Capitol Punishment? Essay, Research Paper

The Bible has many stories we can share for different reasons. Rather it be Adam and Eve, Noah and the Ark, or David and Goliath, we use the stories for lessons in our lives. Capitol Punishment can also relate to one of the stories.

The Villagers gathered with their stones. The Criminal was a woman who was convicted of adultery. As the villagers raised their hands ready to throw the stone Jesus came and stepped in front of the woman. Looking at the angered villagers he said, “He who has no sin shall cast the first stone.” The villagers all dropped their stones.

This story represents my opinion on capitol punishment. No one on the earth is completely without sin and almost everyone could be punished. But being the hypocritical society we are today we still go on relentlessly persecuting those who we see as lower than us.

It’s not just Christians who protest the misuse of capitol punishment. Capital punishment goes against almost every religion. Although isolated passages of the Bible have been quoted in support of the death penalty, almost all religious groups in the United States regard executions as immoral.

Capitol punishment also is an ineffective punishment for those who commit crimes seeing the death penalty as the “easy way out.” Scientific studies have consistently failed to demonstrate that executions deter people from committing crime. The respected Thorsten Sellin studies of the United States in 1962, 1967 and 1980 concluded that the death penalty was not a deterrent.

When our founding fathers of America designed the Constitution which is the base of our government they had to make ten Bill of Rights for the satisfaction of all thirteen colonies. One of those ten Bill of Rights was the eighth one which said under any circumstances that the United States could not use any cruel or unusual crimes. Death penalty opponents, including many religious groups and individuals, and a growing number of prison wardens, maintain that capital punishment constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. Killing, whether carried out by an individual or the state, is immoral and ought not to be condoned.

Maybe the punishment wouldn’t be as bad if there was absolute surety that the person the jury was putting on death row was guilty but as most systems in the United States the Capitol punishment system to has it’s serious faults. The only difference between the other faulty US systems and the faulty capitol punishment system is that the capitol punishment system can cause an innocent person to die. Studies show that in this century, at least 400 innocent people have been convicted of capital crimes they did not commit. Of those 400, 23 were executed. The wrongful execution of an innocent person is an injustice that can never be rectified.

With the faulty capitol punishment system, comes money. Because of their ignorance to the subject many people who are pro-capitol punishment argue that it would cost less to just go ahead and finish the prisoner off than to pay for their living habits in jail for the rest of the prisoner’s life. The truth of the matter is that a new study has proven that it cost 3.1 million dollars for an execution to take place in Florida. Keeping the prisoner in prison is almost half of that much. And if they want to die any way, capitol punishment is the better punishment.

I’m not saying that a serial killer who has raped and killed seven people should be allowed to stay in a nice facilitated jail and for good behavior get parol in ten years. I think that the punishment should be at least fifty years in prison without parol. The atmosphere in prison alone is a hell of its own and I’m sure the labor that could be assigned to the murderer would be worse enough. As I have mentioned two times before, prisoners want the death penalty as a means of an “easy way out.”

Today more than 3,300 people are on death row. Executions — by hanging, electrocution, lethal injection, and even by firing squad — have become almost commonplace. Regardless of which method is used, the death penalty is a barbaric anachronism and should be abolished

We teach our children that it is not right to kill. Even the sixth commandment of the Bible says, “Thou Shall not kill.” Still we take the role in the judicial system and chose who lives and who dies. Not only are we being hypocritical to what we say our morals are, but we are also teaching our children that it is okay to kill certain people and it is by this that capitol punishment is still practiced today.