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Capital Punishment, 2006.
An overview of the history capital punishment in the United States.
3,303 words (approx. 13.2 pages), 8 sources, MLA, $ 94.95
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Abstract
This paper examines the evolution of capital punishment in the United States. The paper explains that the practice of capital punishment in the United States had its origins in England and that the debate over the morality of capital punishment is a long standing one. The paper further explains that attitudes regarding capital punishment shifted over time as well as the reasons it was used. The paper discusses capital punishment policy during both World Wars, the Vietnam war and in present times and briefly compares President George W. Bush's policy on capital punishment to that of Thomas Jefferson.
From the Paper
"It is tempting, on assessing the media coverage in the United States today, to think that the debate about capital punishment is one of relatively recent origin. However, the debate originated about the same time the United States became a group of recognizable colonies with common, if still somewhat amorphous, codes of morality and ethics. Arguably, it originated earlier than that, in the England from which most American settlers came; the death penalty had long been written into English law although, as Levi notes (2002, p. 131), it was rarely carried out because the structure of government was such-with its dependence on the good will (or ill will) of the nobility-that there was much latitude in its application."
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Capital Punishment, 2007.
A review of the arguments against the use of capital punishment in the United States.
1,562 words (approx. 6.2 pages), 6 sources, MLA, $ 51.95
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Abstract
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."
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Capital Punishment, 2007.
A discussion on the advantages of capital punishment.
1,235 words (approx. 4.9 pages), 5 sources, MLA, $ 42.95
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Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the topic of capital punishment. Specifically, it discuss both sides of the capital punishment debate and argues why capital punishment is an excellent deterrent to crime. It looks at how the benefits of capital punishment far outweigh the drawbacks and how statistics indicate that the American public supports the death penalty for a majority of violent crimes. Thus, capital punishment is effective, saves tax dollars, and helps contain the most violent of America's criminal population.
From the Paper
"Capital punishment has been controversial throughout America history. Also referred to as the death penalty, the practice has always been a contentious and emotional issue. In the United States, disagreement over capital punishment began as early as Colonial times after America gained independence from Great Britain. Some people began to wonder if taking a human life was really justified, even by the government (Vila and Morris xxv), and the debate has raged on ever since. In fact, since the Supreme Court reinstituted the practice in 1976, the debate about capital punishment has become even more heated."
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Capital Punishment, 2002.
This paper discusses the topic of capital punishment, focusing on the Washington D.C. Sniper case.
1,265 words (approx. 5.1 pages), 8 sources, MLA, $ 42.95
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Abstract
The paper begins by presenting some background and statistics about capital punishment in the USA. The viewpoints of both the proponents and the opponents of capital punishment are listed and problems with the use of capital punishment (such as pardoning leading to further crime, and innocent people being executed) are discussed. The paper explores public support of the death penalty and then turns to discuss the recent Washington DC sniper case and the possibility of capital punishment for the offenders. The controversiality of choice of location for the trial is looked at and the new anti-terrorism law is brought up. The paper concludes with some summation comments on capital punishment.
From the Paper
"Between 1977 and 2000, 683 inmates have been put to death under the death penalty laws of their state. 519 were by lethal injection, 149 were by electrocution, 11 were by lethal gas, 2 were by firing squad, and 3 were by hanging (Editors 347).
Capital punishment has always been a controversial and emotional issue. In the United States, controversy over capital punishment began as early as Colonial times after American gained her independence from Great Britain. Some people began to wonder if anyone really had the right to take a human life, even the government (Vila and Morris xxv), and the debate has raged on ever since."
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Capital Punishment, 2004.
This paper, arguing against capital punishment, reviews the historical, social, and economic implications of capital punishment.
1,250 words (approx. 5.0 pages), 11 sources, MLA, $ 42.95
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Abstract
This paper stresses that the United States is the only Western democracy that still applies the death penalty and, therefore, still adopts Hammurabi's law, written in 1780 B.C. The author argues that the death penalty is so expensive because it is part of a complex legal structure, and the maintenance of these institutions and its legal impositions are very costly. The paper concludes that society needs to consider that criminals should be treated as mentally-ill individuals who need therapy and psychological reform; therefore, they must be given a chance to regret their actions.
From the Paper
"Inherited from the English common law, which traces its origins back to the thirteenth century, Anglo-American jurisprudence has incorporated many of its punishment practices and judgement criteria. "In England, until 1820, more than 200 crimes were punishable by death," . The primary reason the public demands capital punishment is that people are stirred by the desire of vengeance. It is the first reaction to the moral outrage elicited particularly offensive conducts. It is the urge that there must be retribution for the life that has been taken and the suffering a criminal has inflicted to his or her victim. However, retribution is not the objective of criminal law, it is correction. Just as a felon commits an injustice taking a human life away on the streets, we also commit one by taking his or her life away in a death chamber. It makes no difference where and for what reasons, "injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere", as Martin Luther King wisely said."
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Religion and Capital Punishment, 2008.
An analysis of the close connection between religious belief and a belief in capital punishment.
1,244 words (approx. 5.0 pages), 4 sources, MLA, $ 42.95
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Abstract
The paper examines the role of religion in shaping attitudes toward capital punishment. It looks at how different religious denominations take a different attitude toward the subject so that followers take their cues from that denomination, such as the current divide seen in America between many evangelical Protestant churches that support capital punishment and the Catholic Church that does not. It also discusses how, at a deeper level, support often hinges on the degree of reliance on the Bible as an unerring source, with those supporting capital punishment finding a direct admonition for capital punishment in scripture.
From the Paper
"Robert L. Young more specifically looks at the way religious orientation and race produce certain levels of support for the death penalty. The researchers look at the 1988 General Social Survey showing that fundamentalism, evangelism, and devotionalism have significant by very different roles in shaping attitudes toward capital punishment. Young notes first that religion should have a role because religion deals at its most basic level with issues of life and death, including the question of the role of the state in taking a life. "
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Capital Punishment, 2002.
A detailed opinion paper against capital punishment, providing several classic arguments.
5,487 words (approx. 21.9 pages), 10 sources, MLA, $ 134.95
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Abstract
In this paper, the writer presents many arguments for and against capital punishment, but the main focus is on the writer's personal opinion that capital punishment is wrong. Points presented include that capital punishment is racially biased; innocent people are sometimes wrongly accused and it provides no societal benefit. Religious and moral arguments are also presented as well as fact and figures examining whether capital punishment does actually decrease violent crime.
From the Paper
"Each year there are about 250 people added to death row and 35 executed. The death penalty is the harshest form of punishment enforced in the United Sates today. Once a jury has convicted a criminal offense they go to the second part of the trial, the punishment phase. If the jury recommends the death penalty and the judge agrees then the criminal will face some form of execution, lethal injection is the most common form used today. There was a period from 1972 to 1976 that capital punishment was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Their reason for this decision was that the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment under the eighth amendment. The decision was reversed when new methods of execution were introduced."
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Capital Punishment, 2006.
This paper argues in favor of capital punishment.
1,645 words (approx. 6.6 pages), 4 sources, APA, $ 53.95
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Abstract
This paper explains that the United States is in the process of reversing an earlier move to eliminate capital punishment, as more and more states are resorting to capital punishment for serious offenses such as murder. The author points out that it is reasonable to assume that if a majority is in favor of capital punishment then, in a democratic society, its wish should be seriously considered with equal consideration given to the opposing minority views. The paper argues that the benefits of capital punishment are incapacitation of the criminal, cost, vengeance or retribution and deterrence.
From the Paper
"Restructuring of the death penalty began in Europe by the 1750s, and academicians such as the Italian jurist Cesare Beccaria, the French philosopher Voltaire, and the English law reformers Jeremy Bentham and Samuel Romilly supported this. They argued that the death penalty was needlessly cruel, overrated as a deterrent, and occasionally imposed in fatal error. Along with Quaker leaders and other social reformers, they defended life imprisonment as a more rational alternative. Countries such as Venezuela and Portugal were the first nations to abolish the death penalty altogether. Today, it is virtually abolished in all of Western Europe and most of Latin America. In America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East (except Israel) most countries still retain the death penalty for certain crimes and impose it with varying frequency "
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Does Capital Punishment Deter Crime?, 2002.
A discussion of whether capital punishment deters murder.
1,386 words (approx. 5.5 pages), 7 sources, MLA, $ 46.95
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Abstract
This paper looks at how the amount of crime increases every day and how governments are working over time to fight this disaster and reduce it. It shows how some countries adopt capital punishment as one of the best ways of deterring crime and how others that have abolished capital punishment are trying to show the negligible effect of this kind of punishment. It examines how the United States of America, the only western country that uses death penalty suffers from a huge amount of offense from other countries. It evaluates how statistics have proved that there is no real positive effect with capital punishment and what makes capital punishment ineffective are errors in judgments such as lack of justice and natural mistakes.
From the Paper
"In addition, the positive effects of death penalty on rate of crime are not proved. For many years it was thought that capital punishment is a deterrence of crime but later, when statistics became expanded, statisticians express that the idea that states with capital punishment have a lower crime rate is wrong. McManus (1998) expresses that states without the death penalty have fewer homicides than states those use death penalty. Massachusetts that has been abolished the death penalty, as an example, has the fewest crime rates in the United States of America (McManus, M., 1998). Similarly, Bonner and Fessenden (2000) illustrate that during the last twenty years, the rate of murder in states with capital punishment has been forty eight percent to more than one hundred percent higher than states with no capital punishment."
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"Billy Budd": A Critique of Capital Punishment, 2002.
A discussion of capital punishment in the military court system as seen in the novel "Billy Budd" by Herman Melville.
1,400 words (approx. 5.6 pages), 5 sources, $ 46.95
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Abstract
This paper examines the novel "Billy Budd" in order to compare and contrast capital punishment in military versus civilian court. A brief history of capital punishment, differences between court procedures and views on human rights in these two systems are explored. The justification for capital punishment in the book is discussed in light of the differences between the systems.
From the Paper
"In Herman Melville's novel Billy Budd, Captains Vere's personal judgment and his compliance to military law killed an innocent man. Billy Budd is a novel whose central events are tied closely to capital punishment (Laskin). Capital punishment has long been popular in both the civilian and military arena. However, court proceedings and the treatment of the concept of the right of man are very different in military and civilian courts. It is the military reliance on strict procedures and indifference to the rights of man that resulted in Captain Vere's decision to sentence the innocent Billy Budd to a public execution."
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Capital Punishment and the Catholic Church, 2002.
A look at the position of the Catholic Church on capital punishment in the Pontificate of John Paul II with regard to scripture, history and the future.
1,400 words (approx. 5.6 pages), 5 sources, $ 53.95
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Abstract
This paper will discuss the shift in attitudes toward capital punishment by the Catholic Church under John Paul II. It will be argued that John Paul's great contribution in this regard lay in his clarifying and unifying the Church's opposition to capital punishment into a cohesive argument on both ethical and theological grounds. The scriptural and historical foundation for Catholic defense and opposition to capital punishment in the past and present will be outlined, with some discussion of the implications for the future.
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Capital Punishment, 2004.
This paper discusses that capital punishment is a social controversy that epitomizes the axiom, "an eye for an eye".
1,330 words (approx. 5.3 pages), 5 sources, MLA, $ 44.95
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Abstract
This paper explains that society is forced to ask itself: What makes society different from the murderer, if it is so easily prepared to sentence someone to lethal injection or the chair? The author points out that both proponents for and activists against capital punishment in the form of the death penalty use the 'sanctity of life' as part of their argument. The paper concludes that, ethically, capital punishment is wrong because society is placing a huge amount of moral power within individuals' hands by implementing death sentences and executions; therefore, society must find other deterrents to serious crimes and acts of treason that do not involve capital punishment.
From the Paper
"Capital Punishment has been in effect since the 1970s, despite cases and controversy that it goes against a person's 8th Amendment rights. Nevertheless, there has been changes in Capital Punishment laws and "in 2002 the Court barred the execution of mentally retarded offenders, overturning its 1989 ruling on the matter. In the same year the Court ruled that the death penalty must be imposed through a finding of a jury and not a judge" (Columbia, 2003). In 2002, lethal injection accounted for 71 executions (CP Statistics, 2003) while 1 was carried out by electrocution. Statistics in Capital Punishment have shown though that the numbers for 2002 have decreased for a second year in a row, and all inmates on Death Row had committed murder."
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The U.S. and Capital Punishment, 2002.
This paper examines the issue of capital punishment in the U.S., outlining the arguments for and against the practice.
1,657 words (approx. 6.6 pages), 5 sources, MLA, $ 53.95
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Abstract
The paper brings to light many theories on life and death and the good of the the whole versus the good of an individual to attempt to understand the practice of capital punishment. The writer looks at sources that defend capital punishment, opposing them with statistics that claim that incarceration is no more expensive than execution. In summary, the writer finds that Americans are split on whether or not they support capital punishment.
From the Paper
"Criminal punishment is justified by one of two competing moral theories. Utilitarianism, which seeks to maximize happiness for all, justifies criminal punishment on one of three goals: general deterrence, specific deterrence, and rehabilitation. Each will theoretically reduce crime. General deterrence holds that criminals are punished because "it is believed that [their] punishment will cause other people to forgo criminal conduct in the future" (Dressler 5)."
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The Capital Punishment Debate, 2005.
This paper discusses the main reason society does not agree on the issue and, after examining the main arguments for and against capital punishment, concludes in favor of it.
1,055 words (approx. 4.2 pages), 4 sources, MLA, $ 37.95
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Abstract
This paper explains that the primary reason there is so much disagreement between the two camps on the issue of capital punishment, with neither acknowledging the validity of the others arguments, is that many of the supporters of each camp have fundamentally differing stances--morally, ethnically and religiously. The author points out that capital punishment is by no means perfect and much reform within the judicial system is necessary to make it a truly just and positive deterrent force; nonetheless, it is a better alternative to life in prison because, already, our prison systems are extremely overtaxed. The paper concludes that, while some may argue that capital punishment dehumanizes the individual, the same can be said for life imprisonment.
From the Paper
"As one study on death row inmates showed, the majority where themselves victims of "severe and sometimes bizarre abuse" (Currie 83). Further, many point to the cheapening affect capital punishment has on the value of life as well as the inhumanity of such a sentence. As far as costs are concerned, those who support life in prison, point out that the death penalty is actually the more expensive alternative when you take into account the process of appeals and the excessive length of time most convicts spend on death row. On top of this, some supporters of capital punishment tend to believe that the possibility of a death sentence may, in fact, make jurors less likely to convict an individual of murder and therefore let those guilty of such crimes go free. A far more frequently voiced concern, though, is the possibility of erroneously convicting and carrying out a death sentence on an innocent individual."
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Capital Punishment as a Deterrent, 2007.
A review of literature in favor of and in opposition to capital punishment.
1,067 words (approx. 4.3 pages), 4 sources, MLA, $ 37.95
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Abstract
This paper describes and assesses four scholarly articles which provide arguments either in favor of or in opposition to capital punishment. It briefly explains why one of the sources appears to be the best of the quartet while another seems to flag behind the others. In the end, the paper reveals just how contentious the issue of capital punishment is and how divided the academic community remains even after decades of research.
Table of Contents:
Abstract
Opposing Capital Punishment: A Look at Four Scholarly Sources
Facts In Support Of Writer's Position
Facts Opposing This Writer's Position
The Strongest And Weakest Source
From the Paper
"After carefully reviewing the available evidence, it seems clear that Donohue and Wolfers provide the strongest article of the four insofar as they exhaustively detail the methodological failures which undermine many studies determined to support the validity of capital punishment (although the aforementioned Dezhbakhsh and Shepherd study seems to scrupulously follow the sort of detailed regression analysis that Donohue and Wolfers accuse many pro-death penalty studies of lacking). On the other hand, the Marquis argument appears to be the weakest for the very simple reason that it eschews quantitative research in favor of a more strident, accusatory tone that fails to appreciate that even a few mistaken executions is too many. On the whole, however, the four articles do appear to be a solid beginning to further research and certainly reveal that the evidence does not offer unanimous support to one side or the other."
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