The purpose of this research is to examine the issue of capital punishment. The plan of the research will be to set forth principal arguments on the issue made by Ernest van den Haag and Hugo Bedau, and then to discuss the basis for concluding why van den HaagÆs approach leaves one more satisfied than BedauÆs.
In the modern period, the death penalty is a highly charged issue. Consider that not until the mid-nineteenth century had Great Britain abandoned the death penalty for petty crimes against property and confined it to crimes against persons. In the U.S. by the 1960s, capital-punishment was mainly levied for crimes against persons or the state. Meanwhile, the most controversial aspect of American capital punishment is a volatile combination of racism and interracial crime. Nonwhites are more likely to receive death-penalty sentences and are sentenced out of proportion to their population. In particular, nonwhites convicted of raping whites have historically been executed. The record of unfair application appears to have been largely responsible for the U.S. Supreme CourtÆs decision in 1972 to declare the death penalty unconstitutional as cruel and unusual punishment, adding that ônew federal or state statutes could be formulated so that the death penalty would not be imposed 'wantonly and freakishly.'" Since 1972, some states and the federal government have reinstated capital punishment for a variety of crimes involving murder, treason, drug trafficking, or robbery. In 1987, the Court rejected the argument that disproportionate numbers of nonwhites are executed.
Bedau concludes that the death penalty cannot be justified. He acknowledges that, despite many studies showing racist application of the penalty in American history, ôit is always possible to argue that such discrimination is diminishing, or will diminish over time.ö But his larger point is that the real rationale for capital punishment--deterrent to future c...