Capital Punishment and its Effects on Society“Lizzie Borden took an ax and gave her mother 40 blows. When he saw what he had done, he gave his father 41”. While the infamous children's skipping rope rhyme is exaggerated compared to the 18 and 11 blows received by the stepmother and father respectively, the rhyme gives a sense of America's horrific history of violent crime. In fact, the homicide rate in the United States is approximately four times higher than that of the European Union (Turow 42). With this drastic difference in mind, it would certainly make sense that capital punishment is more widespread in the US than in the EU. Most of the world's population lives in countries where the death penalty is legal (Kronenwetter 88). Does this statistic coincide with higher murder rates? It definitely seems plausible, however there is no way to be sure. In all 38 states where capital punishment is legal, murder must be committed in the 1st degree to qualify for the death penalty, meaning it is a capital crime (Kronenwetten 18). The death penalty is said to be intended to serve two major social purposes: punishment and deterrence against further capital crimes (Brenner 62). So if this is capital punishment in its theoretical sense, how well does it work in the real world? The current justice system, while effective in most cases, leaves ample room for errors that could cause real danger to society once a dangerous, convicted criminal is released and, therefore, require the death penalty. This point is demonstrated in the words of Judge Alfred J. Talley of New York: “If I, as an individual, have the right to kill in self-defense, why does not the State, which is nothing more than… half the paper. .....Stuart. The Death Penalty: An American Story. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2002. Print. Bedau, Hugo Adam. and Paul G. Cassell. Death penalty debate: Should America have capital punishment?: Experts on both sides make their best case. New York: Oxford UP, 2004. Print.Brenner, Samuel. The death penalty. Detroit, MI: Greenhaven/Thomson Gale, 2006. Print.Henderson, Harry and Stephen A. Flanders. Capital punishment. New York: Facts on File, 2000. Print.Kronenwetter, Michael. Capital punishment: a reference manual. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1993. Print.Robinson, Martin. “Revealed: The five murderers freed from life sentences to kill AGAIN.” Post online. Associated Newspapers, 16 September 2013. Web. 08 April 2014. Turow, Scott. Definitive punishment: a lawyer's reflections on the management of the death penalty. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2003. Print.
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