Acceptability of Capital Punishment (Essay Sample)

University of Worcester
On Acceptability of Capital Punishment
Name of student
Law
Prof. Williamson Hart
22 December 2014
On Acceptability of Capital Punishment
Capital punishment is a judicial practice in which individuals successfully convicted of committing a capital crime, are inflicted with a death penalty. ‘Capital crimes’ are crimes viewed so heinous that they attract a mandatory death punishment. Capital punishment has been an extremely controversial issue on legal, moral, and ethical grounds. In the United States, thirty-nine states now practice the death penalty. The broader political implications of capital punishment cast serious doubts on its place in our system of constitutional democracy. This Commentary argues that capital punishment is inconsistent with principles underpinning American democracy and is thus illegitimate as a matter of political philosophy, despite it being embedded constitutionally.
According to a survey that was conducted by Gallup Organization in 2011, the citizens’ support for capital punishment has declined in America drastically. The survey noted that 61 percent of Americans approve of using the death penalty for persons sentenced for committing murder, a decline from 64 percent in 2010. This is the lowest level of support since 1972. Although, the survey indicates public support of capital punishment, this is not to say that it is tenable, it should be recognized that public opinions are not monolithic in nature they do showcase different aspects, in that it comprises attitudes, sensibilities and knowledge. Opinion polls and surveys have been the most used method for grasping and understanding of the masses views in respect to death penalty. The questions asked in surveys and polls, more often than not, do not give people the opportunity to express their emotional reactions, which are paramount in comprehending the full symbolic and expressive role of punishment.[" In U.S. Support for Death Penalty Falls to 39-Year Low”, Gallup, Last modified October 13, 2011,http:// /poll/150089/support-death-penalty-falls-year-low.aspx]
The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments stipulate that the government may not deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without "due process of law." Specifically, capital punishment raises fundamental questions about the appropriate role of the government, the donation of the government's authority and the rights of a person. Although subject to exceptions, the infliction of death penalty is outlawed by the constitution. The penalty has received wide condemnation and criticism from the bench because ‘The slapping of death penalty represents the pointless and needless extinction of life with only marginal contributions to any discernible social or public purposes. A penalty with such negligible returns to the State is patently excessive and cruel and unusual punishment violative of the Eighth Amendment.”[Furmanvs. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972) at 312 (White concurring)]
Similarly, the Equal Protection clause which is the fourteenth Amendment provides that no state "shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." By virtue of this clause, the state is required to treat similarly-situated persons equally. However, in the recent years racial discrimination has been used in the sentencing process. This fact was illustrated in The Baldus study, which indicated that in "more than 2,000 murder cases individuals suspected of murdering white people presumably were sentenced to death in eleven percent of the reported cases, but persons alleged of murdering black individuals were sentenced to death in just one percent of the reported cases." Thus, the Baldus study arguably postulates that suspects who hail from the black race, charged with killing white people, do have the utmost likelihood of being imposed with a death sentence and black suspects charged with murder have high chances of being executed than white murderers per se.[David Baldus et al., Equal Justice and the Death Penalty: A Legal and Empirical Analysis (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1990), 56.]
Capital punishment is Cruel and one of the Unusual Punishment. A brief overview of the Eighth Amendment shows that it prohibits "cruel and unusual punishments."However the Eighth Amendment brings out textual complications in terms of interpretation since the words "cruel" and "unusual" lack intrinsic meaning. The Eighth Amendment has been frequently interpreted to offer blanket prohibition of disproportionate and excessive sentencing. This brings out the question whether death is an inherent, excessive penalty for all crimes, even murder? No federal court or state has ever made that resolution.[US Const. Amend VIII.]
In the Human right language capital punishment should be done away with because it is an outright violation of human rights. The underpinning principles of human rights and U.S. constitutional rights are same. The Human Right argument has led to ...