Essays - More Capital Punishment and Less Taxes :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Essays - more than Capital Punishment and Less Taxes         More than 13,000 people open been legally put to death since colonialtimes, most of them in the early 20th Century. By the 1930s, as many as 150people were executed each year. However, exoteric floor and legalchallenges caused the practice to come to a halt.  By 1967, capitalpunishment had virtually halted in the United States, pending the outcomeof several court challenges.  Since our nations founding, the government,colonial, federal official and state, has punished murder and, until recent years,rape with the ultimate sanction death. I think that the nation shouldstill actively use this form of punishment when necessary.         More than 2,000 people are on death row today. Virtually all arepoor, a significant number are mentally retarded or otherwise mentallydisabled, more than 40 percent are African American, and a inappropriatenumber are Na tive American, Latino and Asian.         Does the Death punishment deter crime, especially murder? No, there isno credible evidence that the death penalty deters crime. States that havedeath penalty laws do not have lower crime rates or murder rates thanstates without such laws. And states that have abolished capital punishment,or instituted it, show no significant changes in any crime or murderrates.         Dont murderers deserve to die?  Certainly, in general, thepunishment should fit the crime. But in civilized society, we reject theeye for an eye doctrine of literally doing to criminals what they do totheir victims The penalty for rape cannot be rape, or for arson, theburning down of the arsonists house. We should, therefore, punish themurderer with death along with all other atrocious crimes.         If execution is unacceptable, what is the alternative?Incapacitation. Convic ted murderers can be sentenced to lengthy prisonterms, including support, as they are in countries and states that haveabolished the death penalty. Most state laws allow life sentences formurder that severely limit or eliminate the e possibility of parole. Atleast ten states have life sentences without the possibility of parole for20, 25, 30 or 40 years, and at least 18 states have life sentences with nopossibility of parole.         A recent U. S. Justice Department study of public attitudes aboutcrime and punishment found that a majority of Americans supportalternatives to capital punishment When people were presented the factsabout several crimes for which death was a assertable punishment, a majoritychose lengthy prison sentences as alternatives to the death penalty.         Maybe it used to happen that innocent people were mistakenlyexecuted, but hasnt that possibility been eliminated?