The Controversial Debate on Capital Punishment in the USA

Abstract

[Name] [Author] serves as the most severe punishment that the Law can subject an offender to against all odds. For this reason, the pro-capital punishment agenda has led to many hot debates globally questioning and criticizing its effectiveness concerning its effect on crime rate management. Discussions in nations that support capital punishment, like the United States of America, argue for conveniences like limited expenses in capital punishment compared to incarcerating murder among other capital offenders for life and providing for them throughout their lives. However, countries that do not support capital punishment like Kenya, Vatican, Mongolia, and others criticize this form of punishment, arguing that God is the giver of life and has the mandate of taking it away following his sixth commandment, "Thou shall not kill” (Exodus 20:13). However, regardless of the controversies surrounding pro-capital punishment, it remains a potential form of punishing offenders in many countries. For this reason, this essay aims at providing a detailed analysis of pro-capital punishment to offer a better understanding of its meaning and background. Paying close attention to the United States of America, where the practice is legal in most states, the essay will provide reasons that lead to such States supporting murder punishments instead of exercising any other form of punishment towards offenders. Pro capital punishment is a form of crime deterrence that exposes the offender to instant death instead of being incarcerated for a certain period. For this reason, one can argue that some nations have passed a Law that supports the murder penalty for certain crimes ranging from treason, espionage, sexual assault, and murder. America is among such countries whose history of capital punishment runs way back to the 18th century. As Gould and Leon (2017) argue, capital punishment has existed in the American Laws ever since the founding of the original colonies. Burglary, treason, arson, murder, and counterfeiting are among the major crimes punishable through capital punishment within America in the mid 18th century. However, upon noting the cruelty associated with this form of punishment, U.S. lawmakers started reviewing and revising death penalty policies during the American Revolution era. Their efforts were not in vain, as by 1791, Americans reviewed the American Constitution for the eighth time to prohibit any form of punishment considered cruel and unusual (Bessler, 2017). For this reason, humane executions were to become exercised while conducting capital punishment. The early 19th century introduced the electric chair to accomplish humane executions with lethal injections, adding up to the list in the late 20th century (Gould and Leon, 2017). Due to controversies surrounding the death penalty, this exercise has received both support and opposition at the same time in America, leading to a massive split between States in support and against the death penalty over time. The first time that the U.S. Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional was during Furman V. Georgia (1972) case (Seeds, C. (2018). Their case revolves around the Eighth Amendment on the ban on cruel and unusual punishment as applied to the state following the Fourteenth Amendment. In their argument, the judges defined the death penalties sentenced to Furman, Jackson, and Branch for murder and rape were unconstitutional under any circumstance as grounded on arbitrary and discriminatory approaches; thus, less severe punishments would best serve the same punitive goals (Bessler, 2017). Though the court decision on Furman V. Georgia did put the death penalty on hold. It did not abolish this Law. As citizens started misusing their freedom and humiliating each other, the death penalty Law became reinstated after the 1976 case of Gregg V, Georgia (Fox, 2018). In this case, the accused was a career criminal who had murdered an elderly couple for not lending him a car. Such an offense called for a severe punishment that only death punishment would fully serve. However, States supporting and exercising the death penalty take the lead totaling 27 states and the federal government, with 23 states and the District of Columbia prohibiting the act by referring it to as inhumane and evil (Warden and Lennard, 2017). Even though capital punishment has been legal in America for the last 230 years, there has been marginally more than one federal execution a year, implying that people did not misuse this power at the expense of others. However, during Donald Trump’s tenure in office, he presided over the death of 13 prisoners with six conducted after he lost the election, which caused alarm to many Americans on the transparency on this type of penalty. One can argue that the death penalty is a form of killing each other. There are several forms of capital punishment exercised in the United States of America. Hanging is one of the oldest forms of killing an offender, exercised by [City, State], and Washington. Lethal gas is another method exercised by seven states; [City, State], [City, State], [City, State], and Wyoming. Firing Squad is exercised by four states; [City, State], Utah, and South Carolina. Finally, electrocution is exercised by eight states; [City, State], [City, State], [City, State], South Carolina, and Tennessee. Last but not least, lethal injection serves as the primary form of applying death sentencing on offenders, which is employed by 31 states, the U.S. military, and the U.S. government (Bessler, 2017). The five forms mentioned...