Capital Punishment Essay, Research Paper

My cousin who has just moved down here from Montgomery, Georgia, was worried sick upon hearing the news that a man was shot down, approximately four blocks away from our house. Later, his reactions to this news became the joke of our house. It was then I realized that every day we are bombarded with such news of crimes and violence which has immuned us from such fearful reactions. For some one, who hasn’t lived in an urban area for long, doesn’t realize that crimes are a part of one’s every day life. These crimes range from little petty thefts to grand theft and from physical violence to homicide.

According to a recent report by Dade Sheriff’s Office, teenagers contribute eighty-seven percent of all petty crimes. Petty crimes include shoplifting without the use of a weapon, vandalism of a private property, trespassing in a private property, domestic violence. Thus, the punishments for such crimes vary from six months probation, up to six years of imprisonment depending upon the severity of the crime. Unfortunately, negligence of parents or guardians is often blamed for such irrational teen behaviors.

Next in line are the crimes that involve the usage of weapons, theft of a valuable or costly property, sexual battery, arson, and fraud. These crimes are of severe nature in a sense that they cause excessive financial damage and often put the victim’s lives at stake. The resulting punishments start from minimum of six years and up to twenty-five years of imprisonment. Quite often arson, and sexual battery are considered as an attempt to murder, which is a capital crime. Offenders of such crimes are often locked up for fifteen to twenty-five years or life.

Homicide is one of the worse types of crime. Approximately sixty-five percent of convicted murderers are sentenced to capital punishment. Capital punishment includes death by an electric chair, or by injection of poisonous fluids or incarceration for life. In every religion and culture, murders are considered the extremes of human brutality, thus the consequence is potentially death of the convict.

As a spectator of news it’s not an odd thing to hear about such sinful and criminal commitments, but these undermine acts and atrocities go far beyond being a common thing for the poor victims. They are like locusts that completely devour one mentally and physically, leaving them paralyzed for the rest of their lives and their loved ones.