Is the death penalty an effective deterrent

The Death penalty is defined as the punishment of execution, administered to someone legally convicted of a capital crime.A capital crime is a crime that is punishable by death. Capital crimes are mostly associated with first-degree Murder. There’s no doubt that that the death penalty is a punishment but can also be seen as a deterrent. If Its seen as a deterrent then why are crimes that warrant the penalty still being committed. Deterrents are meant to discourage someone from doing something and if that’s not the case with the death penalty then maybe other methods of punishment need to be explored.

The death penalty has always been a relevant topic throughout U.S history. In the nineteenth century abolitionist movements were spreading throughout the states in the northeast and as a result, states reduced the number of capital crimes and built more penitentiaries. Another result was that Pennsylvania moved executions from the public eye and did it in private at correctional institutions.

Is the death penalty a good punishment to those who commit capital crimes? Yes, your punishing someone by depriving them of life; but what about the people that come after them, when does it end? There has to be an end goal rather than just continuously executing criminals who will never learn their lesson without an effective punishment. Many people believe that Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole is a good alternative. Dirk Van Zyl Smit, a professor at Nottingham University and member of the International Academic Network for the Abolition of Capital Punishment says “With an irreducible life sentence, just like the death penalty, you will die in prison.” If that’s the case then isn’t a life sentence just a long-term form of the death penalty.

The death penalty does have other drawbacks. Like if a person is wrongly sentenced to death and were found innocent after the fact.An estimated 120 out of 3000 inmates on death row are wrongfully convicted. In 2004 Cameron Todd Willingham was sentenced to death for the death of his three daughters despite the fact that there was substantial evidence to prove his innocence. After his death, several investigations were opened to come to a final conclusion as to whether he was guilty or innocent and he was found innocent years after his death.

As of 2017, there are 105 countries that have abolished the death penalty and hundreds of groups dedicated to abolishing it completely. The death penalty is as old as civilization and people are still debating whether it’s the proper action to take against criminals. Even if it is or isn’t, is it effective in influencing people not to commit capital crimes in the future?




Comments

  1. TomRApril 21, 2018 at 9:00 AM

    The death penalty has been a heated debate for some time. The subject, while there are many positives and negatives that can be brought forth in discussion, seems to come up and fade away. An alternative that was addressed in this post was life without parole. Some would argue that it is more humane, but others worry about the cost of keeping someone in prison for perhaps decades. The question brought forth is what value do people place on someone who doesn't value the lives of others.

    The thesis statement for this post was a little confusing. The question in the beginning was the same question at the end with no opinion or real conclusion. There are sources that show that the death penalty is losing ground with political groups and there is an increase of focus on alternatives. deathpenaltyinfo.org/category/categories/resources/testimony-resolutions-statements-speeches.

    The example of the man who was convicted, sentenced to death and afterward was found innocent certainly is a platform for life sentencing rather than death, but how often is this the case? According to time.com/79572/more-innocent-people-on-death-row-than-estimated-study/ to, it is on the rise in the United States. There is a lot of information and statistics to back an opinion either way and would contribute to a more in-depth blog.

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  2. Julie Quinn TACApril 22, 2018 at 8:39 AM

    First, can you list a source in paragraph two so that readers like me can connect to supplemental data here? I think you make a good point about the risks of the death penalty taking innocent lives (and consider the fact that, before being put to death, those on death row who are innocent often lived in solitary conditions for years. That is another form of torture, isn't it?).
    Can you share some data from those countries that abolished the death penalty and compare them to statistics from the United States? Are they any safer? How much do their prisons cost them per prisoner (that would help make it an apples-apples argument).

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  3. UnknownApril 23, 2018 at 9:32 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. UnknownApril 25, 2018 at 7:14 PM

    For starters, you to clarify which are the crimes that are considered as capital crimes. A person who kills someone in self-defense should be judged in the same way as someone who planned the assassination? A sentence for a capital crime can vary if the criminal is a woman? In addition to that, you mentioned that Pennsylvania now makes the executions in private, the other states do it too? And what are the states that have still legalized the death penalty? The methods to execute a prisoner is the same in all states or varies depending on the brutality of their crime? It would also be interesting to find out how much it costs the state to keep a prisoner in life imprisonment vs. one who has been sentenced to death (in addition to how many years are those that must pass before a person is executed) Finally in case where the sentence was wrong and the state executed an innocent, how is that error redeemed?

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