Crime And The Death Penalty Essays - Capital Punishment, Penology

Crime and the Death Penalty For most crimes committed in the United States a fine, sentence of time in jail or execution is the punishment. However, the death penalty is the most questionable punishment. Is it morally right? Is it effective in deterring crime, primarily murders? Weather or not you agree if it is moral or not, one issue remains. The death penalty is not an effective way to deter crime. The death penalty has existed as long as humans have existed. The quote "an eye for an eye" is found in the Bible. In the middle ages fines, public humiliation and imprisonment were appropriate punishments for all crimes, and death penalty for all murders. Today, Federal law states that the death penalty is to be enforced with convicted criminals for: treason; deserting armed forces during wartime; murder committed by a soldier; kidnapping and murder that involves crossing state lines; murder committed during an airplane hijacking; and of course, homicide. The death penalty is also called for punishment of for: attempting to kill anyone investigating or prosecuting his or her activities; advising, directing, authorizing or assisting in the murder of someone. Also, The Anti-Drug abuse act of 1988 calls for the death penalty for all drug related killings. Along with that, The bill amending sec. 848 to controlled substances act calls for the death penalty or life imprisonment for certain drug offences possession of 10 or more kg of heroin, cocaine, phencyclidine or analogue. Added to that, The drug kingpin act sates the use of death penalty for convicted major drug dealers caught with huge quantities of drugs, over 66 lbs. of heroin and 330 lbs. of cocaine. Even though there are these federal laws requiring the use of the death penalty for the crimes, State laws only consider one crime, murder, to be a capital offense. In the United States alone there have been 4047 executions since 1930, and 188 were from 1977-1996. In 1996, there were a total of 15,168,100 arrests; 33,050 for forcible rape; 1,506,200 involving drug violations and 19,020 for murder and non-negligent manslaughter. The death penalty was enforced 45 times. The death penalty is an expensive punishment, since 1976 the united states have spent 700 million dollars in it. Methods of the death penalty include lethal injection, gas chamber, electric chair, hanging and fire squad. In a 1986 poll 70% of Americans favored the death penalty as a punishment for murder. There have been many comparisons of crime rates of death penalty states to non- death penalty states. These clearly show that the death penalty has no effect on the deteration of crime. The homicide rates in Michigan, Ohio and Illinois rise and fall along with Wisconsin. Michigan, Ohio and Illinois all have the death penalty. Wisconsin does not. In 1994, the average murder rate in a death penalty state of a population of 100,00 was 8.0, for a non-death penalty state, 4.4. In Canada the homicide rate per 100,000 people was 3.09 in 1975, this was when they had the death penalty. In 1976 Canada got rid of the death penalty. In 1986 the crime rate decreased to 2.19 per 100,000 people, the lowest in 15 years. Isn't it odd that the crime rates were high with the death penalty and low without? Clearly this shows that the presence of the death penalty has no effect on the increase or decrease of crime rates. Even with the death penalty, crime rates continue to rise and fall in the United States. The number of people on death row in 1967 were in 1972: 200 and in 1997 3,100. Crimes will be committed weather or not death penalty is a method of punishment. Many people believe that the death penalty isn't an effective way to deter crime. "The proposed drug death penalty is not only barbaric but also foolish: a temper tantrum masquerading as an act of government. It holds no promise for suppressing the drug trade, and may even be counterproductive" (Franklin E. Zimny) Time magazine, 1997 said 52% of Americans do not believe the death penalty deters people from committing crime. In a recent poll of police chiefs, 2/3 said they don't believe the death