should the death penalty in Texas be abolished? If so, explain. If not, would yo
ID: 131890 • Letter: S
Question
should the death penalty in Texas be abolished? If so, explain. If not, would you make any changes to the system? Explain and support all your ideas. please give the opinion in 5-8 sentences with quotes and citiation.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/execution/readings/texas.html
http://tcadp.org/get-informed/texas-death-penalty-facts/
https://www.balancedpolitics.org/death_penalty.htm
below are some background info
Remember focus on critical thinking and not your own personal views. This is crucial to earning a passing grade for this assignment. I want to see research and analysis of that research. Do not forget citations as needed. However, citations can be linked into the post itself rather than listed as formal citations. Do not forget in text citations as well. That said, in the replies with your classmates, you can broaden the discussion with more personal reactions.
The grading rubric will follow the same rules and requirements as listed for the discussion board in the syllabus, but you do have more time on this single topic and research should reflect this as an expanded topic.
Your response post to the DB prompt is due on the board no later than TUESDAY Jan. 2 at 11:59pm. All other replies and posts must be completed by FRIDAY Jan 5 at 11:59PM.
A bit of background:
The 8th amendment of the Bill of Rights prohibits government (both at the national and state level) from administering "cruel and usual punishment." Constitutional scholars and jurists disagree as to whether or not the use of capital punishment is prohibited by the Constitution. The Supreme Court has made several rulings on this question:
Furman v. Georgia (1972) The Court ruled that the use of the death penalty must show consitency in application. This ruling put into effect a 4 year moritorium on all executions while states with application problems revised their criminal justice systems.
Gregg v. Georgia (1976) After following the ruling of the Furman case, Georgia revised its process and re-implemented the death penalty. The Court ruled in favor of Georgia stating the death penalty in and of itself is not unconstitutional. The question is in how it is applied.
Godfrey v. Georgia (1980) The Court rules that the death penalty can not be used to punish crimes of ordinary murder. The death penalty can only be applied for capital crimes.
Texas which, along with the rest of the country, halted all executions after the Furman case will reinstate capital punishment in 1982. Today under the Texas penal code, only a handful of crimes are identified as capital crimes. These include:
Murder of an on duty police officer or firefighter
Murder in the course of committing or attempting to commit a felony offense (e.g. robbery, rape etc)
Murder for hire
Murder of a child under the age of 10
Multiple murders (two or more committed in the same criminal act)
Murder while attempting to escape a penal institution
Murder for revenge/retaliation against an officer of the court.
Atkins v. Virginia (2002) The Court ruled the execution of a mentally retarded defendant is unconstitutional.
Roper v. Simmons (2005) No state can execute a defendant who was under the age of 18 at the time the crime was committed.
Kennedy v. Louisiana (2008) Capital punishment may not be applied for any crime where a life was not taken.
Unanswered Questions About the Death Penalty:
Critics of the death penalty argue there are several flaws in the legal system that prevent a fair application of the death penalty. They point to several factors such as the fact that innocent people are sometimes executed, the existence of proprietorial misconduct and police corruption, and the reality that the death penalty is applied more often to the poor and minorities.
Some argue the cost of the death penalty is prohibitive. In order to meet the constitutional due process requirements, Texas will spend approximately $1.3 million on each death penalty trial. Life in prison is about 1/3 that cost.
Others argue that
the time for using the death penalty has passes. The US remains the only western democracy to use the death penalty. (More than half the nations in the world have abolished the use of the death penalty) In fact, the number of executions in the US rank the US 5th in the world behind China, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.
Explanation / Answer
The State Governor Date24/Jan/2017
XYZ
Subject : Personal views on Capital Punishment
Dear Sir / Madam,
I wish to draw your attention towards my personal views on the matter of Capital Punishment. Though it is true that a strict law, like capital punishment must exist in the country and state for deterring crime, we as human beings should take a note of the concerns and impacts of such a law on society and human belief systems. Capital punishment, also known as death penalty, has been recommended for very grave and intolerable crimes against humanity, where a clear intention of the crime has been established with the help of factual evidence. There are theories in support of this death penalty like Utilitarian principle which states that it brings happiness to the aggrieved families of the people afflicted with crime and it also states that death penalty will prevent future crimes. The Opponents state that the judgement of a death penalty for a criminal is a human process and there is a possibility of error in judgment which can lead to a wrong decision. The Proponents state that death penalty doesn’t create fear in criminal minds and it can’t prevent future crimes. My view is that any law is enacted to prevent first and correct if prevention is no longer possible or in very rare cases. Since Capital punishment is an irreversible act and judgment is prone to error, severity of this punishment can be detrimental to a mature society in the long run. Also the objective of a law is to reform the society any punishment should trigger positive change or reform and not stop it. Death penalty stops reforming the criminal. The punishment should drive realization of the criminal’s crime which is in effect the real cause for societal reforms and prevent and minimize crimes in the society. Capital punishment should be carried out for the rarest of the rare crimes and where it is established by expert jury that reform of a criminal is not possible while in other cases, punishment should encourage reform.
Yours Sincerely, ABC
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