anything on capital punishment? including mainly opinions but also some facts, statistics, history, and case studies?

Question

anything on capital punishment? including mainly opinions but also some facts, statistics, history, and case studies?

Answer 1

I'm not quite sure what this is exactly asking but I'll just give a little anecdote...

In the 90s, Singapore got a lot of bad press for caning an American teenager who had been charged (rightly so) for vandalizing. Caning is a legal form of punishment in Singapore, which is strange to the eyes of many more liberal Americans, considering its reputation for being so modern. Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore at the time, thus made headlines in American media. Lee's daughter was in America at the time studying abroad, and she was pulled over by a police officer for speeding. He recognized her last name from her father on the news, and said "I'm glad you guys caned that boy. My mother did it to me all the time and I think I'm better for it." (it's worth noting that the teen was also a drug addict, which is also strictly forbidden in Singapore).

I don't know, I just think that's a rather funny story and it highlights both sides of the argument rather well.

Answer 2

If this is for a school project the best place to start is at

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/student-resource-center

Click on ideas for research papers and debates.



You'll find the subject broken down into topics. It a very good website.



My take (sources with links to cases below)



For the worst crimes, life without parole is better, for many reasons. I’m against the death penalty not because of sympathy for criminals, but because it doesn't reduce crime, prolongs the anguish of families of murder victims, costs a whole lot more than life in prison, and, worst of all, risks executions of innocent people.



The worst thing about it. Errors:

The system can make tragic mistakes. As of now, 150 wrongly convicted people on death row have been exonerated. We’ll never know for sure how many people have been executed for crimes they didn’t commit. DNA is rarely available in homicides, often irrelevant and can’t guarantee we won’t execute innocent people.



Keeping killers off the streets for good:

Life without parole, on the books in most states, also prevents reoffending. It means what it says, and spending the rest of your life locked up, knowing you’ll never be free, is no picnic. Two big advantages:

-an innocent person serving life can be released from prison

-life without parole costs less than the death penalty



Costs, a big surprise to many people:

It's well known that the death penalty costs far more than life sentences. Not many people know why. The upfront part of the legal process, as well as appeals, are much more complex in death penalty cases, because the punishment sought is irreversible. We know that innocent people were executed in the past (in the US and elsewhere.) The largest costs come at the pre-trial and trial stages and they apply whether or not the defendant is convicted, let alone sentenced to death.



Crime reduction (deterrence):

Homicide rates for states that use the death penalty are consistently higher than for those that don’t. The most recent FBI data confirms this. For people without a conscience, fear of being caught is the best deterrent. The death penalty is no more effective in deterring others than life sentences.



Who gets it:

The death penalty magnifies social and economic inequalities. It isn't reserved for the worst crimes, but for defendants with the worst lawyers. It doesn't apply to people with money. Practically everyone sentenced to death had to rely on an overworked public defender.



Victims:

Like no other punishment, it subjects families of murder victims to a process which makes healing even harder. Even families who have supported it in principle have testified to the protracted and unavoidable damage that the death penalty process does to families like theirs and that life without parole is an appropriate alternative.



The death penalty comes down to retribution or revenge—the only plausible reasons to support it.



http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/murder-rates-nationally-and-state

for links to state by state homicide rates from the FBI



http://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/about.aspx



http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/07/090907fa_fact_grann

about Cameron Todd Willingham, a man executed for a crime he didn't commit



http://deathpenaltyinfo.org/costs-death-penalty



http://ejusa.org/newsline/clipping/2010/03/28/death-penalty-hurts-not-helps-families-murder-victims-op-ed

Victim family member on the death penalty

Answer 3

There are many books on the subject of capital punishment.

Ask at your library.

Answer 4

The Death Penalty: Justice and Saving More Innocents

Dudley Sharp, 8/2014





The death penalty has a foundation in justice and it spares more innocent lives.





The majority populations of all countries, likely, support the death penalty for some crimes (1).





Why? Justice.





Anti death penalty arguments are either false or the pro death penalty arguments are stronger.





No "Botched" Execution - Arizona (or Ohio)

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2014/08/no-botched-execution-arizona-or-ohio.html





Anti Victim: Anti Death Penalty Movement

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2014/04/anti-victim-anti-death-penalty-movement.html





The Death Penalty: Do Innocents Matter? A Review of All Innocence Issues

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-death-penalty-do-innocents-matter.html





The Death Penalty: Fair and Just

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/12/is-death-peanalty-fairjust.html





New Testament Death Penalty Support Overwhelming

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2014/01/new-testament-death-penalty-support.html





THE DEATH PENALTY: SAVING MORE INNOCENT LIVES



The Innocent Frauds: Standard Anti Death Penalty Strategy

and

THE DEATH PENALTY: SAVING MORE INNOCENT LIVES

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-innocent-frauds-standard-anti-death.html







OF COURSE THE DEATH PENALTY DETERS: A review of the debate

and

MURDERERS MUCH PREFER LIFE OVER EXECUTION

99.7% of murderers tell us "Give me life, not execution"

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/03/of-course-death-penalty-deters.html





Saving Costs with The Death Penalty

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/02/death-penalty-cost-saving-money.html





MORAL FOUNDATIONS





Immanuel Kant: "If an offender has committed murder, he must die. In this case, no possible substitute can satisfy justice. For there is no parallel between death and even the most miserable life, so that there is no equality of crime and retribution unless the perpetrator is judicially put to death.". "A society that is not willing to demand a life of somebody who has taken somebody else's life is simply immoral."





Pope Pius XII; "When it is a question of the execution of a man condemned to death it is then reserved to the public power to deprive the condemned of the benefit of life, in expiation of his fault, when already, by his fault, he has dispossessed himself of the right to live." 9/14/52





John Murray: "Nothing shows the moral bankruptcy of a people or of a generation more than disregard for the sanctity of human life." "... it is this same atrophy of moral fiber that appears in the plea for the abolition of the death penalty." "It is the sanctity of life that validates the death penalty for the crime of murder. It is the sense of this sanctity that constrains the demand for the infliction of this penalty. The deeper our regard for life the firmer will be our hold upon the penal sanction which the violation of that sanctity merit." (Page 122 of Principles of Conduct).





Plato: “Longer life is no boon to the sinner himself in such a case, and that his decease will bring a double blessing to his neighbors; it will be a lesson to them to keep themselves from wrong, and will rid society of an evil man. These are the reasons for which a legislator is bound to ordain the chastisement of death for such desperate villainies, and for them alone”





William A. Petit, Jr.: "Justice is the first virtue of social institutions," according to philosopher John Rawls. It transcends national borders, races and cultures. The death penalty is the appropriate societal response to the brutal and willful act of capital felony murder. Every murder destroys a portion of society. Those murdered can never grow and contribute to humankind; the realization of their potential will never be achieved. I support the death penalty not as a deterrent or for revenge or closure, but because it is just and because it prevents murderers from ever harming again. By intentionally, unlawfully taking the life of another, a murderer breaks a sacrosanct law of society and forfeits his own right to live. (In a home invasion, Dr. Petit was, severely injured, his wife Jennifer and their 11 year old daughter Michaela were raped and murdered. Both daughters, Michaela and Hayley were burned, alive.)





John Locke: "A criminal who, having renounced reason... hath, by the unjust violence and slaughter he hath committed upon one, declared war against all mankind, and therefore may be destroyed as a lion or tyger, one of those wild savage beasts with whom men can have no society nor security." And upon this is grounded the great law of Nature, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." Second Treatise of Civil Government.





Saint (& Pope) Pius V: "The just use of (executions), far from involving the crime of murder, is an act of paramount obedience to this (Fifth) Commandment which prohibits murder." "The Roman Catechism of the Council of Trent" (1566).





Jean-Jacques Rousseau: "In killing the criminal, we destroy not so much a citizen as an enemy. The trial and judgments are proofs that he has broken the Social Contract, and so is no longer a member of the State." (The Social Contract)





3300 additional pro death penalty quotes

http://prodpquotes.info/





1) 86% Death Penalty Support: Highest Ever - April 2013

World Support Remains High

95% of Murder Victim's Family Members Support Death Penalty

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/11/86-death-penalty-support-highest-ever.html





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Victim's Voices - These are the murder victims

www(DOT)murdervictims.com/Voices/voices.html





Much more, upon request. [e-mail]