Methods and Process of Capital Punishment - Essay Example

DEATH PENALTY Death penalty represents one of the most controversial issues in the contemporary society. From what began as a system of ivity, unfair trials, and torturous methods, capital punishment has evolved dramatically throughout American history. As society has evolved, so have the methods and process of capital punishment. Public hangings, stoning, decapitation, or burning at the stake were all acceptable methods of capital punishment that were historically used. Today if an inmate’s life is going to be taken as a result of punishment for a crime he or she committed, many believe it should be done as humanely as possible and that all measures to prove guilt have been accomplished. Simultaneously, opponents of death penalty believe that this policy cannot be justified by any means. From the critical perspective, due to the number of moral, legal and scientific reasons, capital punishment should be abolished and in the necessary cases replaced with lifetime imprisonment. Capital punishment is not new to society or the judicial system by any means. It has existed in many forms and has a very long history, possibly dating back as far as the establishment of early society. The Code cf Hammaurabi (king of Babylon in the 18th Century B.C.) was the first known set of laws regarding the death penalty, and was imposable for 25 different crimes (DPIC, 2010; Eisenberg, 14). Many religious books detail the use of methods such as stoning, crucifixion, and immolation as forms of capital punishment. Various societies also had preferred methods, such as beheading and the use of the guillotine by the French. As colonists settled in America, among the items they brought from England was capital punishment. According to Randa, the first death penalty was carried out in Virginia against Captain George Kendall in 1608 for the crime of espionage for Spain. Nearly all of the colonies had the death penalty (Randa, 39). However, just as in other countries, capital punishment has not been met with complete acceptance and support in the United States. Opposition to the death penalty in the United States has waxed and waned over the years. Movements to abolish it began in the late 1700’s by such people as Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, and William Bradford (Randa, 41). By the mid 1800’s, some states had partial or complete bans on the death penalty. Scrutiny of capital punishment intensified in the 1960’s with the Supreme Court’s involvement in several cases where the administration of the death sentence had been seen as unconstitutional (Eisenberg, 77). In 1972, the Supreme Court’s ruling in Furman v. Georgia invalidated the frameworks that states were using in capital cases, ruling it unconstitutional and vacating all sentences of death at that point in time. The Supreme Court stated that the death penalty could be considered cruel and unusual punishment for the following reasons: if it was issued in an arbitrary manner; if a sentence of death did not fit the crime; if it offended society; or if a less severe punishment could be equally effective (DPIC, 2010). In this decision, the Supreme Court was merely saying that the death penalty statutes in place at that time were unconstitutional, not capital punishment itself. This holding set the stage for changes in capital sentencing and the death penalty’s eventual reinstatement once states had rectified the issues. The moral viewpoint on capital punishment does not provide support for this policy. The idea that taking someone’s life is fundamentally wrong received a considerable support of the public (Gallup, 2006). For instance, 46% of Americans would rather see a person convicted of murder receive some type of life sentence rather than a death sentence (Gallup, 2010). Coinciding with this belief, numerous states narrowed their statutes for imposing capital punishment, and several suspended or banned it completely. The US Supreme Court referred to this change as “evolving standards [of decency]” (Atkins v. Virginia, 2002), taken to mean that as our society has matured, its understanding of crime and punishment has also grown. Subsequently, this growth has led to ever shifting views of punishment and retribution that are acceptable or otherwise inoffensive. From the legal perspective, capital punishment remains to be unjustified. If capital punishment does not fulfill its intent (deterrence and retribution), or if it compromises some other legal issue, such as the Eighth Amendment, then it is unjust. And society often uses “justness” as criteria for moral acceptability. In a 2007 article, Acker stated that while people continue to be put to death, the penalty’s two main goals are going unfulfilled (Acker, 641). He called attention to the fact that there is inconclusive evidence for the deterrent impact of the death penalty (Acker, 642). One reason being the fact that many murders are impulsive, irrational acts committed by people who have poor judgment. So, it is highly unlikely that a person who is impulsive, has poor judgment, and is confronted with an emotionally explosive situation will stop and ponder the possibility of receiving the death penalty. In terms of the second goal, retribution, Acker stated that few family and friends of victims are able to gain any sense of satisfaction and closure from the execution of the offenders, as only 2% of capital inmates actually progress to execution (Acker, 645). Therefore, life in prison without parole should replace the death penalty. Finally, death penalty should be eliminated as a form of criminal punishment, because scientific advances, particularly criminological advances, usually question capital sentences’ validity. For instance, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, the use of DNA testing has assisted in overturning the wrongful convictions of 206 inmates (DPIC, 2010). Of this group, 53 were capital inmates. Between 2000 and 2006 alone, 35 death row inmates were exonerated and freed. In one such case, that of Michael Lee McCormick, he spent twenty years incarcerated, sixteen of which were on death row, for a murder that he did not commit. DNA testing of hair left in the victims car proved not to match that of McCormick, and examples such as this are not isolated incidents (DPIC, 2010). Another famous example of wrongful conviction was the case of Darryl Hunt. In 1984, Hunt was arrested for the murder of Deborah Sykes, a local news reporter (Duke Law, 2004). At the time of the arrest Hunt was 19 years old. He was convicted on the testimony of a witness who placed Hunt at the scene of the murder, despite there being no physical evidence against him. The victim had been sexually assaulted at the time of the murder and bodily fluid had been collected as evidence and saved. When DNA testing became available and was able to be performed in 1994, Hunt was cleared of the sexual assault charges -it was not his DNA. Similarly to DNA criminological advancements, the field of neurology has offered insight into criminal’s abnormal behavior. Recent research has used MRIs, EEGs, and other neuroimaging procedures in the understanding of how a damaged brain (such as from child abuse) or the brain of a mentally ill person functions differently from that of a normal person. Some link structural brain abnormalities to specific mental illnesses and criminal behavior (Pincus, 95). Therefore, from scientific perspective, the capital punishment remains also unjustified. It is evident that capital punishment constitutes a complex and ambiguous issue shaped by public, political and moral debates. Numerous ethical, legal and scientific arguments eventually have helped to foster moral and logical dissatisfaction with death penalty. In many ways, morally reponsible public views the death penalty as a punishment that not only does not work, but also as possibly committing murder itself if it takes the life of an innocent person. Furthermore, the exposure of numerous defects in the capital process has worn away considerable public support for it. From this perspective, being an obsolete punishing policy, death penalty should be eliminated and replaced with more effective and moral policies like lifetime imprisonment. WORKS CITED Acker, J.R. “Impose an immediate moratorium on executions.” Criminology & Public Policy, 641-650, 2007. Atkins v. Virginia 536 U.S. 304, 2002. Available at Accessed Nov 18, 2010 Death Penalty Information Center. Facts about the death penalty. 2010. Available at Accessed Nov 18, 2010 Eisenberg, J.R. Law, psychology, & death penalty litigation. Sarasota, Florida: Professional Resources Press, 2004. Gallup Poll News Service, Inc. Poll of Public Opinion on the Death Penalty. 2010. Available from Accessed Nov 18, 2010 Duke University School of Law. Wrongfully imprisoned, Darryl Hunt tells ILs to “Do what’s just”" 2004. Available at Accessed Nov 18, 2010. Pincus, J.H. Base instincts: What makes killers kill? New York: Norton and Company, 2001. Randa, L. Societies Final Solution: A History and Discussion of the Death Penalty. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1997. Read More