The Effectiveness of the Death Penalty - Research Paper Example

CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………………………. 33 INEFFECTIVENESS OF DEATH PENALTY 1. INTRODUCTION Capital punishment, whose legal synonym is the death penalty has been defined as the “legal authorized killing of a person in punishment for a crime” and as “the lawful infliction of death as punishment for a crime.” It is the highest form of punishment for crime in legal jurisdictions all over the world. More than 3000 inmates in America are on death row today (Watts, 2010); Stevenson (2001) quoted exactly 3700.

In the United States, the support for capital punishment has been used by politicians as a way of showing their stands with regard to crime fighting. Unfortunately, most of these politicians are either ignorant of ineffectiveness of the death penalty in fighting crime or are simply using it as a means of climbing the political ladder. Mandery (2011, p. 100) stated that “some of the most blatant attempts at political manipulation of the death penalty have occurred on the level of state politics”.

Conservative supporters of the death penalty do not want to imagine that capital punishment is not achieving what it was intended to achieve, neither do they want to look at the practical benefits of getting rid of the death penalty. This paper will explore the said facets of ineffectiveness of death penalty. At the moment, the United States has more people in death row than there ever have been in the history of the country. More states than ever before are legalizing the death penalty even when it has been described as a luxury that counties cannot afford.

As highlighted by Dieter (1995) it costs a lot more money to fund the trial and execution of a. The paper tells that in the history of humanity, the death penalty has been the preserve of people suspected of heinous crimes. This is not absolute, as there have been times when suspects were killed for the simplest of offenses. The death penalty existed as far back as 14BC, when the methods of execution included crucifixion, burning, boiling, beheading, public hanging and stoning. With time, fewer offenses warranted the death penalty.

The United States has been influenced a lot by its former colonial power with regard to capital punishment. As stated by Latzer & McCord “the death penalty was transported from England to the American colonies during the 17th and 18th centuries”. During the colonial times, capital crimes were many although not many executions were done compared to the current times. The reforms that led to the review of capital punishment in many states started with the abolitionist movement. This led to many states reducing their capital crimes and abolishing the death penalty except for treason and murder.

Some states did not follow suit and have still held on to the death penalty to date. In the first decades of the 20th century, there was a lot of debate regarding the death penalty, which led to some states abolishing it completely and some reinstating it in the face of World War I. Methods of execution had increased too, with the introduction of the electric chair and cyanide gas. The second half of the 20th century saw a huge drop in the number of executions thanks to the lack of support for this kind of punishment.