Death Penalty II - Research Paper Example

Nevertheless, the bible upholds human life as sanctity and the same Bible instruct no one to kill. Humans have enforced the law through the constitution and in United States, since the 1787 constitution, the 5th, 8th, and 14th amendments expressly support the act, but places limits in prosecution. Capital punishment methods have changed; methods such as electrocution, lethal gas injection, and use of gas chambers are the modern methods. The death penalty is intended to help deter crime by acting as a warning message to potential criminals.

This paper finally addresses the implication of the punishment on criminals and society at large. Keywords: Death Penalty, Capital Punishment, Criminals, Cruel, Unusual, 5th/8th/ 14th Amendment, Crime, Human Life, Crime Deterrence, Torture, Constitution Death Penalty Most countries and world human rights organizations have abolished and are against the death penalty for any type of crime. However, some nations still retain it and are strongly supported by their constitutions for certain death eligible crimes.

The federal government and a high number of states in the United States allow the death penalty, even though they have acted to amend the legislature with time. The Constitution The US federal government has for the last two centuries practiced death penalty, since its adoption from England. The U S supreme court has always held it to be constitutional, apart from the challenging period between 1972 to 1976 in the case of Furman v Georgia, where Furman challenged the 8th amendment arguing that it resulted in arbitrary and capricious sentencing, which caused the penalty to be concluded as cruel and unusual in the violation of the amendment (“Constitutionality” n.d.).

Since the first US constitution of 1787, thousands of individuals have been executed to what has been upheld by the U S criminal justice system. Over time, reasons that would call for the penalty have changed and so far, the US constitution reserves the policy for murder, treason, espionage, or as part of the military justice, which is contrary to some Middle East countries that have religious sharia law embedded in their constitution, making the punishment applicable to additional sexual and apostasy crimes.

The fifth amendment of the US constitution clearly allow for life taking, without use of ambiguous phrases like in 8th and 14th amendments. It states that no individual can be punished through death penalty ‘answering for infamous crime or for a capital,’ unless the case is presented for review or condemnation of a Grand Jury; in short, the law has to be followed before attempt to be put in jeopardy of life or deny criminals of their lives, property, or liberty (“The Death,” 2007). The law however places limits in the prosecution putting it clear that the accused has to receive proper indictment, trial, and conviction by the grand jury.

The phrase mentions of answering for capital, which openly suggests serious crimes punishable by death. Since then, the congress has since adopted, revised, or rejected certain bills related to capital punishment. The 8th amendment indirectly emphasizes on death penalty, even though it clearly bans cruel and unusual punishments. Before this amendment, most states had already been practicing it and hence the use of the terms ‘cruel and unusual’