Capital Punishment: Cruel and Unusual?

In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court seemingly outlawed the death penalty in Furman v. Georgia. In 1976, the Court reversed itself in Gregg v. Georgia, on the grounds that legislative responses to Furman had indicated a strong public support for death sentences in murder cases. This was evidenced by the fact that after Furman, 28 states had written new capital statutes, and by 1976, that number had grown to 35, with more than 460 persons sentenced to death. Actual executions did not begin until 1977 (Wicker ix). The Court was simply recognizing a reality: people want capital punishment.

In the 1990s, close to eighty percent of people in the United States favor capital punishment, in the absence of alternatives (such as life in prison without parole). They view it not as violence but as a form of justice (Kaminer 30). Often these same people are against the death penalty as a concept--but when faced with the reality of a particularly brutal murder, many will state that the death penalty is justified.

For example, during the jury selection of a man about to be tried for a brutal murder, a woman of upright character was asked what she

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kins 161). Carlson also argued that without the death penalty there is no meaningful deterrent and there is no safety because there is no deterrence. While opponents may argue that these criminals have already demonstrated that the death penalty is no deterrent to commit murder, they would have to agree that prison officials have to have some way of ensuring the safety of their staff and the other inmates. Instituting capital punishment for committing murder within a prison would ensure that the culprit would not kill again. Opponents of the death penalty often forget that the victim's family--notably the mother, wants the murderer to be sentenced to death. As Justice Stewart said in Furman, the instinct for retribution is part of the nature of man, and channeling that instinct in the administration of criminal justice serves an important purpose in promoting the stability of a society governed by law. When people begin to believe that organized society is unwilling or unable to impose upon criminal offenders the punishment that they deserve, then there are sown the seeds of anarchy--of vigilante justice and lynch law (Zimring and Hawkins 161). Opponents of the death penalty encounter their stiffest objections when they t
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Approximate Word count = 2273
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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