The Death Penalty

Paper Summary:

The paper examines whether capital punishment is an obligation, and as such, whether it is moral. The writer discusses whether there is a difference in the punishment for the same crime for the rich and the poor. The writer explains that what Kant did not take into account was the possibility of a plea-bargain, which is found in the modern form of justice. Plea-bargaining can save innocent lives, if new evidence comes to light. The writer states that justice is not blind, especially not color blind and that lawless ethnic and racial minorities receive harsher sentences. The writer states that Kant judged people to have reason, or at least to be reasonable as an end. The writer posits that if Kant lived in today's world, with kidnapping, mugging, car jacking and murder for profit, then perhaps he would not have looked at the death penalty in the same light. In conclusion, the writer states that even if it is not a deterrent, capital punishment is not legal murder performed by the state and that it is perhaps the only means of providing closure to all those affected by the defendant's crime.

From the Paper:

"Human suffering is a double-edged sword. Being killed by the state is suffering, of a kind, but it is something a lot of people would agree is deserved punishment. The ultimate punishment. Does this equate with the human suffering caused by murder, treason, or any of the other so-called capital crimes? If Kant thinks that the ultimate achievement of mankind if a form of moral reasoning, then the idea of morality, not merely an arbitrary decision to extract the ultimate penalty on someone who, without benefit of law or reason, ext6racted that ultimate punishment on his or her victim(s). "Are we morally right to sentence someone to death? "In the view of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, 'the American people, fully informed as to the purposes of the death penalty and its liabilities, would in my view reject it as morally unacceptable." (Schabas, p. 93) Being African American, it is obvious that his bias lies beyond the law, but toward the many minorities who are far more susceptible to being sentenced to death. "

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