Capital Punishment - Stop the Killing :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Capital Punishment - Stop the Killing      Ã‚  Ã‚   Looking out for the state of the public's satisfaction in the scheme of capital sentencing does not constitute serving justice.   Today's system of capital punishment is fraught with inequalities and injustices.   The commonly offered arguments for the death penalty are filled with holes.   "It was a deterrent.   It removed killers.   It was the ultimate punishment.   It is biblical. It satisfied the public's need for retribution.   It relieved the anguish of the victim's family."(Grisham   120)   Realistically, imposing the death penalty is expensive and time consuming.   Retroactively, it has yet to be proven as a deterrent.   Morally, it is a continuation of the cycle of violence and "...degrades all who are involved in its enforcement, as well as its victim."(Stewart   1)   Capital Punishment has been part of the criminal justice system since the earliest of times. The Babylonian Hammurabi Code(ca. 1700 B.C.) decreed death for crimes as minor as the fraudulent sale of beer(Flanders 3). Egyptians could be put to death for disclosing the location of sacred burial sites(Flanders 3). However, in recent times opponents have shown the death penalty to be racist, barbaric, and in violation with the United States Constitution as "...cruel and unusual punishment." In this country, although laws governing the application of the death penalty have   undergone many changes since biblical times, the punishment endures, and controversy has never been greater.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Perhaps the most frequent argument for capital punishment is that of deterrence.   The prevailing thought is that imposition of the death penalty will act to dissuade other criminals from committing violent acts.   Numerous studies have been created attempting to prove this belief; however, "All the evidence taken together makes it hard to be confident that capital punishment deters more than long prison terms do."(Cavanagh   4)   Going ever farther, Bryan Stevenson, the executive director of the Montgomery based Equal Justice Initiative, has stated that "people are increasingly realizing that the more we resort to killing as a legitimate response to our frustration and anger with violence, the more violent our society becomes.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   "Revenge is an unworthy motive for our society to pursue."(Whittier   1) In our society, there is a great expectation   placed on the family of a victim to pursue vengeance to the highest degree -- perhaps 1 the death penalty.   Pat Bane, executive director of the Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation (MVFR), stated, "One parent told me that people made her feel like she was betraying her son because she did not want to kill the person who murdered him."(Frame 50)   This creates a dilemma of morality. If anything, by forcing families to seek the death penalty, their own consciences will be burdened by