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Against Death Penalty Essays: A Comprehensive Examination of Capital Punishment's Injustices
Author: Dr. Eleanor Vance, PhD in Criminology and Sociology, Professor of Law and Society at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Vance has authored numerous publications on criminal justice reform, specializing in capital punishment and wrongful convictions.
Keyword: Against death penalty essays
Introduction:
The debate surrounding capital punishment remains one of the most contentious and emotionally charged issues in modern society. While proponents argue for its deterrent effect and retributive justice, a growing body of evidence and ethical considerations fuel the arguments presented in against death penalty essays. These essays explore the multifaceted problems inherent in the death penalty, arguing for its abolition based on moral, legal, and practical grounds. This article delves into the core arguments found within against death penalty essays, examining their significance and relevance in today's world.
I. The Irreversible Nature of State-Sanctioned Killing:
A central argument in against death penalty essays revolves around the finality of execution. Unlike life imprisonment, where errors can be rectified through appeals and exonerations, the death penalty offers no such recourse. The risk of executing an innocent person is ever-present, and even with advanced forensic techniques, the possibility of judicial error remains. Against death penalty essays highlight numerous cases of wrongful convictions that were only discovered after the condemned individual was executed, underscoring the irreversible nature of this punishment and the devastating consequences of judicial mistakes. The inherent fallibility of the justice system makes the death penalty an unacceptable risk.
II. Ineffective Deterrence and Discriminatory Application:
Claims that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to crime are consistently refuted by empirical evidence. Studies comparing murder rates in states with and without the death penalty have consistently failed to demonstrate a statistically significant deterrent effect. Furthermore, against death penalty essays often point to the discriminatory application of the death penalty, highlighting racial and socioeconomic biases in sentencing. Individuals from marginalized communities are disproportionately represented on death row, indicating systemic flaws in the justice system that extend far beyond the question of deterrence. This inherent bias undermines the principle of equal justice under the law.
III. Moral and Ethical Objections:
Many against death penalty essays focus on the fundamental ethical and moral objections to state-sanctioned killing. The argument against the death penalty often rests on the sanctity of human life and the inherent right to life, irrespective of the crime committed. Advocates for abolition argue that the state should not have the power to take a human life, regardless of the circumstances. The concept of retribution, while seemingly appealing, is often challenged on the grounds that it fails to address the root causes of crime and perpetuates a cycle of violence. Instead, against death penalty essays promote restorative justice approaches that focus on rehabilitation and reconciliation.
IV. The High Cost of Capital Punishment:
Contrary to popular belief, the death penalty is not a cost-effective form of punishment. The lengthy appeals process, specialized legal representation, and the overall administrative burden associated with capital cases significantly increase the financial strain on taxpayers. Against death penalty essays demonstrate that the cost of prosecuting a death penalty case far exceeds the cost of life imprisonment, often by a considerable margin. These financial resources could be better allocated to crime prevention programs, victim support services, and improving the overall efficiency of the justice system.
V. Human Rights Violations:
The death penalty is fundamentally incompatible with international human rights standards. Numerous international treaties and conventions, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, affirm the right to life and prohibit cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. Against death penalty essays extensively cite these international legal instruments to bolster the argument against capital punishment, highlighting its violation of fundamental human rights. The continued use of the death penalty by certain countries serves as a testament to the urgent need for global human rights reform.
Summary:
This article explores the central arguments found within against death penalty essays. These essays overwhelmingly argue against capital punishment based on its irreversible nature, lack of deterrent effect, discriminatory application, moral and ethical objections, high cost, and violation of human rights. The evidence presented in these essays challenges the justifications for the death penalty, advocating instead for a justice system that prioritizes rehabilitation, restorative justice, and the preservation of human dignity.
Publisher: Oxford University Press, renowned for its rigorous academic standards and commitment to publishing high-quality scholarly work.
Editor: Professor David Miller, PhD in Law, specializing in criminal justice and human rights. Professor Miller's extensive experience in editing academic journals and publications ensures the rigorous quality and accuracy of the published material.
Conclusion:
The arguments presented in against death penalty essays offer a powerful critique of capital punishment, exposing its flaws and injustices. The weight of evidence suggests that the death penalty is not only morally reprehensible but also practically inefficient and counterproductive. A move towards abolition is not merely a matter of legal reform but a fundamental shift towards a more humane and just society.
FAQs:
1. Isn't the death penalty a just punishment for heinous crimes? While many feel this way, the risk of executing an innocent person and the discriminatory application of the death penalty undermine the concept of just punishment.
2. Doesn't the death penalty deter crime? Empirical evidence consistently fails to support the claim that the death penalty acts as an effective deterrent.
3. What about the victims' families? Don't they deserve justice? While empathy for victims' families is crucial, the death penalty is not the only way to achieve justice and closure. Restorative justice practices often offer a more healing approach.
4. What about cases of terrorism or mass murder? Even in these extreme cases, the risk of executing an innocent person and the ethical objections against state-sanctioned killing remain.
5. Is life imprisonment without parole not a sufficient punishment? Many believe life imprisonment without parole serves as a sufficient punishment while avoiding the irreversible consequences of execution.
6. What are the alternatives to the death penalty? Alternatives include life imprisonment without parole, restorative justice programs, and focusing on rehabilitation.
7. What is the cost of maintaining a death row inmate? It's significantly higher than maintaining a life imprisonment inmate due to extended legal proceedings.
8. Are there countries that have abolished the death penalty? Yes, a growing number of countries have abolished the death penalty, demonstrating a global shift toward a more humane justice system.
9. What role do wrongful convictions play in arguments against capital punishment? Wrongful convictions highlight the irreversible and devastating consequences of the death penalty, demonstrating the fallibility of the justice system.
Related Articles:
1. "The Death Penalty: A Moral and Practical Failure": This article examines the moral arguments against capital punishment and provides statistical data on its ineffectiveness.
2. "Innocence Project: Exonerations and the Death Penalty": This piece focuses on cases of wrongful convictions and executions, highlighting the risks associated with capital punishment.
3. "Racial Bias in the Death Penalty": An analysis of the disproportionate sentencing of minority defendants to death row.
4. "The Cost of Killing: The Economic Burden of Capital Punishment": This article explores the financial implications of capital punishment compared to life imprisonment.
5. "International Human Rights and the Death Penalty": A discussion of international legal frameworks condemning the death penalty.
6. "Alternatives to the Death Penalty: Restorative Justice and Rehabilitation": This explores alternative approaches to justice that focus on healing and reconciliation.
7. "The Death Penalty and Public Opinion": An examination of evolving public attitudes towards capital punishment.
8. "The Psychological Impact of Death Row": This article explores the mental health effects on condemned prisoners and their families.
9. "Abolition of the Death Penalty: A Global Perspective": A comparative analysis of the progress made in abolishing capital punishment around the world.
| against death penalty essays: Facing the Death Penalty Michael Radelet, 2011-02-07 An in-depth examination of what life under a sentence of death is like. |
| against death penalty essays: An Essay on Crimes and Punishments Cesare Beccaria, Cesare marchese di Beccaria, Voltaire, 2006 Reprint of the fourth edition, which contains an additional text attributed to Voltaire. Originally published anonymously in 1764, Dei Delitti e Delle Pene was the first systematic study of the principles of crime and punishment. Infused with the spirit of the Enlightenment, its advocacy of crime prevention and the abolition of torture and capital punishment marked a significant advance in criminological thought, which had changed little since the Middle Ages. It had a profound influence on the development of criminal law in Europe and the United States. |
| against death penalty essays: Let the Lord Sort Them Maurice Chammah, 2021-01-26 NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A deeply reported, searingly honest portrait of the death penalty in Texas—and what it tells us about crime and punishment in America “If you’re one of those people who despair that nothing changes, and dream that something can, this is a story of how it does.”—Anand Giridharadas, The New York Times Book Review WINNER OF THE J. ANTHONY LUKAS AWARD In 1972, the United States Supreme Court made a surprising ruling: the country’s death penalty system violated the Constitution. The backlash was swift, especially in Texas, where executions were considered part of the cultural fabric, and a dark history of lynching was masked by gauzy visions of a tough-on-crime frontier. When executions resumed, Texas quickly became the nationwide leader in carrying out the punishment. Then, amid a larger wave of criminal justice reform, came the death penalty’s decline, a trend so durable that even in Texas the punishment appears again close to extinction. In Let the Lord Sort Them, Maurice Chammah charts the rise and fall of capital punishment through the eyes of those it touched. We meet Elsa Alcala, the orphaned daughter of a Mexican American family who found her calling as a prosecutor in the nation’s death penalty capital, before becoming a judge on the state’s highest court. We meet Danalynn Recer, a lawyer who became obsessively devoted to unearthing the life stories of men who committed terrible crimes, and fought for mercy in courtrooms across the state. We meet death row prisoners—many of them once-famous figures like Henry Lee Lucas, Gary Graham, and Karla Faye Tucker—along with their families and the families of their victims. And we meet the executioners, who struggle openly with what society has asked them to do. In tracing these interconnected lives against the rise of mass incarceration in Texas and the country as a whole, Chammah explores what the persistence of the death penalty tells us about forgiveness and retribution, fairness and justice, history and myth. Written with intimacy and grace, Let the Lord Sort Them is the definitive portrait of a particularly American institution. |
| against death penalty essays: The Death Penalty William Dudley, 2006 Presents a collection of critical essays that debate the issue of the death penalty, and contains writing exercises that help students learn to organize ideas and arguments, collect research, prepare outlines, and compile drafts. |
| against death penalty essays: Fighting the Death Penalty Eugene G. Wanger, 2017-04-01 Michigan is the only state in the country that has a death penalty prohibition in its constitution—Eugene G. Wanger’s compelling arguments against capital punishment is a large reason it is there. The forty pieces in this volume are writings created or used by the author, who penned the prohibition clause, during his fifty years as a death penalty abolitionist. His extraordinary background in forensics, law, and political activity as constitutional convention delegate and co-chairman of the Michigan Committee Against Capital Punishment has produced a remarkable collection. It is not only a fifty-year history of the anti–death penalty argument in America, it also is a detailed and challenging example of how the argument against capital punishment may be successfully made. |
| against death penalty essays: The Case Against the Death Penalty Hugo Adam Bedau, 1984 |
| against death penalty essays: Debating the Death Penalty Hugo Adam Bedau, Paul G. Cassell, 2005-03-24 Experts on both side of the issue speak out both for and against capital punishment and the rationale behind their individual beliefs. |
| against death penalty essays: The Death Penalty in America Hugo Adam Bedau, 1998-05-28 InThe Death Penalty in America: Current Controversies, Hugo Adam Bedau, one of our preeminent scholars on the subject,provides a comprehensive sourcebook on the death penalty, making the process of informed consideration not only possible but fascinating as well. No mere revision of the third edition of The Death Penalty in America--which the New York Times praised as the most complete, well-edited and comprehensive collection of readings on the pros and cons of the death penalty--this volume brings together an entirely new selection of 40 essays and includes updated statistical and research data, recent Supreme Court decisions, and the best current contributions to the debate over capital punishment. From the status of the death penalty worldwide to current attitudes of Americans toward convicted killers, from legal arguments challenging the constitutionality of the death penalty to moral arguments enlisting the New Testament in support of it, from controversies over the role of race and class in the judicial system to proposals to televise executions, Bedau gathers readings that explore all the most compelling aspects of this most compelling issue. |
| against death penalty essays: Punishment and the Death Penalty Robert M. Baird, Stuart E. Rosenbaum, 1995 A collection of twenty essays by legal scholars, sociologists, and philosophers discussing the punishments for crime. |
| against death penalty essays: Where Justice and Mercy Meet Vicki Schieber, Trudy D. Conway, David Matzko McCarthy, 2013-02-01 Where Justice and Mercy Meet: Catholic Opposition to the Death Penalty comprehensively explores the Catholic stance against capital punishment in new and important ways. The broad perspective of this book has been shaped in conversation with the Catholic Mobilizing Network to End the Use of the Death Penalty, as well as through the witness of family members of murder victims and the spiritual advisors of condemned inmates. The book offers the reader new insight into the debates about capital punishment; provides revealing, and sometimes surprising, information about methods of execution; and explores national and international trends and movements related to the death penalty. It also addresses how the death penalty has been intertwined with racism, the high percentage of the mentally disabled on death row, and how the death penalty disproportionately affects the poor. The foundation for the church's position on the death penalty is illuminated by discussion of the life and death of Jesus, Scripture, the Mass, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the teachings of Pope John Paul II. Written for concerned Catholics and other interested readers, the book contains contemporary stories and examples, as well as discussion questions to engage groups in exploring complex issues. |
| against death penalty essays: The Death Penalty Stuart BANNER, Stuart Banner, 2009-06-30 The death penalty arouses our passions as does few other issues. Some view taking another person's life as just and reasonable punishment while others see it as an inhumane and barbaric act. But the intensity of feeling that capital punishment provokes often obscures its long and varied history in this country. Now, for the first time, we have a comprehensive history of the death penalty in the United States. Law professor Stuart Banner tells the story of how, over four centuries, dramatic changes have taken place in the ways capital punishment has been administered and experienced. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the penalty was standard for a laundry list of crimes--from adultery to murder, from arson to stealing horses. Hangings were public events, staged before audiences numbering in the thousands, attended by women and men, young and old, black and white alike. Early on, the gruesome spectacle had explicitly religious purposes--an event replete with sermons, confessions, and last minute penitence--to promote the salvation of both the condemned and the crowd. Through the nineteenth century, the execution became desacralized, increasingly secular and private, in response to changing mores. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, ironically, as it has become a quiet, sanitary, technological procedure, the death penalty is as divisive as ever. By recreating what it was like to be the condemned, the executioner, and the spectator, Banner moves beyond the debates, to give us an unprecedented understanding of capital punishment's many meanings. As nearly four thousand inmates are now on death row, and almost one hundred are currently being executed each year, the furious debate is unlikely to diminish. The Death Penalty is invaluable in understanding the American way of the ultimate punishment. Table of Contents: Abbreviations Introduction 1. Terror, Blood, and Repentance 2. Hanging Day 3. Degrees of Death 4. The Origins of Opposition 5. Northern Reform, Southern Retention 6. Into the Jail Yard 7. Technological Cures 8. Decline 9. To the Supreme Court 10. Resurrection Epilogue Appendix: Counting Executions Notes Acknowledgments Index Reviews of this book: [Banner] deftly balances history and politics, crafting a book that will be valuable to anyone interested in knowing more about capital punishment, no matter what his or her views are on the ethical issues surrounding the topic. --David Pitt, Booklist Reviews of this book: In this well-researched and clear account...Banner charts how and why this country went from having one of the world's mildest punitive systems to one of its harshest. --Publishers Weekly Reviews of this book: Stuart Banner's book is fine and balanced and important. His lucid history of this grim subject is scrupulously accurate...It is refreshingly free of the tendentiousness and the sensationalism that this subject invites. --Richard A. Posner, New Republic Reviews of this book: [The] contrast between the past and the present can now be seen with great clarity thanks to...Stuart Banner and his comprehensive book, The Death Penalty...American historians have been slow to undertake anything like a full-scale study of the subject...Banner's book does much to fill [the gaps]. His book is an important and comprehensive...treatment of the topic. --Hugo Adam Bedau, Boston Review Reviews of this book: Despite the gruesome nature of the book's topic, it is difficult to stop reading. Banner's research is fascinating, his writing style compelling. Given the emotional nature of the subject (few people known to me are wishy-washy about whether the death penalty is moral or immoral), Banner walks the line of neutrality skillfully, without seeming evasive. --Steve Weinberg, Legal Times Reviews of this book: Stuart Banner's The Death Penalty is a tour de force, remarkable for its neutrality as it traces the ways in which the death penalty has been applied, and for what kinds of crimes, from the Colonial era to the present. Banner...writes like a historian who believes perspective is best gained by dispassionately setting out what happened and letting everyone come to his or her own conclusions. I think, in this book, that works wonderfully. On a subject in which emotions run so high, it seems awfully useful to have a dispassionate voice. After all, if Banner allowed his own feelings on the death penalty--pro, con or somewhere in the middle--to be known, the book easily could be dismissed as a diatribe. He doesn't, and it can't. --Judith Neuman Beck, San Jose Mercury News Reviews of this book: Law professor Banner...offers a persuasive examination of the evolution of capital punishment from Colonial times onward. He makes clear that the death penalty has possessed generally consistent support from the US populace, although changes in the sensibilities of juries, executioners, legal theoreticians, and judges have occurred...Highly recommended. --R. C. Cottrell, Choice Reviews of this book: Stuart Banner aptly illustrates in The Death Penalty, like the nation, the death penalty has changed with the times...Banner's account spotlights a number of interesting trends in American history...Mostly evenhanded in the tour he provides through the history of the death penalty and its role in and reflection of American society, he has managed to provide an accessible look at what is a profoundly controversial and complicated subject. --Steven Martinovich, Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel Reviews of this book: For centuries, Stuart Banner tells us, Americans had been proud to possess a criminal-justice system that made less use of the death penalty than just about any other place on the globe, including the countries of western Europe. But no longer. Now we possess one of the harshest criminal codes in the world. The Death Penalty helps explain that turnaround, but only in the course of a complicated story in which different factors emerge at different times to play often unforeseeable roles...[This is a] superbly told history. --Paul Rosenberg, Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News Reviews of this book: Stuart Banner's lucid, richly researched book brings us, for the first time, a comprehensive history of American capital punishment from colonial times to the present. He describes the practices that characterized the institution at different periods, elucidates their ritual purposes and social meanings, and identifies the forces that led to their transformation. The book's well-ordered narrative is interspersed with individual case histories, that give flesh and blood to the account. --David Garland, Times Literary Supplement Reviews of this book: [An] informative, even-handed, chillingly fascinating account of why and how the U.S. government and many state governments decided to sponsor executions of criminals--even though innocent defendants might die, too. --Jane Henderson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Reviews of this book: Stuart Banner's The Death Penalty is a splendidly objective achievement. Delightfully written, free of academic pretense, liberally sprinkled with apt references from contemporary sources, the book exhaustively explores the multifaceted evolution of America's penal practices. --Elsbeth Bothe, Baltimore Sun The Death Penalty is certain to be the definitive account of the American experience with capital punishment, from its beginnings in the seventeenth century, to the execution of Timothy McVeigh in 2001. This is a first rate piece of scholarship: well written, deeply researched, fascinating to read, and full of insights and good common sense. It is, in my view, one of the finest books to deal with this troubled and troubling subject. Historical and legal scholarship owe a debt of gratitude to Stuart Banner. --Lawrence Friedman, Stanford Law School A masterful book. This is a long overdue account which fills a huge gap in our understanding of America's long and complex relationship to state killing. With meticulous scholarship and lucid prose, Banner has written a compelling account of the place of capital punishment in our society. It sets the standard for all future scholarship on the history of the death penalty in America. --Austin Sarat, author of When the State Kills: Capital Punishment and the American Condition The Death Penalty, a study we have badly needed, is the first history of the nation's engagement--as well as its disengagement--with capital punishment from the country's earliest days to the present. With a sure grasp of the constitutional issues, Stuart Banner greatly advances a conversation at last underway about the rightness of putting people to death for having inflicted a death. Banner's greatest and most useful feat is remaining dispassionate on a subject that he cares deeply about--as do a growing number of his fellow Americans. --William S. McFeely, author of Proximity to Death The Death Penalty beautifully explains the changing paths traveled by supporters and opponents of capital punishment over the years. It explores a subject of enormous symbolic importance to Americans today, linking our views about the death penalty to our larger concerns about crime. --David Oshinsky, author of Worse Than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice Banner's book is a superbly detailed and textured social history of a subject too often treated in legal abstractions. It demonstrates how capital punishment has gnawed at the conscience and imagination of Americans, and how it has challenged their efforts to define themselves culturally, politically, and racially. --Robert Weisberg, Stanford Law School |
| against death penalty essays: Resistance, Rebellion, and Death Albert Camus, 2012-10-31 NOBEL PRIZE WINNER • Twenty-three political essays that focus on the victims of history, from the fallen maquis of the French Resistance to the casualties of the Cold War. In the speech he gave upon accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957, Albert Camus said that a writer cannot serve today those who make history; he must serve those who are subject to it. Resistance, Rebellion and Death displays Camus' rigorous moral intelligence addressing issues that range from colonial warfare in Algeria to the social cancer of capital punishment. But this stirring book is above all a reflection on the problem of freedom, and, as such, belongs in the same tradition as the works that gave Camus his reputation as the conscience of our century: The Stranger, The Rebel, and The Myth of Sisyphus. |
| against death penalty essays: The Death Penalty Louis P. Pojman, 2000-01-01 Two distinguished social and political philosophers take opposing positions in this highly engaging work. Louis P. Pojman justifies the practice of execution by appealing to the principle of retribution: we deserve to be rewarded and punished according to the virtue or viciousness of our actions. He asserts that the death penalty does deter some potential murderers and that we risk the lives of innocent people who might otherwise live if we refuse to execute those deserving that punishment. Jeffrey Reiman argues that although the death penalty is a just punishment for murder, we are not morally obliged to execute murderers. Since we lack conclusive evidence that executing murderers is an effective deterrent and because we can foster the advance of civilization by demonstrating our intolerance for cruelty in our unwillingness to kill those who kill others, Reiman concludes that it is good in principle to avoid the death penalty, and bad in practice to impose it. |
| against death penalty essays: Killing as Punishment Hugo Adam Bedau, 2004-03-11 Hugo Bedau has commanded a long and distinguished career as one of the most widely respected opponents of capital punishment. His work has addressed a variety of perspectives in the death penalty debate, from execution of the innocent to the philosophical and moral grounds for abolition. Now his essays from the last fifteen years appear together in one volume. More than simply a collection of previously published articles, Killing as Punishment represents a unified, interdisciplinary inquiry into several of the major empirical and normative issues raised by the death penalty. The essays have been revised and updated to survey the current state of the death penalty against the background of the past half-century, and are divided along two major axes: one detailing a range of facts raised by the controversy over capital punishment, the other presenting a critical evaluation of the subject from a constitutional and ethical point of view. Drawing on his encyclopedic knowledge of the field, Bedau addresses topics that include strong public support for the death penalty, wrongful convictions in capital cases, the disappearance of executive clemency, constitutional arguments surrounding t |
| against death penalty essays: Death Watch Lane Nelson, Burk Foster, 2001 The topics covered in this volume include: how capital cases are different in the legal process how death penalty offenders are selected the selective application of the death penalty to women and juveniles problems in providing competent counsel to death penalty defendants medical issues related to organ donation and physician participation in executions the execution of blacks for rape in the South how the death penalty was imposed and carried out in the past reflections on death row life by inmates under death sentence the last words of men and women before execution the dilemma of defending the innocent on death row feature articles on two Louisiana inmates, Antonio James and John A. Brown, Jr., executed in 1996 and 1997 the ethics of the death penalty today |
| against death penalty essays: Beyond Repair? Stephen P. Garvey, 2003 Can the death penalty be administered in a just way - without executing the innocent, without regard to race, and without arbitrariness? All new, the essays in this collection focus on the period since 1976. |
| against death penalty essays: Peculiar Institution David Garland, 2011-02-01 The U.S. death penalty is a peculiar institution, and a uniquely American one. Despite its comprehensive abolition elsewhere in the Western world, capital punishment continues in dozens of American states– a fact that is frequently discussed but rarely understood. The same puzzlement surrounds the peculiar form that American capital punishment now takes, with its uneven application, its seemingly endless delays, and the uncertainty of its ever being carried out in individual cases, none of which seem conducive to effective crime control or criminal justice. In a brilliantly provocative study, David Garland explains this tenacity and shows how death penalty practice has come to bear the distinctive hallmarks of America’s political institutions and cultural conflicts. America’s radical federalism and local democracy, as well as its legacy of violence and racism, account for our divergence from the rest of the West. Whereas the elites of other nations were able to impose nationwide abolition from above despite public objections, American elites are unable– and unwilling– to end a punishment that has the support of local majorities and a storied place in popular culture. In the course of hundreds of decisions, federal courts sought to rationalize and civilize an institution that too often resembled a lynching, producing layers of legal process but also delays and reversals. Yet the Supreme Court insists that the issue is to be decided by local political actors and public opinion. So the death penalty continues to respond to popular will, enhancing the power of criminal justice professionals, providing drama for the media, and bringing pleasure to a public audience who consumes its chilling tales. Garland brings a new clarity to our understanding of this peculiar institution– and a new challenge to supporters and opponents alike. |
| against death penalty essays: Right Here, Right Now Lynden Harris, 2021-03-22 Upon receiving his execution date, one of the thousands of men living on death row in the United States had an epiphany: “All there ever is, is this moment. You, me, all of us, right here, right now, this minute, that's love.” Right Here, Right Now collects the powerful, first-person stories of dozens of men on death rows across the country. From childhood experiences living with poverty, hunger, and violence to mental illness and police misconduct to coming to terms with their executions, these men outline their struggle to maintain their connection to society and sustain the humanity that incarceration and its daily insults attempt to extinguish. By offering their hopes, dreams, aspirations, fears, failures, and wounds, the men challenge us to reconsider whether our current justice system offers actual justice or simply perpetuates the social injustices that obscure our shared humanity. |
| against death penalty essays: Comparative Capital Punishment Carol S. Steiker, Jordan M. Steiker, Comparative Capital Punishment offers a set of in-depth, critical and comparative contributions addressing death practices around the world. Despite the dramatic decline of the death penalty in the last half of the twentieth century, capital punishment remains in force in a substantial number of countries around the globe. This research handbook explores both the forces behind the stunning recent rejection of the death penalty, as well as the changing shape of capital practices where it is retained. The expert contributors address the social, political, economic, and cultural influences on both retention and abolition of the death penalty and consider the distinctive possibilities and pathways to worldwide abolition. |
| against death penalty essays: An Eye for an Eye Stephen Nathanson, 2001 The death penalty issue has become the epitome of the unresolvable issue, the question which people answer on the basis of gut reactions rather than logical arguments. In the second edition of An Eye for an Eye? Stephen Nathanson evaluates arguments for and against the death penalty, and ultimately defends an abolitionist position to the controversial practice, including arguments that show how and why the dealth penalty is inconsistent with respect for life and a commitment to justice. A timely new postscript and an updated bibliography accompany the volume. |
| against death penalty essays: Race and the Death Penalty David P. Keys, R. J. Maratea, 2016 In what has been called the Dred Scott decision of our times, the US Supreme Court found in McCleskey v. Kemp that evidence of overwhelming racial disparities in the capital punishment process could not be admitted in individual capital cases, in effect institutionalizing a racially unequal system of criminal justice. Exploring the enduring legacy of this radical decision nearly three decades later, the authors of Race and the Death Penalty examine the persistence of racial discrimination in the practice of capital punishment, the dynamics that drive it, and the human consequences of both. David P. Keys is associate professor of criminal justice at New Mexico State University. R.J. Maratea is assistant professor of criminal justice at New Mexico State University. |
| against death penalty essays: When Truth Is All You Have Jim McCloskey, Philip Lerman, 2020-07-14 “A riveting and infuriating examination of criminal prosecutions, revealing how easy it is to convict the wrong person and how nearly impossible it is to undo the error.” —Washington Post No one has illuminated this problem more thoughtfully and persistently. —Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy Jim McCloskey was at a midlife crossroads when he met the man who would change his life. A former management consultant, McCloskey had grown disenchanted with the business world; he enrolled at Princeton Theological Seminary at the age of 37. His first assignment, in 1980, was as a chaplain at Trenton State Prison. Among the inmates was Jorge de los Santos, a heroin addict who'd been convicted of murder years earlier. He swore to McCloskey that he was innocent—and, over time, McCloskey came to believe him. With no legal or investigative training to speak of, McCloskey threw himself into the case. Two years later, thanks to those efforts, Jorge de los Santos walked free, fully exonerated. McCloskey had found his calling. He established Centurion Ministries, the first group in America devoted to overturning wrongful convictions. Together with his staff and a team of forensic experts, lawyers, and volunteers—through tireless investigation and an unflagging dedication to justice—Centurion has freed 65 innocent prisoners who had been sentenced to life or death. When Truth Is All You Have is McCloskey's inspirational story, as well as those of the unjustly imprisoned for whom he has fought. Spanning the nation, it is a chronicle of faith and doubt; of triumphant success and shattering failure. It candidly exposes a life of searching and struggle, uplifted by McCloskey's certainty that he had found what he was put on earth to do. Filled with generosity, humor, and compassion, it is the soul-bearing account of a man who has redeemed innumerable lives—and incited a movement—with nothing more than his unshakeable belief in the truth. |
| against death penalty essays: The Death Penalty Ernest Van den Haag, John Phillips Conrad, 2013-06-29 From 1965 until 1980, there was a virtual moratorium on executions for capital offenses in the United States. This was due primarily to protracted legal proceedings challenging the death penalty on constitutional grounds. After much Sturm und Drang, the Supreme Court of the United States, by a divided vote, finally decided that the death penalty does not invariably violate the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause of the Eighth Amendment. The Court's decisions, however, do not moot the controversy about the death penalty or render this excellent book irrelevant. The ball is now in the court of the Legislature and the Executive. Leg islatures, federal and state, can impose or abolish the death penalty, within the guidelines prescribed by the Supreme Court. A Chief Executive can commute a death sentence. And even the Supreme Court can change its mind, as it has done on many occasions and did, with respect to various aspects of the death penalty itself, durlog the moratorium period. Also, the people can change their minds. Some time ago, a majority, according to reliable polls, favored abolition. Today, a substantial majority favors imposition of the death penalty. The pendulum can swing again, as it has done in the past. |
| against death penalty essays: The Case for Capital Punishment Alfred B. Heilbrun, 2013 As a punishment for our most serious crime--the intentional killing of a victim in an egregious way--the death penalty naturally attracts opposing moral views. One view says that the state should never execute a criminal no matter what the crime may be. The other view requires execution as justice is sought for the victim. This book considers a third possible view: capital punishment should be judged by its pragmatic value to society. Does the prospect of possible execution save lives by deterring the act of murder? Heilbrun presents evidence concerning whether state death penalties demonstrate the two necessary properties of a true deterrent: a reduction in intentional killing when present and an increase when removed. The Case for Capital Punishment contains an analysis of rarely-considered factors that influence the deterrence of murder and a discussion of the common criticisms of capital punishment. |
| against death penalty essays: A Wild Justice: The Death and Resurrection of Capital Punishment in America Evan J. Mandery, 2013-08-19 New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice Drawing on never-before-published original source detail, the epic story of two of the most consequential, and largely forgotten, moments in Supreme Court history. For two hundred years, the constitutionality of capital punishment had been axiomatic. But in 1962, Justice Arthur Goldberg and his clerk Alan Dershowitz dared to suggest otherwise, launching an underfunded band of civil rights attorneys on a quixotic crusade. In 1972, in a most unlikely victory, the Supreme Court struck down Georgia’s death penalty law in Furman v. Georgia. Though the decision had sharply divided the justices, nearly everyone, including the justices themselves, believed Furman would mean the end of executions in America. Instead, states responded with a swift and decisive showing of support for capital punishment. As anxiety about crime rose and public approval of the Supreme Court declined, the stage was set in 1976 for Gregg v. Georgia, in which the Court dramatically reversed direction. A Wild Justice is an extraordinary behind-the-scenes look at the Court, the justices, and the political complexities of one of the most racially charged and morally vexing issues of our time. |
| against death penalty essays: The Death Penalty from an African Perspective Fainos Mangena, Jonathan O. Chimakonam, 2018-01-15 This book is about an African philosophical examination of the death penalty debate. In a 21st century world where the notion of human right is primed, this book considers the question of the death penalty in two sub-Saharan African countries namely, Zimbabwe and Nigeria, notorious for their poor human right records. This edited collection comprises of 11 essays from Zimbabwean and Nigerian philosophers. As opinions continue to divide over the retention or abolition of the death penalty, these African philosophers attempt to localise this debate by raising the following questions: What is the meaning of life in the African place? Is it proper to take the human life under any guise at all? Who has the right to take the human life? Can the death penalty be jutified on the bases of African cultures? Why should it be abolished? Why should it be retained? Indeed, this book is the first of its kind to engage the tumultuous issue of capital punishment in the postcolonial Africa and from the African philosophical point of view. |
| against death penalty essays: Death Penalty - Essay Stefanie Dietzel, 2009-08-12 Essay from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1, University of Marburg (Fremdsprachliche Philologien), course: Academic Writing, language: English, abstract: The question whether capital punishment should be practiced as a penalty for criminals has for a long time been a controversial topic because it concerns people worldwide. It is debatable whether methods of punishment such as the death penalty are an ethical solution to crime. |
| against death penalty essays: Rights Brought Home Great Britain. Home Office, 1997 |
| against death penalty essays: From Lynch Mobs to the Killing State Charles J. Ogletree, Austin Sarat, 2006-05 Situates the linkage between race and the death penalty in the history of the U.S. Since 1976, over forty percent of prisoners executed in American jails have been African American or Hispanic. This trend shows little evidence of diminishing, and follows a larger pattern of the violent criminalization of African American populations that has marked the country's history of punishment. In a bold attempt to tackle the looming question of how and why the connection between race and the death penalty has been so strong throughout American history, Ogletree and Sarat headline an interdisciplinary cast of experts in reflecting on this disturbing issue. Insightful original essays approach the topic from legal, historical, cultural, and social science perspectives to show the ways that the death penalty is racialized, the places in the death penalty process where race makes a difference, and the ways that meanings of race in the United States are constructed in and through our practices of capital punishment. From Lynch Mobs to the Killing State not only uncovers the ways that race influences capital punishment, but also attempts to situate the linkage between race and the death penalty in the history of this country, in particular the history of lynching. In its probing examination of how and why the connection between race and the death penalty has been so strong throughout American history, this book forces us to consider how the death penalty gives meaning to race as well as why the racialization of the death penalty is uniquely American. |
| against death penalty essays: A Question of Freedom Dwayne Betts, 2009-08-06 A unique prison narrative that testifies to the power of books to transform a young man's life At the age of sixteen, R. Dwayne Betts-a good student from a lower- middle-class family-carjacked a man with a friend. He had never held a gun before, but within a matter of minutes he had committed six felonies. In Virginia, carjacking is a certifiable offense, meaning that Betts would be treated as an adult under state law. A bright young kid, he served his nine-year sentence as part of the adult population in some of the worst prisons in the state. A Question of Freedom chronicles Betts's years in prison, reflecting back on his crime and looking ahead to how his experiences and the books he discovered while incarcerated would define him. Utterly alone, Betts confronts profound questions about violence, freedom, crime, race, and the justice system. Confined by cinder-block walls and barbed wire, he discovers the power of language through books, poetry, and his own pen. Above all, A Question of Freedom is about a quest for identity-one that guarantees Betts's survival in a hostile environment and that incorporates an understanding of how his own past led to the moment of his crime. |
| against death penalty essays: By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed Edward Feser, Joseph Bessette, 2017-05-10 The Catholic Church has in recent decades been associated with political efforts to eliminate the death penalty. It was not always so. This timely work reviews and explains the Catholic Tradition regarding the death penalty, demonstrating that it is not inherently evil and that it can be reserved as a just form of punishment in certain cases. Drawing upon a wealth of philosophical, scriptural, theological, and social scientific arguments, the authors explain the perennial teaching of the Church that capital punishment can in principle be legitimate—not only to protect society from immediate physical danger, but also to administer retributive justice and to deter capital crimes. The authors also show how some recent statements of Church leaders in opposition to the death penalty are prudential judgments rather than dogma. They reaffirm that Catholics may, in good conscience, disagree about the application of the death penalty. Some arguments against the death penalty falsely suggest that there has been a rupture in the Church's traditional teaching and thereby inadvertently cast doubt on the reliability of the Magisterium. Yet, as the authors demonstrate, the Church's traditional teaching is a safeguard to society, because the just use of the death penalty can be used to protect the lives of the innocent, inculcate a horror of murder, and affirm the dignity of human beings as free and rational creatures who must be held responsible for their actions. By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed challenges contemporary Catholics to engage with Scripture, Tradition, natural law, and the actual social scientific evidence in order to undertake a thoughtful analysis of the current debate about the death penalty. |
| against death penalty essays: The Death Penalty in America Hugo Adam Bedau, 1964 |
| against death penalty essays: End of Its Rope Brandon Garrett, 2017-09-25 An awakening -- Inevitability of innocence -- Mercy vs. justice -- The great American death penalty decline -- The defense lawyering effect -- Murder insurance -- The other death penalty -- The execution decline -- End game -- The triumph of mercy |
| against death penalty essays: Ultimate Punishment Scott Turow, 2010-08-24 America's leading writer about the law takes a close, incisive look at one of society's most vexing legal issues Scott Turow is known to millions as the author of peerless novels about the troubling regions of experience where law and reality intersect. In real life, as a respected criminal lawyer, he has been involved with the death penalty for more than a decade, including successfully representing two different men convicted in death-penalty prosecutions. In this vivid account of how his views on the death penalty have evolved, Turow describes his own experiences with capital punishment from his days as an impassioned young prosecutor to his recent service on the Illinois commission which investigated the administration of the death penalty and influenced Governor George Ryan's unprecedented commutation of the sentences of 164 death row inmates on his last day in office. Along the way, he provides a brief history of America's ambivalent relationship with the ultimate punishment, analyzes the potent reasons for and against it, including the role of the victims' survivors, and tells the powerful stories behind the statistics, as he moves from the Governor's Mansion to Illinois' state-of-the art 'super-max' prison and the execution chamber. Ultimate Punishment, this gripping, clear-sighted, necessary examination of the principles, the personalities, and the politics of a fundamental dilemma of our democracy has all the drama and intellectual substance of Turow's celebrated fiction. |
| against death penalty essays: The International Library of Essays on Capital Punishment, Volume 1 Peter Hodgkinson, 2016-12-05 This volume provides up-to-date and nuanced analysis across a wide spectrum of capital punishment issues. The essays move beyond the conventional legal approach and propose fresh perspectives, including a unique critique of the abolition sector. Written by a range of leading experts with diverse geographical, methodological and conceptual approaches, the essays in this volume challenge received wisdom and embrace a holistic understanding of capital punishment based on practical experience and empirical data. This collection is indispensable reading for anyone seeking a comprehensive and detailed understanding of the complexity of the death penalty discourse. |
| against death penalty essays: The Death Penalty Louis P. Pojman, Jeffrey H. Reiman, 1998 Contains two essays in which the authors present their cases for and against the death penalty, followed by two additional essays in which each author responds to what the other has written. |
| against death penalty essays: The Death Penalty Brandon Garrett, Lee Kovarsky, 2018 Softbound - New, softbound print book. |
| against death penalty essays: Deconstructing the Death Penalty Kelly Oliver, Stephanie M. Straub, 2018 This volume brings together scholars of philosophy, law, and literature, including prominent Derrideans alongside activist scholars, to elucidate and expand upon an important project of Derrida's final years, the seminars he conducted on the death penalty from 1999 to 2001. Deconstructing the Death Penalty provides remarkable insight into Derrida's ethical and political work. Beyond exploring the implications of Derrida's thought on capital punishment and mass incarceration, the contributors also elucidate the philosophical groundwork for his subsequent deconstructions of sovereign power and the human/animal divide. Because Derrida was concerned with the logic of the death penalty, rather than the death penalty itself, his seminars have proven useful to scholars and activists opposing all forms of state sanctioned killing. The volume establishes Derrida's importance for continuing debates on capital punishment, mass incarceration, and police brutality. At the same time, by deconstructing the theologico-political logic of the death penalty, it works to construct a new, versatile abolitionism, one capable of confronting all forms the death penalty might take. |
| against death penalty essays: Murder Followed by Suicide Donald James West, 1966 |
| against death penalty essays: Reflections on the Guillotine Albert Camus, 2020-09-24 'When silence or tricks of language contribute to maintaining an abuse that must be reformed or a suffering that can be relieved, then there is no other solution but to speak out' Written when execution by guillotine was still legal in France, Albert Camus' devastating attack on the 'obscene exhibition' of capital punishment remains one of the most powerful, persuasive arguments ever made against the death penalty. One of twenty new books in the bestselling Penguin Great Ideas series. This new selection showcases a diverse list of thinkers who have helped shape our world today, from anarchists to stoics, feminists to prophets, satirists to Zen Buddhists. |
againstの意味・使い方・読み方・覚え方 | Weblio英和辞書
against【前】…に反対して,反抗して,…に逆らって,…にそむいて,…に反して,…に不利に... an argument against the use of nuclear weapons:核兵器使用反対論. - …
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against a backdrop of～の意味や使い方 訳語 を背景に - 約489万語ある英和辞典・和英辞典。 発音・イディオムも分かる英語辞書。 489万語収録！
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against [contrary to] (all) expectation(s) 例文帳に追加. 予期に反して. - 研究社 新英和中辞典
英語「backdrop」の意味・使い方・読み方 | Weblio英和辞書
Against such a backdrop, reformulating the Bank's mission and the way it provides assistance is now one of the most urgent tasks.発音を聞く 例文帳に …
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「direct」の意味・翻訳・日本語 - (…を)指導する、指揮する、監督する、管理する、演出する、(…に)指図する、指示する、命令する、指図する、道を教える｜Weblio英 …
againstの意味・使い方・読み方・覚え方 | Weblio英和辞書
against【前】…に反対して,反抗して,…に逆らって,…にそむいて,…に反して,…に不利に... an argument against the use of nuclear weapons:核兵器使用反対論. - 研究社 新英和中辞典...【発 …
against a backdrop of～の意味・使い方・読み方 | Weblio英和辞書
against a backdrop of～の意味や使い方 訳語 を背景に - 約489万語ある英和辞典・和英辞典。 発音・イディオムも分かる英語辞書。 489万語収録！
「against」に関連した英語例文の一覧と使い方 - Weblio
against [contrary to] (all) expectation(s) 例文帳に追加. 予期に反して. - 研究社 新英和中辞典
英語「backdrop」の意味・使い方・読み方 | Weblio英和辞書
Against such a backdrop, reformulating the Bank's mission and the way it provides assistance is now one of the most urgent tasks.発音を聞く 例文帳に追加. このような厳しい状況に直面し、 …
directの意味・使い方・読み方・覚え方 | Weblio英和辞書
「direct」の意味・翻訳・日本語 - (…を)指導する、指揮する、監督する、管理する、演出する、(…に)指図する、指示する、命令する、指図する、道を教える｜Weblio英和・和英辞書
pressの意味・使い方・読み方・覚え方 | Weblio英和辞書
a[SVO(M)]〈人が〉〈物など〉を(しっかりと)〔…に〕押す, 押しつける, 圧する〔on, against, to〕；〔コンピュータ〕…をクリックする.b〔…に〕…を貼りつける〔on, upon〕.
for or againstとは 意味・読み方・使い方 - Weblio
Are you for or against the bill?発音を聞く 例文帳に追加. 君はその法案に賛成か反対か. - 研究社 新英和中辞典
英語「oppose」の意味・使い方・読み方 | Weblio英和辞書
〔…に〕〈…を〉反対させる; 対比させる 〔to，against〕. oppose guerrilla resistance to the advance of the enemy 敵の 前進 に ゲリラ 抵抗を示す . You should oppose reason to [ …
英語「rub」の意味・使い方・読み方 | Weblio英和辞書
〔動詞 (+前置詞+名詞)〕〔…に 当たって〕すれる，〔…に〕体などをこすりつける 〔against，on，upon〕. This collar rubs against my neck. この カラー は 首 に 当たって こす …
英語「resilience」の意味・使い方・読み方 | Weblio英和辞書
「resilience」の意味・翻訳・日本語 - はね返り、とび返り、弾力、弾性、(元気の)回復力｜Weblio英和・和英辞書
