Capital Punishment - Cruel and Inhumane? :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Capital Punishment - Cruel and Inhumane?         After centuries of nearly universal implementation, the demise penalizationremains a deeply debated issue. While one execution takes place, othermurders occur, and the question still stands Will the death penalty safeguard ships company and warn murder, or will it not? The death penalty cannot be considereda proper economical and moral means of punishment to deter those who exponentcommit capital offenses, or can it?         In the past, capital punishment horrified people, which deterred themfrom committing crime. In England, the country from which the United Statesadopted the death penalty, the death penalty was impose for a rather largenumber of offenses in an effort to discourage people from committing crimes.Methods of inflicting the death penalty have ranged From stoning in biblicaltimes, crucifixion under the Romans, beheading in France, to those used in theU nited States today hanging, electrocution, gas chamber, firing squad, andlethal injection(Bedau 124). There were drastic penalties for much(prenominal) seriouscrimes as homicide. Execution was a suitable punishment for those times. Today,though, the law is not as strict. This leads potential criminals not to fear thedeath penalty because political sympathies today uses much humane methods of execution,rather than the brutal punishment that history portrayed.         People who oppose the death penalty say that there is no bear witness thatthe murder rate fluctuates according to the frequency with which the deathpenalty is used (Masur 153). It is more likely that the convict would beparoled instead of being executed because of the gift practice of in allowingunlimited appeals. Convicted criminals are not exposed to cruel punishment, butrather given a long waiting period. If the criminal is put to death, it is usually done as mercifully as possibl e.         One problem with the death penalty, presently, is that crime is notdecreasing, but rather increasing. If capital punishment is supposed to detercrimes such as murder, it is not serving its purpose. Even philosophers, such asBeccaria, Voltaire, and Bentham of the Enlightenment Period, argued that thedeath penalty was needlessly cruel, overrated as a deterent, and occasionallyimposed in fatal error (Fogelson 89).         Another problem with the death penalty is the enormous amount of moneybeing spent on implementation. It costs taxpayers millions of dollars more toexecute a criminal than to lock him up for life. The number of prisoners ondeath row has been steadily increasing and will soon meet all time highs. Thisfact brings up the question of economic feasibility of the implementation, aswell as the question of weather the death penalty is actually an utile