Statement: Death Penalty.
Issue: Death Penalty
Strongly Supports: 2332
Supports: 3073
Neutral: 1516
Opposes: 2029
Strongly Opposes: 2267
Average position: 'Neutral' (based on '11217' opinions)
Capital punishment in the United States is officially sanctioned by 38 of the 50 states, as well as by the federal government and the military. The overwhelming majority of executions are performed by the states; the federal government maintains the legal power to use capital punishment but does so relatively infrequently. Each state practicing capital punishment has different laws regarding its methods and crimes which qualify; no state may execute someone for a crime committed before the age of 18. The state of Texas has performed more executions than any other states since the resumption of the death penalty in 1976; prior to that date, Virginia had led the nation.
Capital punishment is a controversial issue in the U.S. with many prominent organizations and individuals participating in the debate. Arguments for and against it are based on moral, practical, religious, and emotional grounds. Advocates of the death penalty argue that it deters crime, improves the community by making sure that convicted criminals do not find their way out onto the streets to offend again, and is cheaper than keeping convicted criminals in high security prison for the rest of their natural lives. Some opponents of the death penalty claim that "capital punishment cheapens human life and puts government on the same low moral level as criminals who have taken life."
Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976 there have been 1079 executions in the United States (as of June 6, 2007). There were 53 executions in 2006.
67% of capital convictions are eventually overturned, mainly on procedural grounds of incompetent legal counsel, police or prosecutors who suppressed evidence and judges who gave jurors the wrong instructions. Seven percent of those whose sentences were overturned between 1973 and 1995 have been acquitted. Ten percent were retried and re-sentenced to death.
Many proponents of the death penalty argue that the death penalty is justified because it deters future crime, especially murders. While the death penalty does take life, they argue, this is outweighed by the many lives it saves. This is generally considered a utilitarian argument because it is based on consequences for human welfare instead of deontological considerations such as rights or just retribution.
Some also argue that mistaken execution of innocents is regrettable but still justified if the overall effect of the death penalty still saves more lives. Some proponents of the deterrence argument do not dispute this, but some do on the grounds that if people know they might be executed for crimes they did not commit they might live in a state of fear; therefore, significant steps should be taken to avoid the execution of innocents.
The death penalty is often opposed on the grounds that, because every criminal justice system is fallible, innocent people will inevitably be executed by mistake, and the death penalty is both irreversible and more severe than lesser punishments.
Critics of the death penalty also commonly argue that it is a violation of the right to life or of the "sanctity of life." Opponents of the death penalty usually argue that is inhumane, or even that it constitutes a form of torture. Those who make this argument commonly insist that, in addition to violating the right to life, the death penalty is also contrary to the right to be free from torture or inhumane treatment. This right is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and many other documents.
The brutalizing effect is another argument, also known as the brutalization hypothesis, argues that the death penalty has a brutalizing or coarsening effect either upon society or those officials and jurors involved in a criminal justice system which imposes it. It is usually argued that this is because it sends out a message that it is acceptable to kill in some circumstances, or due to the societal disregard for the 'sanctity of life'. An extension of this argument is that the brutalizing effect of the death penalty may even be responsible for increasing the number of murders in jurisdictions in which it is practiced.
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