Did you know that as early as 1608 there was a death penalty in America? Yes, before the U.S. was created there was a death penalty here. It is one of, if not the most controversial and long lasting topics in America. Before there were prisons, most criminals or thieves were put to death for something as small as stealing grapes or killing chickens. In 1846 Michigan became the first state to abolish the death penalty for anything except treason. Later, Rhode Island and Wisconsin abolished the death penalty for all crimes. Until 1963 there were crimes that if you committed them you would have to be sentenced to death, By changing that it gave more power to the courts to decide on the death penalty. Then in 1972 the supreme court decided by a vote of 5 to 4 that the death penalty was in violation of the 8th amendment. When 3 different justices on the supreme court had disagreements the judgment went back to the states to decide. Florida was the first to bring back the death penalty and 34 followed. It has remained very similar since then but the public has steadily started to turn away from the death penalty.
In an unbiased point of view of the death penalty, it is very hard to decide if it is good or bad for society. On one side it gets rid of criminals who are terrible people and makes sure they can’t ever get back into civilization. But on the other hand it is pretty much murder, and even if someone did a terrible thing they can still get forgiveness from God if they are sincere and there is also a chance that they were wrongly convicted. A recent research study showed that 1/20 prisoners were wrongfully convicted, this means that if there are 100 people that are sentenced to death and it is carried out that there is a chance that 5 of them were innocent.
In my opinion, I don’t think that the death penalty is justifiable unless there are 2 conditions. First, if there is cold hard evidence of it being rape, murder, or any kind of sex trafficing. I believe that if you do those crimes you should not be able to live anymore. Next, I think that if you show remorse for murder that you should get the chance of prison but with life without parole. The reason I left out rape and sex trafficing is that if you are willing to torture and eventually most likely plan to kill them you should not be able to live even if you are in prison for the rest of your life. I'm not saying that the death penalty is good nor bad but I think that you need to have an open mind and that there isn’t just an easy yes or no answer. Just like many political views such as abortion there isn’t an easy yes or no, there are always circumstances that can change the way you would think so I believe that if the death penalty is active that it should be circumstantial and looked at unbiasedly and fairly.
What are your thoughts on the death penalty?
Do you think that the death penalty is good or bad for the United States?
Does the death penalty violate the 8th ammendment, and if it does why?
Replies
Great job overall Cole! You did a good job explaining the history. Be sure to comment on three different days.
In my opinion, death penalty should only be used in extreme cases but I still am not convinced that it is the better option. Killing someone does not mean you have to get killed and going to prison for life could be even worse than getting the death penalty so maybe that is a better solution.
I feel like the death penalty should be used in times when the crime the committed was worse thsn serving life in prison. I feel like it is good for the united states as long as its used for its purpose not because of a small crime. Therefore I believe that the death penalty should be legal in certain state of which they know the prisoner is guilty.
I don't think there should be a death penalty. Even though someone killed someone else it doesn't meen that they have to be killed. There are so many other punishments that they can go through. I can see vilolation in the 8th ammendment in some ways but not in all of them since everyone's circumstances are different then others.
I Think that the death pentailty should be used for certain crimes that people have commented. I think its good for the united states to make people not comment the crimes that resault in it. No becasue if someone perposly takes the life of someone then they lost all of there rights to live be killing someone else.
I think that the death penalty can be both good and bad. I believe this because there are certain crimes that people commit that absolutely deserve the death penalty. Such as murder, sexual assault, and kidnapping. However too often people are wrongfully convicted of these things, therefor I think that in order for the death penalty to be used there has to be 100% certainty that the person commited the crime(s).
I would agree with your thoughts on the death penalty, that is not an easy yes or no answer. I believe some crimes are enough to deserve the death penalty, while I also see what you are agruing about remorse and forgiveness. I think that the death penalty is good for the United States as recently there has been more and more horrible crimes happening, and people are starting to take commiting crimes less serious. In some ways I see the death penalty as a violation to the 8th ammendment, like how it was used during the 1800's, but I also believe if it was used correctly it could be beneficial.
I belive that the death penelty is good for the united states mainly because if they have already done it once there is a higher probabilty of them to do it agian. And I feel life sentence is almost worse then death penealty
I don't think that living in prison is worse than dying, but I can't confirm this theory because I haven't died or gone to prison yet so I can't speak on the mind of the prisoners.
I think that the death penalty should only be used in extreme cases, like human trafficking, murder, and rape. I think that one problem that would come from using the death penalty is that we would have to agree on when to use it and if the case was bad enough for the death penalty.
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