Реферат на тему Justice Essay Research Paper Justice can not
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Justice Essay, Research Paper
Justice can not be served until the debate on capital punishment is
resolved and all states have come to agree that the death penalty is the
best way to stop crime completely.
“The bottom line is, one method of execution is just as brutal and
as barbaric as the next,” says Mr. Breedlove of the National Coalition to
Abolish the Death Penalty. This comes straight from the mouth of a member
of a national organization against capital punishment. The American
Heritage? Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition defines
execution as The act or an instance of putting to death or being put to
death as a lawful penalty. So if Breedlove?s words hold true, then what
he believes is that someone going out and killing someone is barbaric. In
a sense isn?t that what he?s saying, that one way of killing someone is
just as bad as any other. So if he finds this so barbaric, why doesn?t he
do something about it?
Many people who are against capital punishment are only thinking
of the criminal and how cruel it is for them. But, shouldn?t we think of
the families that are broken apart now because of the merciless acts of
these criminals. Think of Susan Smith, how she knowingly drove her car
off into a lake with her two children strapped to the seats. Think of how
they must have felt as the cold water started to fill the cabin of the
car, and then ultimately drown them. Barbaric is exactly the word I would
use to describe her actions. But yet, the jury rejected the death penalty
and chose a life sentence instead. Mr. Smith, the father of the two
children, broken up from the ruling said “Me and my family are
disappointed that the death penalty was not the verdict, but it wasn?t our
choice. They returned a verdict they thought was justice” (Bragg, pg.
1+).
But was it justice that she was not put to death for killing her
two children. How could someone possibly let her off the hook of such a
crime. They said it would be just as bad for her to be in that cell alone
because of her depression, but does it justify her cutting short the lives
of the two children who had no idea of their oncoming death.
“All grandeur, all power, all subordination to authority rests on the
executioner: he is the horror and the bond of human association. Remove
this incomprehensible agent from the world and at that very moment order
gives way to chaos, thrones topple and society disappears.” Says Joseph de
Maistre, a eighteenth century French diplomat. He is right, if we give up
our punishing a deadly criminal, then we throw our society into chaos and
let the criminals freely do as they please. I would know I was safe if
anyone that tried to fatally harm me would be put to death. But in this
society when someone can kill someone, get sentenced to life, get paroled
and then freed to go about and do the same crime again frankly scares me.
Another thing that scares me is the fact that this country has softened up
on criminals. It?s hard to think that now a days everyone has a right,
even though when you go against the law and are put in prison, you are
suppose to be stripped of your rights. Not so anymore. Justice in the
nineties has slacked up a bit.
“In the late 1950?s, on any given day there were about two hundred
prisoners awaiting execution,” says Hugo Bedau of Tufts University,
Massachusetts. “Hardly any remained on Death Row for more than a year.”
Today [November 1995], there are 15 times that number, and many have been
there for over a decade. Opponents of the death penalty say this
statistic is a moral outrage. Supporters see it as undermining a key
advantage of the death penalty over life imprisonment: it saves tax-payers
the huge cost of keeping murderers locked up (Matthews, pg.?s 38-42).
Most of those against capital punishment argue that the forms of
execution are gruesome. While some might be seen that way at first,
others offer the advantages that both parties can agree on. In 1994 there
were two hundred fifty seven executions in the United States. There were
five methods of doing so, as follows.
Lethal Injection: 133
Electrocution: 112
Gas Chamber: 9
Hanging: 2
Firing Squad: 1
Electric Chair
First used in New York in 1890 and still in use in 13 states, “old
sparky” was the horrific outcome of Thomas Edison?s attempt to show the
dangers of the AC power supply being promoted by his rivals. The
condemned is strapped to a wooden chair, electrodes are attached, and a
shock of thirty thousand watts is applied. The prisoner is literally
cooked internally, and death my require multiple shocks.
Gas Chamber
First used in Nevada in 1921, the gas chamber is an airtight room
with a chair into which the accused is strapped. Death is caused by
exposure to cyanide gas, produced when sodium cyanide is dropped into
sulfuric acid. The suffering caused is deliberate and plain to see:
writhing, vomiting, shaking and gasping for breath for many seconds. This
horrendous technique is used only in a few US states.
Lethal Injection
Introduced in the US in 1977 and now in use in 23 states, this is
the most widespread method and arguably the most humane. The condemned is
strapped to a table and injected with sodium thiopentone, losing
consciousness in 10 to 15 seconds. This is followed by pancuronium
bromide, which blocks respiration, and finally potassium chloride to stop
the heart (Matthews, pg.?s 38-43).
While electrocution is obviously not the most painless way to
execute someone, it does offer a deterrent for future crime. I know that
I personally would not murder anyone if I knew that I would be executed
with the electric chair. Such a deterrent keeps most people safe as they
go about in their lives.
But does it do any good? Does executing someone for such crimes
actually prevent future occurrences? Some would say no, others would say
yes, but me I have the notion that in some cases yes, but in others no. I
say this because, unlike in the nineteenth century, we do not make our
executions as public as they did. We do not take the criminal and hang
them in the streets where everyone can see them. Or we are not like over
in Europe where they would execute the criminal in broad daylight and with
the entire town around. It was a fanfare ritual back then. Now it is
just an unseen deed done at prisons. We should bring it back into the
open so that everyone can see the consequences of your crimes.
When they execute someone with the electric chair they usually
wait until close to midnight because then they know that not too many
people will be using electricity as the chair needs thirty thousand watts,
or the equivalent of four hundred seventy-five watt light bulbs turning on
at the same time. And it needs more then one shock, so it drains a
massive amount of electricity from the power company.
What if they were to go back to the old days. Then the deterrent
factor would most definitely rise because of the publicly displayed
execute of the criminals. It would send out the signal that anyone who
can commit the crime, can also pay for it. That?s the main reason for the
death penalty anyway, to tell every criminal and future criminal that
you?ll have to pay for your crimes that you commit.
As Robert Matthews a journalism for Focus an English magazine once
wrote, “Some people argue that the absence of capital punishment in this
country [England] is the mark of a civilized society. I believe we are
rapidly becoming uncivilized. Some of the things that happen on our
streets and in people?s homes certainly do not constitute civilized
behavior.” (Matthews, pg.?s 38-42)
That exact same quote can be used to describe our nation as well.
Some will argue that the capital punishment is such a harsh and
uncivilized way of treating criminals, but look at how they act. They do
not care about the lives of those they have destroyed. They are the ones
that make this nation uncivilized. They are the ones that are the most
uncivilized individuals in this entire country. If anything, the death
penalty is not enough. It can never bring back the loved ones to the
families that have lost them. It can never bring back the innocent lives
that have been taken in cold blood.
Capital punishment must be the standard by which each and every
state must abide by. If we can not join together and defeat crime, it
will most certainly take us over. We can no longer sit and let our lives
be terrorized. No longer can we sit back and watch criminals be released
and then kill again. No longer must we Americans or anyone live our lives
in fear. We must come together and draw the line on crime. We must make
the world safe so that we and our children may once again live in a world
without the fear of being senselessly killed or losing our loved ones.
For a cold blooded killer, capital punishment is the only true justice.
Bibliography
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