness to society is this: first demonstrate that capital punishment can be administered in a just and efficient manner. Then we will debate with you as to whether capital punishment is in principle necessary, fitting, and right or whether a humane society will find non-lethal alternatives to protect citizens from persistently violent criminals. Until then the church should say "no" to this extreme measure. Each year there are about 250 people added to death row and 35 executed.The death penalty is the harshest form of punishment enforced in the United Sates today. Once a jury has convicted a criminal offense they go to the second part of the trial, the punishment phase. If the jury recommends the death penalty and the judge agrees then the criminal will face some form of execution, lethal injection is the most common form used today. There was a period from 1972 to 1976 that capital punishment was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Their reason for this decision was that the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment under the eighth amendment. The decision was reversed when new methods of execution were introduced. Capital punishment is a difficult issue and there are as many different opinions as there are people. In our project, both sides have been presented and argued with focus on several topics as listed below. This page was constructed to show the different opinions held by the members of our group. There is plenty of useful information within our work. We hope you find it helpful and informative. Chance for convict to "pay-back" society Abolitionists believe that the offender should be required to compensate the victim's family with the offender's own income from employment or community service. There is no doubt that someone can do more alive than dead. By working, the criminal inadvertently "pays back" society and also their victim and/or the victim's family. There is no reason for the criminal to receive any compensation for his work. Money is of no value in jail. One of the most well known examples of the criminal contributing to the betterment of society is the case of Leopold and Loeb. Leopold and Loeb were nineteen years old when they committed "The Crime of the Century." In 1924 they kidnapped and murdered a fourteen year old boy just to see what it was like. They were both spared the death penalty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Together, their accomplishments include working at hospitals, teaching illiterates to read, creating a correspondence school, making significant developments in the World War II Malaria Project and writing a grammar book. "An inestimable amount of people were directly helped by Leopold and Loeb; both of them making a conscious commitment to atone by serving others" (Horwitz 109).
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