Texas is known for being a state that carries out the death penalty. American Society should not view the death penalty as a form of justice but rather as a barbaric compromise to the confidence we have placed in our judicial system. The decision of choosing who gets to live based on how "grotesque" and horrible their crime is, even if it is the same crime, is arbitrary and contradicts the principle of equality our country was founded on. Not to mention, there is no guarantee of justice, because everyone has their own definition of what justice really is. Just because a victim's life was taken, killing the person responsible will not bring them back. Due to the lack of better judgment on someone's behalf, our supposed equal distribution of punishment is broken. The distribution of the death penalty is never fair either. Not everybody who commits murder is given the death penalty, either because of the state laws, the jury, or plea deals they are given. I am not saying these murderers should not be punished, quite the opposite. I am just curious where we should draw the line between cruel / unusual punishment and justice. When it comes down to it, we're committing the same crime. If a citizen kills somebody, it's called murder; yet if the government takes a life, it is considered justice. When you think about it, we're punishing murder with murder; where is the lesson in that? I find this most disturbing, and I do believe there are other alternatives to the death penalty. It doesn't really solve anything in the long run; it is just more killing and an easy way out instead of dealing with the real issues.
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In Response to “Death Penalty: Justice or Murder?
The author of this piece puts forth the standard arguments against the death penalty. She gives her opinions but does not offer much in the way of argument. It would have been a better article if she had broken her opinions into paragraphs and argued her points. I am not saying the article was bad only that it was difficult to read and seemed like a first draft instead of a finished product. The way she worded her opinions were good and the reader can tell that she genuinely believes them. She seems intelligent. I just think she could have done better.
Some of the basic arguments against capital punishment are: it costs too much to keep someone on death row for years; it doesn't deter; and we could just as well give a killer a life sentence. To this I reply: it costs too much only because we have not placed rational time limits on the appeals process; the issue isn't deterring future killers, but justice for the murder victim; life in prison means the murderer is likely to live the same way in prison as he lived in the free world.
I believe in the classical school of criminal justice. The punishment should fit the crime. I do not mean literally an eye for an eye. I do not believe in sinking to the level of a criminal and punishing law breakers in kind. Revenge is not justice. What I am talking about is retribution. A just society must punish criminals in proportion to the damage they have done. What possible penalty could be proportionate to the crime of murder but the forfeiture of the murderer's own life? In the case of premeditated murder, in which there is no question of guilt and no extenuating circumstances, capital punishment should be the standard penalty.
my response to "Death Penalty: Justice or Murder?"
I thought Julianne's article was very well written, and it makes you consider how our government deals out judgement. Although I feel that there is a good reason for the death penalty, i don't think the government does a good job of using it. Knowing before committing a murder that you will be killed if caught would definitely detour some people from committing a crime, which would be saving lives. Also if someone i personally loved was murdered, i wouldn't want the person who killed them to live or get out of prison. Unfortunately our system allows that to happen, which she mentioned that the government doesn't fairly give out the death penalty, some murderers don't even get the death penalty. if our government finds a way to make the death penalty effective and consistent i think it could serve as a good judgement for people who commit murders, but as it is now a different judgement could be more productive.
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