Dylann Roof: An Argument Against The Death Penalty

The 8th amendment says “Excessive bail shall not be required, Nor excessive fines imposed, Nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted” . With that being said if the 8th amendment applies for cruel punishments of death penalties then why is it still happening. There might be improstion to taking the 8th amendment out of the factor of basically killing someone for breaking the law. Yeah they might have broken the law but killing A person so brutally doesn’t seem fair. If the death penalty never existed then how much different would america even be? In supreme court they stated “The death penalty law isn’t violating the 8th amendment it is somewhat brought into decision “ . My only question is how does the death penalty not violate the 8th amendment?

Despite the common misconception that capital punishment leads to a safer and utopian society, research provides evidence that there is no correlation between the two. During 1972, the Supreme Court of Georgia ruled against the use of capital punishment in the Furman v Georgia case. This ruling arose after three African Americans were put on stand after being accused for different cases of murder and rape. Although death penalty was already imposed for these three cases, the court decided that death was “cruel and unusual” and consequently abolished the use of it. The US Supreme Court’s decision on the abolition of capital punishment was correct because capital punishment violates the eighth and fourteenth amendments, provides no evidence of deterioration of crime rates, and falls unequally on society.

Night by Elie Wiesel describes his experiences as a Jew in the concentration camps during World War II. During this time, Wiesel witnessed many horrific acts. Two of these were executions. Though the processes of the executions were similar, the condemned and the Jews’ reactions to the execution were different.

Whether a criminal is guilty of committing murder or any other capital offense, they should all be given the same sentence - life in prison. How is it fair to allow them to voluntarily choose the death penalty over prison? Criminals willingly sought to break the law and should endure the lifelong debt they owe not only to society but to the family of the innocent victims whose lives have been taken. As asserted by Robert Johnson, a professor of justice and law, and Sandra Smith, a professor of legal studies, death by incarceration is a more effective and suitable form of punishment than the death penalty (Cromie and Zott 174). Although some might argue that it is unfair to keep a criminal alive, they fail to understand that the freedom they once had is permanently lost. When forced to live in a contained area for the rest of your life, there is nothing you can do but ponder about what mistake led you there; if nothing can bring back the life of an innocent human being, at least the person responsible is rightfully sentenced as opposed to ending his life quickly and easily. After enduring life in prison, some inmates are miserable and opt to choose the death penalty as a last resort to end their suffering. In Joseph Parson's case, he was desperate to escape his life as a prisoner that he volunteered to endure capital punishment instead. He bluntly stated, "dying is easy... it takes guts to keep plodding on"(qtd. in Cromie and Zott 176). What a privilege to be given the opportunity to choose how your life will end after committing a capital offense; the man Parsons stabbed to death did not have that

Twenty-seven stab wounds. A gunshot to the face. Throat slashed from ear to ear. These are not examples of multiple murders, but rather the gruesome details of Travis Alexander’s death (Archer, 2013). Jodi Arias, charged with his murder, consistently lied throughout the ordeal, changing her story three different times and demonstrating a history of deceiving people on even the smallest of details (Archer, 2014). To some, Arias came across as a manipulative psycho, while to others, she was a bit more understandable as a scorned and potentially abused lover. Because of these complications, the jury relied heavily on the expert testimony of two forensic psychologists to explain the facts behind the deception (Perrotti, 2012). Forensic psychology,

“I understand what they felt in Oklahoma City’, he said. ‘I have no sympathy for them’. (Michel)” Timothy J. McVeigh is accused of the worst act of domestic terror in American history. With six years on trial, McVeigh was finally executed. Many Americans question if McVeigh should’ve been sentenced to life in prison or death. The final say was that Timothy McVeigh should get sentenced to the death penalty.

Imagine finding a ransom note one day, telling you your son was taken and you must follow the directions given to get him back. Sadly, that is exactly what happened to Jacob Franks and Flora Franks. Murder has always been a big issue in big cities like Chicago. People are shot or stabbed in the heat of the moment, but not as common is a planned murder. There are many different reasons people kill other people, greed, anger, drugs, revenge, even self-defense, but the reason Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb killed Bobby Franks was for a completely different reason; to see if they could get away with it. In Chicago during this time there hadn’t been a lot of serial killers, just random murders, other than the infamous H.H. Holmes, so when people

It’s a late Autumn afternoon and a young fourteen year old boy is told that he has to pay $24,000 bail for stealing a bag of groceries. This is an unreasonable price to pay for the crime he committed. Luckily for us, the Eighth Amendment protects US citizens from unfair situations such as this one. The Eighth Amendment’s meaning and purpose has left an enduring impact on the citizens of the United States of America.

It’s a late Autumn afternoon and a young fourteen year old boy is told that he has to pay $24,000 bail for stealing a bag of groceries. This is an unreasonable price to pay for the crime he committed. Luckily for us, the Eighth Amendment protects US citizens from unfair situations such as this one. The Eighth Amendment’s meaning and purpose has left an enduring impact on the citizens of the United States of America.

As seen in 13th, there have been several cases where innocent young American boys have suffered at the hands of the system scarring them for life. For example, the case of Kalief Browder, who was black male walking back home with his friends in the Bronx when he was stopped by the police (Averick, 2016) Kalief was 16 years old when he was charged with allegedly stealing a backpack, and spent three years at Rikers Island without a trial. As told by Kalief, the police told him they would take him down to the precinct for questioning and he will most likely be able to go home, but he never did (Averick, 2016). The system granted him bail for $10,000 perfectly knowing he couldn’t pay that amount of money (Averick, 2016). Just like Kalief, 97% of the African Americans who are currently sitting in prison never saw a trial (Averick, 2016). The criminal justice system stopped being about who guilty or innocent, but rather on the amount of money greedy white-privileged men can earn based on the number of people in a prison. Kalief Browder endured physical and emotional pain, for a crime later shown he didn’t commit. Browder was released after the charges were dropped, but two years after, he died by suicide (Averick, 2016). The life of Kalief Browder and his family will forever be scarred because of a system who sees people as dollar signs. Besides

Justice is something that people may ultimately interpret differently in terms of what exactly is to be done to obtain such thing.

The FBI collection of articles of Famous Cases & Criminals prominently portrays the mass murder mayhem of Timothy McVeigh 's efforts to topple the government, thus making headline news in many area news articles around the world. Timothy McVeigh was sentenced to death because he took many lives, performed a terrorist bombing on a government building in Oklahoma City, and received fifteen counts of murder, and as Exodus 21:24 states, “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” This is a concept on which capital punishment is based. Personally speaking, every person should have a chance to make up for their mistakes, ensuring that their soul may go through some healing.

The Boston Bombing occurred during the Boston Marathon in 2013 . Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother Tamarlan set off two bombs near the finish line of the marathon, killing three people and wounding over 260 more . Tsarnvaevs older brother had been killed during a gun battle with the police and Dzokhar had later been arrested.

Sherlock had to make an extremely difficult decision: he had to decide either to let a Jewel thief (Ryder) free, or put him in jail. Did Sherlock do the right or wrong thing? In my opinion, Sherlock positively did the right thing.

There are various definitions as to what justice truly is. However, the one pertaining to this essay is “the process or result of using laws to fairly judge and punish crimes and criminals” (Justice, n.d.). Justice is the