Capital Punishment

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the death penalty and asserts that it is an unsatisfactory approach to serious crimes. The paper discusses that the main arguments raised by death penalty opponents are the risk of executing the wrong person and the inherent wickedness of execution itself. The paper states that opponents have given greater emphasis to the first argument and believed that technological advancement would bear out and exonerate innocent convicts. Unfortunately, the focus on the first main argument is erroneous as, in fact, current technology, specifically DNA fingerprinting, debunks that argument. Only the second argument is left as ultimate proof that the death penalty is an unsatisfactory approach.

Outline :
The Excellence and Reliability of DNA Fingerprinting
Other Flaws of the Death Penalty
Public Opinion Against the Death Penalty
Reforms in the Death Penalty System Recommended
The Inherent Wickedness of Execution

From the Paper:

"The death penalty has other serious defects, which make it an unsatisfactory approach to solving these crimes. Goldberg (1989) says that its deterring effect was, at best, only in the slightest degree. This was in the form of an internalization of society's threat that some crimes can be really so horrible that the person who commits them will have to give his life back as a repayment. The death penalty intends to discourage the commission of these crimes by heightening the fear of death and by associating it with such crimes. Society induces the internalizing of this association in people. The imposition and the internalizing, however, occur only in people's minds. No evidence has shown that potential murders consciously weigh the alternatives before committing a serious crime."

Sample of Sources Used:

• American Demographics. The Death Penalty - American Attitudes. Media Central, Inc.: PRIMEDIA Company, November 1, 2001
• Easterbrook, Gregg. The Myth of Fingerprints. Florida: New Republic, July 21, 2003
• Freedman, Eric. The Case Against the Death Penalty. USA today: Society for the Advancement of Education, March 1997
• Goldberg, Steven. SoWhat If the Death Penalty Deters? National Review: National Review, Inc., June 30, 1989
• Turow, Scott. To Kill or Not to Kill. New York: The New Yorker, January 6, 2003

More papers on Capital Punishment:

• Argumentative Essay # 22661 : "Capital Punishment and the Washington Sniper"
• Argumentative Essay # 148116 : "Does Capital Punishment Deter Murder?"
• Analytical Essay # 86172 : "Capital Punishment in Texas"
• Analytical Essay # 130903 : "Religion and Capital Punishment"

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