Death Penalty and the Adolescents Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Death Penalty and the Adolescents - Essay ExampleThey argued that the remnant penalty was needlessly cruel, overrated as a deterrent, and at times imposed in fatal error. Along with Quaker leaders and other social reformers, they defended life imprisonment as a more rational alternative. Countries much(prenominal) as Venezuela and Portugal were the first nations to abolish the death penalty altogether (http//www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/thoughts.html, 2004).1.) Incapacitation of the criminal - Capital punishment permanently removes the worst criminals from nightspot and should prove much cheaper and safer for the respire of us than long term or permanent incarceration. It is self evident that dead criminals cannot commit any further crimes, either within prison or after escaping or being released from it2.) Cost - Money is not an inexhaustible commodity and the state may very well better spend our (limited) resources on the old, the young and the sick kind of than the l ong term imprisonment of murderers, rapists etc.3.) Vengeance or retribution - Execution is a very real punishment rather than some form of rehabilitative treatment, the criminal is made to suffer in proportion to the offence. Although whether there is a place in a modern society for the old fashioned principal of lex talens (an eye for an eye) is a matter of personal opinion 4.) Deterrence - There are numerous and great examples that in those countries (e.g. Singapore), which about always carry out death sentences there is generally far less serious crime. This tends to indicate that the death penalty is a deterrent, but single where execution is an absolute certainty Death penalty has been banned in many countries. In the United States, an earlier move to eliminate capital punishment has now been reversed and more and more states are resorting to capital punishment for serious offenses such as murder (http//www.duhaime.org/dictionary/dict-c.htm, 2004).The arguments for and again st death penalty started with the legitimate issues concerning the U.S. Supreme Courts decision on Furman vs. Georgia case. During this trial it has been argued that capital punishment is a law that is evidently arbitrary and capricious. Racial bias is one of the strongest arguments for the arbitrariness of death penalty (http//justice.uaa.alaska.edu/death/history.html, 2006).