Capital Punishment

Argumentative Essay # 99286

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Capital Punishment

A review of the arguments against the use of capital punishment in the United States.

1,562 words () | 6 sources | MLA | 2007 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper reviews the arguments commonly raised against capital punishment in the United States. Specifically, it looks at the fact that capital punishment disproportionately impacts minorities and also damages U.S. credibility within the wider international community. It also looks at the statistics for the benefits of capital punishment and the arguments against their validity. The paper concludes that capital punishment is a legal anachronism that might be giving the state extraordinary power over its citizens without actually making America's streets safer.

Table of Contents:
Abstract
The Case against Capital Punishment

From the Paper:

"In the end, there are compelling reasons for abolishing the death penalty. Chiefly, the practice disproportionately impacts minorities and it damages the U.S. reputation abroad. At the same time, the death penalty is an authoritarian practice that permits the state to play "God" with its citizens - or someone else's citizens - and this is not a practice that anyone concerned with individual rights can accept lightly. Similarly, the application of the death penalty runs counter to the Christian ethos upon which America was founded and the statistics unveiled by a number of scholars claiming to prove that the death penalty is an effective deterrent are uncertain and have been strenuously challenged. In the final analysis, there are simply too many questions swirling around the use of the death penalty for Americans to tolerate its use indefinitely."

Sample of Sources Used:

Hashem Dezhbakhsh, H. and Shepherd, J.M. (2006). The deterrent effect of capital punishment: evidence from a "judicial" experiment. Economic Inquiry, 44(3): 512-535. Retrieved August 20, 2006, from InfoTrac OneFile database.
"Capital Punishment Around the World." (2004). In Mei Ling Rein (ed), Capital Punishment: Cruel and Unusual? Detroit: Gale Group. Retrieved August 20, 2006, from Thompson Gale databases.
Radelet, M.L., and Akers, R.L. (1996). Deterrence and the death penalty: the views of the experts. Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, 87: 1-16.
Radelet, M.L., and Borg, M.J. (2000). The changing nature of death penalty debates. Annual Review of Sociology, 26: 43-61.
Smith, Clive Stafford. (2005, August 20). Forget the statistics, killing is wrong. New Scientist, 187(2513): 20-21.