The Immorality of Capital Punishment

Paper Summary:

In this paper, the writer addresses the moral issues surrounding capital punishment and argues that that we should not give one person the power to the end the life of another. The writer reveals that capital punishment does not act as an effective deterrent and argues that for a criminal, spending life in prison without the chance of parole is much the same, if not worse, than receiving the death penalty. The writer considers the possibility of family members trying to impose their own capital punishment on an offender, like Hamlet in Shakespeare's play "Hamlet", but the writer does not perceive capital punishment as a solution; rather the government needs to step up and tell citizens that it is not acceptable to kill another human being. The paper includes a large amount of resource material.

From the Paper:

"Capital punishment is one of most controversial issues in the American legal system because of the moral issues that surround it. At the same time, however, it alleviates some other problems that could arise because of that person being allowed to live. It is very similar to the William Shakespeare play "Hamlet", where the title character becomes so obsessed with revenge that he forgets his own moral code and it total changes him. The argument could be made that if the legal system in this play was different, then Hamlet would not have been forced to take matters into his own hands. The moral issue that arises from this is whether or not it is acceptable to take the life of another, even if that person has already killed someone."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Cauthen, Kenneth. "Capital Punishment". Toward a New Modernism. 1997. Viewed 15 June 2006. http://www.frontiernet.net/~kenc/cappun.htm
• Hoover, Andy. "1000 Executions: Will Capital Punishment End?". Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against the Death Penalty. viewed 15 June 2006. http://www.pa-abolitionists.org/thousandoped.html
• Lamperti, John. "Does Capital Punishment Deter Murder?". 2001. Viewed 15 June 2006. http://www.math.dartmouth.edu/~lamperti/capitalpunishment.html
• Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Viewed 15 June 2006. http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html

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