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The debate over capital punishment has affected millions of lives throughout all history and will affect many more in the coming future. Even though the severity of the crime should match the punishment, some argue that capital punishment is a cruel and unusual punishment; therefore, ruling it out as an available punishment all-together. The issue with capital punishment is the difference of opinions about if it imposes on human dignity and violates human rights (Evans, 2012). The opposing sides have not yet come to a conclusion and the Supreme Court has delegated executional power to the State legislation. By so doing, there is variance in the law from state to state and how the execution is laid out. Laws and Records of capital punishment date all the way back to the Eighteenth Century B.C. with King Hammurabi of Babylon. He first established a systematic law that stated the consequences of the death penalty for a set of twenty-five assorted crimes. ( © Death Penalty Information Center, 2019).
Throughout history others have followed the same path; many regulations and laws have been written, executed, and warped into similar laws. The most infamous would be the Romans. In the Fifth Century B.C. the Roman Empire wrote the “Twelve Tables” (Kreis, 2001), which established the manner of how to live peacefully with one another and the crimes deemed worthy of the death penalty. The conditions ranged widely from burning down a building to being guilty of bearing a false witness (Kreis, 2001), both of which are punishable by death. These codes and laws have been changed over time by the world, but some remain in our American culture today. “Britain influenced America’s use of the death penalty more than any other country” (© Death Penalty Information Center, 2019).).
Even though the Colonies united together, a difference remained; laws regarding the death penalty differed from colony to colony. For example, in New York, according to the Duke’s Laws of 1665 if one would strike their mother or father, or deny the “true God,” they were sentenced to death (© Death Penalty Information Center, 2019). On the other side, both Wisconsin and Rhode Island banned the death penalty from their states. In the mid Eighteenth Century there was a movement to abolish the Death Penalty. A group of European Theorists initiated this movement, but it was the “Cesare Beccaria’s 1767 essay, On Crimes and Punishment, that had an especially strong impact throughout the world” (© Death Penalty Information Center, 2019). This essay proposed that capital punishment should be reserved only for treason and crimes of murder. Though it was defeated by one vote it laid a solid foundation for the structure we see today. Today’s government still trifles over the ethics of the death penalty. In 1972, the Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment was unconstitutional only to reinstate the death penalty again in 1976. In June of 1972 cases, collectively known as Furman v. Georgia, were brought before the Supreme Court and struck down because the Court deemed that capital punishment was so arbitrarily applied to the case that it “violated the 8th Amendment’s prohibition against ‘cruel and unusual punishments’” (The Times Editorial Board, 2019).
The Supreme Court then declared the death penalty unconstitutional and suspended the practice throughout the Nation. An act in 1976, collectively known as the “Gregg decision”, made by the Supreme Court stated that “the new death penalty statutes [formed] in Florida, Georgia, and Texas were constitutional” (© Death Penalty Information Center, 2019) and the Court lifted the suspension on capital punishment saying that the law could be resumed on the condition that it be used only for “particularly atrocious crimes” (The Times Editorial Board, 2019). Since the reinstatement of the death penalty States have been revising or eliminating their laws on capital punishment. A few states have taken the latter step and have thrown capital punishment out the window. Others have kept it and made revisions as needed. As states began to rewrite their laws to be in harmony with the Supreme Court’s mandate, they try to reduce the arbitrariness found in the execution of a human being. Though the law is different in every state, each State is doing their best to find fair grounds upon which they should build for these punishments. The States have laws expressing their opinion of what is right, but the people also have a voice that has been expressed throughout history. “Capital punishment should be abolished” says Evans, a creditable writer for Gale, because of how much it negatively effects those involved. Stepping back and looking at such an action gives one a vivid perspective of who is affected.
As Evans states, “The death penalty creates additional victims,” the person being convicted, their family, and friends are all being affected by such a devastating penalty. The judge and jury who execute the punishment and the lawyers who have the obligation to persecute or defend such a person with death on the line are also affected by these cases. “If nearly every murder can be eligible for a death sentence, then the system has swung back to arbitrariness—leaving the decision whether to seek capital punishment up to the whims of prosecutors, and its application to juries” (The Times Editorial Board, 2019). Justice Stephen G. Breyer, a writer in for the Times Editorial Board, said “I would ask… whether the death penalty violates the Constitution… It’s a medieval system too fraught with human error to be relied upon for determining whether someone should live or die.” There have been countless people falsely accused and sentenced who have lost their lives due to human error. The Courts still use the old systems of life to govern the way they punish the people. Are those ways still justifiable? Have they not outgrown the barbarian ways of, an eye for an eye? For if they continue killing those who have murdered, then one is led to ask, why should we not consider the death penalty murder in and of itself and cause the executioners to be tried for their murders committed? Who then do we call the murderers and law enforcers? “I don’t want the state killing in my name” cries Kim Evans, a creditable writer for Gale. She also argues that our justice system is set up to help people, to “provide remedy to victims, not vengeance” (Evans, 2012).
Why then do we execute criminals like animals instead of improving the world by rehabilitating them? The justice system is set up in a way to provide change in those who accept it; in place of the death sentence there is life imprisonment without parole, thus fulfilling the punishment for the savage crimes committed. “At the end of the day the death penalty is not about those who kill, it is about us. We, as a society, become what we say we abhor, killers,” “[it is] revolting to our humanity” (Evans, 2012). Do we really want to become the very thing that we despise? Then why do we play God in our own hands to consider someone is worthily to still live or if they are so evil that they must die? In 1999 James Morgan was unfairly prosecuted and sentenced to death. His story is a good example of how the judicial system is humanly faulty. With only a few weeks of preparation and inadequate information presented, the judge decided to finish the trial and declare that he was fit for capital punishment.
The mental health experts never participated in the case, therefore the jury never heard about the traumatic brain injuries that Morgan had suffered growing up. “Morgan suffered from severe neurocognitive impairments” (Goldsmith, 2018). These damages done to his brain “left [Morgan] unable to control his impulses at the time of the crime” (Goldsmith, 2018). Had the judge and jury known these facts he never would have been on death row; these factors “almost always leads to a life sentence instead of death” (Goldsmith, 2018). June 29, 1972 marks history for America; the day the Supreme Court ruled Capital punishment unconstitutional “was lucky timing for Carl Reimann” (Chicago Tribune, 2018). “On the evening of Dec. 29, 1972, the 31-year-old ex-convict, [Carl Reimann,] accompanied by girlfriend Betty Piche, went into the Pine Village Steak House in Yorkville wielding a semiautomatic pistol. The pair took about $640 from the cash register and from the five people who were present at the outset and told a family that entered during the robbery to sit down.
Reimann and Piche then headed for the door. But he was not done. Before leaving, a state appeals court later recounted, ‘Reimann methodically, carefully and slowly shot the five original parties in the restaurant.’ All five died of their wounds, including 16-year-old Catherine Rekate, a part-time dishwasher, and George Pashade, the 75- year-old chef. The family that arrived during the holdup was spared, apparently because Reimann’s gun was empty” (Chicago Tribune, 2018). Shortly after both carl and Betty were found and prosecuted, both found worthy to be sentenced to a life sentence without parole. “Had it been available when Reimann carried out his massacre, he might well have been sent to death row” (Chicago Tribune, 2018). Carl would be dead or in jail for the massacre committed; instead he is now a free man. “On April 26, the Illinois Prisoner Review Board voted to release him from the Dixon Correctional Center, and he left that day. That’s a shame, because the only just outcome would have been for him to die in prison” (Chicago Tribune), since the death penalty wasn’t a valid option at the time.
We are not a cold, heartless humanity that wants vengeance for every murder that happens, but justice must be served. “Rehabilitation and parole are legitimate goals for many prison inmates. But for someone who cold-bloodedly murdered five people, there should be no possibility of freedom, ever” (Chicago tribune, 2018). On Dec. 29,1972 Reimann could have grabbed the $640 and left but instead he “cruelly slaughtered” (Chicago Tribune, 2018) many people. If Catherine Rekate were alive today, she’d be 61. “She didn’t get to live to the old age that Reimann has attained. She and the other victims will never be released from the place he sent them. Never would have been the right time to release him” (Chicago Tribune, 2018). Since then Illinois has recognized that when a person is convicted with “two or more murders [it most likely] lead[s] to a sentence of life without parole” (Chicago Tribune, 2018). Capital punishment is needed to get people like these off ofoff the streets and out of this world to make it a better place. With the States not being in unison and with the Supreme Court deciding not to get involved, how do the people truly feel about it? How can the people take a stance when their leaders haven’t taken a definite side? This debate has gone on since the Eighteenth Century B.C. and will continue for centuries to come.
The basis of the argument is centered on the value of a human life and when or if that human can give up their right to live. There will always be a difference of opinions between both sides, but how will we settle those differences? The respect both sides hold for each other while still debating over sensitive topics will govern if this country will be united or split farther away with time. This particular debate is one of the most sensitive of all because it involves the value of life itself. Though this debate has lasted for centuries, our nations have taken their stances and are adjusting according to circumstances. Opinions can change as time goes on and the world changes almost daily. Who knows what the world will hold in ten10-years? One day someone will ask you what your stance is on capital punishment and you will need to know. How will you respond to their inquiry?
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