Death penalty should not exist as a punishment for murder or terrorism - Essay Example

Research Proposal: Death penalty should not exist as a punishment for murder or terrorism Introduction Countrieslike the United States have retained the death penalty punishment for murder and terrorism convicts in the country. Though the categories of murder may differ, cold blood murder or homicides suspects are faced with death penalty in the United States. Though the death penalty continues to become unpopular in different parts of the world including Europe and even the United States itself, some countries have retained it. The united states, for example, continue to send murder convicts to the gallows through various ways as captured in the country’s penal code (Barner 2014). Human rights activists across the globe have continually argued that the death penalty is illegal and against the universal bill of rights and should be abandoned. Such discussions have created different opinions towards this emotive topic as opponents and proponents argue against and for the death penalty. Though some states in the United States have shown intentions of abandoning the death penalty, others have stick to the tradition, arguing that murder convicts have no right to life. To fully understand and develop a common position on this topic, there is need for a deep research on the topic (Fletcher 2014). This research proposal highlight the approaches that would be adopted in the process of determining whether the death penalty should exist or otherwise as a punishment for murder and terrorism. By studying this topic, the common feeling among people across the globe will be acquired and this can form the basis for decision making by legislatures and policy makers in the different parts of the globe. Research question Should the death penalty exist as a punishment for murder or terrorism? This paper will seek to interrogate the merits and demerits of the death penalty to determine whether it should continue to exist as a punishment for murder and terrorism. To interrogate this question, various research publications and opinions on the topic will be interrogated and reviewed. Views and opinion of study subjects will also be collected to have primary information on the attitude of people towards the topic of death penalty. This paper will therefore develop data collection processes in order to collect the right information from the study subjects on their views towards the death penalty in their countries. Literature review Various research studies have been conducted to interrogate the need to retain or eliminate death penalty as a punishment for murder and terrorism. Support and opposition for the retention of death penalty as the only punishment for extreme crimes of murder and terrorism is widespread among various religious, legal and social scholars. In Gudorf (2013), the Christian perceptions and views towards capital punishment for murder and terrorism offenders are interrogated. Though opposition to capital punishment in the United States has been attributed to the Christian denomination, much of the reasoning has been termed realistic and pragmatic (Yu 2009). Different states and countries have the constitutional mandate to protect the right of citizens and their properties and this can sometimes be achieved by taking away the life of the offenders. Similar to how Christians endorse the just war theory, most of them argue that capital punishment may be the only available option to demonstrate that criminals have no position in modern day society (Fletcher 2014). A Christian school of thought in the United States has advanced the notion that the state is morally right to take the life of others during war or after a high degree criminal act. However, this group has continued to use two reasons to argue for the abolition of the death penalty in the country. First, this group argues that death penalty is not the last alternative as life imprisonment without the possibility of parole is tantamount to keeping a criminal away from the society. Secondly, this group according to Gurdoff (2013) argues that the process of administering the death penalty on suspects is capricious which makes it unjust and ungodly irrespective of the criminal act committed. Gurdoff (2013) also argues that death row inmates are entitled to special housing and expensive legal appeals, which are catered for by the state. Such expenses can be saved and used to improve the country’s prison system by sentencing murderers and terrorists to life imprisonment without parole. Zang (2009) interrogates of prospects of abolishing or strengthening the death penalty in china for corruption, murder and terrorism suspects. This article provides a review of the different countries that have successfully replaced the death penalty with life sentencing without parole. Today, various legal scholars in the globe commonly accept a statistical conclusion that more than half of the world countries have abolished death penalty. Today, 127 countries have successfully replaced the death penalty, representing 65% of the world population which is an indication that the mood is shifting towards a change to non-capital punishment (Sun 2009). According to amnesty international statistics, countries that have abolished the death penalty can be categorized into three based on the crimes and the alternative punishment adopted. Some countries have abolished the death penalty for all crimes whole others have simply stopped the execution of ordinary criminals yet others have simply abolished the death penalty in practice yet the law allows for sentencing to death (Fritsch 2012). Zang argues that despite the hype created by the topic, the abolition of death penalty is not in any way a global, current or trending topic. The abolition hype can only be attributed to the pressure that the abolitionists have continued to pile on governments through blogging, social media activism and street protests (Behrmann & Yorke 2013). In Sarver (2014), the argument for the abolition or strengthening of the death penalty is an untested legal argument that needs thorough research and interrogation before adopting. This article cites a number of cases where evidence has been acquired post execution to exonerate the suspect of the crimes for which they face the hangman. Death is a reversible process that has no room for errors, assumptions or inaccuracies and should only be used in the event that the committed crime is a sure eventuality. In a number of cases across the world, death row inmates have proved their innocence before or even after death, demonstrating that the death penalty is a rushed process that affect justice (Sun 2009). Sarver (2014) argues that life imprisonment without parole can provide room for the defence team to interrogate the evidence presented to the jury and file for an appeal. This will prevent post execution situations that have been witnessed in different parts of the globe due to the death penalty in such states. Sarver presents evidence to demonstrate that death penalty cannot work will in an environment where evidence is rushed and the jury is given less time to deliberate the facts of the case before giving a guilty verdict (Behrmann & Yorke, 2013). Methodology In order to interrogate this research question, qualitative research method will be employed which will enable the collection of data using questionnaires and interviews. Qualitative research method is a common approach used in social and political sciences to interrogate various issues with the intention of developing a common position. With qualitative research methods, understanding human behaviours become possible as the approaches available for this methodology allows for direct interaction with the study subjects. The issue of death penalty affects all citizens in a country and it is common to find a majority of citizens with varied opinions towards the issue. In this research, there is need to interact with the study participants and collect their opinions, views and beliefs about the topic. This can be achieved through organizing for actual interviews, the use of questionnaires and even through the social media where most of the target study subjects can be reached. As a result, qualitative research method will be the best approach for this topic, as it will provide direct and primary information about the views of the citizens towards the issue of death penalty. To acquire the information need for this research, various approaches and tools will be used a process that will be easy due to the availability of various informational technology platforms. First, questionnaires will be designed to help in collecting the views of the study subjects towards the topic of death penalty as the punishment for murder and terrorism. The questionnaires will be sent to the study subjects through physical mail in situations where the target audience lives in remote and less connected environments. The target market living within the urban centres with reliable internet connection will also receive the questionnaires through their emails. Apart from questionnaires, actual interviews will also be conducted among the study participants who live closer to study neighbourhood. The interviews will follow a well-structured layout similar to the questionnaires sent to other participants in order to eliminate bias and other errors. Apart from interviews, some study participants will be reached through social media platform such as Facebook and LinkedIn where electronic questionnaires will be sent to them (Stichter 2014). In addition, a page will be created to enable users to drop their views on whether capital punishment should be abolished or retained. The identity of all the participants will be concealed to ensure the sanctity of the results and ensure that other participants do not influence those who are yet to participate. The other approaches that will also be used to broaden the volume of study participants are phone calls and direct emails to the target participants. Data analysis The information collected through the method discussed will be analysed using a number of approaches in order to develop a conclusion on the subject. Based on the methodology design, most of the information collected will exist in questionnaire forms, which makes it easier to analyses. The information collected will be fed into the SPSS software and classified based on sex, level of education, place of origin, religion and marital status. Regression and correlation analysis will be conducted for the data set collected using the software in order to reject the null hypothesis or otherwise. Analysis will be conducted based on the demographic category of the participants in order to ease the process of determining the category that supports or oppose capital punishment. As a result, participants in the different sexes, employment states, age bracket or even religion will be evaluated to demonstrate how religion affects acceptability of capital punishment. Conclusion Capital punishment has remained a controversial topic in the 21st century with campaigns undergoing to ensure that countries abandon the death penalty. Currently, 65% of the globe has replaced the death penalty with others such as life imprisonment with parole. However, other countries such as the United States and china have continued to subject capital offenders and corrupt citizens to the death penalty as a way of sanitizing the society. In this research, I will interrogate whether the death penalty should be abolished or strengthen within different countries across the globe. Result from this study will form the basis of decision making by different legal and human rights organizations across the world including china and the United States. References Sarver, V. 2014, Abolishing the Death Penalty: An Untested Legal Argument, American Journal of Criminal Justice, 39, 4, pp. 808-817. Sun, W. 2009, Abolishing the death penalty: the logical necessity of the irrationality of the death penalty, Social Sciences in China, 30, 2, pp. 166-177. Zhang, G. 2009, Multiple Paradoxes on "Abolishing the Death Penalty for Corrupt Officials", Chinese Sociology & Anthropology, 41, 4, pp. 45-47. Fritsch, M. 2012, Derrida on the Death Penalty, Southern Journal of Philosophy, 50, pp. 56-73. Gudorf, C.E. 2013, Christianity and Opposition to the Death Penalty: Late Modern Shifts, Dialog: A Journal of Theology, 52, 2, pp. 99-109. Stichter, M. 2014, The Structure of Death Penalty Arguments, Res Publica (13564765), 20, 2, pp. 129-143. Yu, Z. 2009, Abolition or retention: rethinking the death penalty in China, Social Sciences in China, 30, 2, pp. 178-190. Barner, J.R. 2014, Life or death decision making: Qualitative analysis of death penalty jurors, Qualitative Social Work, 13, 6, p. 842. Fletcher, W. 2014, Our Broken Death Penalty, New York University Law Review, 89, 3, p. 805. Behrmann, C. & Yorke, J. 2013, The European Union and the Abolition of the Death Penalty, Pace International Law Review Online Companion, 4, 1, pp. 1-78 Read More