Write a short note on death penalty as a method of punishing offenders

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The extent to which the death penalty has been used and the methods for executing offenders have varied considerably in different societies. Criminals have been hanged, electrocuted, shot, burned, gassed, drowned, boiled in oil, broken at the wheel, guillotined, stoned, put in an iron coffin, pierced with a sharp stake, stabbed with a sword, and poisoned. In essence, almost every lethal method has at one time or another been used by some society. The death penalty has been used in the United States throughout most of the country's history. In colonial America, "witches" in some communities were burned at the stake. While the West was being developed, individuals who stole a horse or committed certain other crimes were sometimes shot or hanged (sometimes by a lynch mob or a "kangaroo court"). From the time of the Civil War until the recent past, African Americans in the South who were thought to have committed a serious crime against Whites (for example, rape) were sometimes lynched. Gas chambers, firing squads, lethal injections, hangings, and electric chairs are the current methods of execution used in the United States. From 1967 to 1977, the death penalty was not used in this country, partly due to U.S. Supreme Court decisions that ruled the penalty unconstitutional. In October 1976, the Supreme Court changed its position on this issue and ruled that states may execute murderers under certain guidelines. On January 17, 1977, Gary Gilmore was the first person in a decade to be executed, and the sensational case attracted national attention. Gilmore was convicted of ruthlessly killing several people. The continued use of the death penalty remains a controversial national issue.
The primary argument for using the death penalty for certain crimes is that it is assumed to have a deterrent effect. This assumption is questionable, as statistics generally do not show a corresponding decrease in serious crime rates when a country adopts the death penalty. Also, there is no clearcut evidence that when a country discontinues use of the death penalty, there will be an increase in serious crimes. Additional arguments for use of the death penalty are that (a) some crimes (such as brutal, premeditated murder) are so abominable that the offender deserves the ultimate punishment and (b) it is less expensive to society to put hardened criminals to death than to incarcerate them for life. (In reality, executing someone is more expensive than lifetime incarceration, as huge amounts of legal expenses are incurred on the appeals that precede an execution.) Arguments against use of the death penalty are as follows: (a) it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, being the ultimate punishment; (b) if the convicted person is later found innocent, the penalty is irreparable; (c) the "eye for an eye" approach is inconsistent with civilized, humanitarian ideals; (d) the "right to life" is a basic right that should not be infringed on; and (e) the death penalty appears to be assigned in a discriminatory manner (African Americans and Latinos are proportionately much more likely than Whites to be sentenced to death).

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