Against The Death Penalty

On any given day, someone might read in the newspaper or hear about a person committing a crime. Say that person committed murder. They then receive the death penalty. Is this justice? What if they raped someone and recieved the death penalty? Does the punishment fit the crime? Capital punishment is quite controversial. Many argue against it saying this form of punishment is unconstitutional. However, those convicted are given a reasonable punishment and opportunities to have their cases reassessed if need be. The death penalty provides criminals with a reasonable punishment, given their case, without exceeding constitutional provisions. Capital punishment provides reasonable punishment given the crime. According to state laws, the death

Specifically, it is argued that this punishment violates the Eighth amendment under cruel and unusual punishment. Over time concerns arose about how some states handled the death penalty, however a number of states addressed this and The Supreme Court approved their revisions (“Introduction to Death Penalty” 1). In approving revised laws and procedures, The Supreme Court Stated, “the death penalty itself was constitutional under the Eighth Amendment” (“Introduction to Death Penalty” 1). Many crimes are not punishable by the death penalty simply because the victim may not have died. In order for one to receive the death penalty, the victim must have died. “the death penalty may not be given for the crime of rape when the victim does not die, reasoning that to do so would constitute a disproportionate punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment” (“Introduction to Death Penalty” 2). This ensures that those on death row have been punished fittingly based on the crime committed. It would be wrong to put one to death if their crime was not extreme enough to where they cost someone else their life. However, there are exceptions to this. Some crimes such as piracy, hijacking and treason are given the death penalty under the law (Evans, “Death Penalty Laws” 1). These crimes must still be to a large enough extent to where the death penalty

However, this type of punishment just allows criminals to kill again. According to studies done in recent years, if each killer was to receive the death penalty it would save between 3 and 18 lives per convict (Evans, “Capital Punishment” 1). Life without parole is just providing more and more opportunities for murder. Along with this, life imprisonment has an effect on the prisoners.”Once entering the penitentiary the individual feels in a greater or smaller measure, depending on the age, on his psychological structure, social maturity and level of culture, the effect of liberty deprivation and react in a personal manner to this situation”( Rus 2). A “range of psychical and psycho-social turmoil”, which may start off silent and grow into aggression ( Rus 2). According to a study done on prisoners from the Poarta Alba Maximum Security Prison, “Offenders manifest an accentuated egotism, vanity, lack of adjusting, intellectual immaturity meaning that they have a [reduced] capacity to establish a rational relation between losses and gains in designing and conducting a criminal act” (Rus 8).Given that prisoners may eventually become aggressive, this leads to more issues and more potential victims. The point of punishment is justice as well as preserving the safety of the majority. Life without parole may seem like justice however, this may be the cause of continual offenses. The death