DEATH PENALTY IN THE UNITED STATES

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Death penalty in the United States

Greetings to you all, today I will present the death penalty with a concentration and focus on the United States of America. And to start I would like us to think of how the death of a loved one would affect us. how would you deal with the grief of knowing that a loved one is being murdered for a wrong he/she did and which there can be another way to deal with? It is these questions that we need to synthesize and try to think clearly as I try to lure you to my side of conviction that the death sentence is murder and it should be abolished. When it comes to murder we all think of human life and how it is precious therefore this kind of death even though for reasons which are considered justifiable cannot be justified because no one in the whole universe can exactly determine the worth of human life. The death penalty still exists in the United States and it is an issue that causes a lot of concern especially to the families which have to go through the experience of losing a person they love and value (Bedau, 1998). The death penalty is defined as the punishment by a court of law for very serious offenses like espionage, piracy, and hijacking among others. As of 2015, 31 states in the whole of the US approved of the death penalty for some crimes that were committed by the citizens (Bedau, 1998). 

Even though the death penalty has existed for a very long time in the United States of America there were those significant moments that brought attention to the people of those times. It began with people being murdered for offenses like witchcraft and this trickled down to the court system and the government when it was established (‌ Banner, & Banner, 2009). ). The death penalty has always existed and it came about as a way to re-align society and ensure the moral standards were upheld. However, with the desire to uphold the moral standards it is was not possible at times to distinguish between morality and causing unnecessary pain and harm and therefore the death penalty turned into what was undesirable and unwanted with time.

One of the most significant moments in the US is when the supreme court overturned most of the death penalty cases, this was especially in 1972 whereby through the case of Furman v. Georgia the supreme court overturned 600 death cases that were about to be performed. In 1977 execution resumed with the murder of Gary Gilmore. Therefore the death penalty ceased from 1972 to the year 1977 due to the decision of the Supreme Court (Malkani, 2016).). The moral correctness of the death penalty is always questioned and it is always very difficult to find concrete or specific stand about the issue. However the various conventionally approved institutions of guiding and giving moral direction also view the death penalty as wrong. In the religious world especially among Christians murder is one of the greatest sins a person can commit and therefore these acts support my stand that murder is not the right thing to do.

The general public also feels that this death penalty should be abolished due to its devastating effects on the family of the person who is sentenced to death. I also believe you would not like it if a person close to you gets murdered even if they did how wrong.

The United States has changed its laws to end the death penalty by adopting the 5 non-abiding resolutions through which it calls all the world nations to end the death penalty. Even though the current state in the United States there is permission for this to happen it is not as robust as it was before and this is towards positive regard.

In conclusion, I can say that death is not the answer to the ills that afflict our society rather the evil that is done is a reflection of what our society has become and we must endeavor to root out the causes of this rot rather than focus solely on dealing with the consequences of our formation of the young ones.

References

Bedau, H. A. (Ed.). (1998). The death penalty in America. Oxford University Press.B. S., T. A. U., & Facebook, F. (n.d.). Recent Legal History of the Death Penalty in America. ThoughtCo. Retrieved March 4, 2021, from https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-death-penalty-in-america-3896747#:~:text=As%20of%20January%201

‌Banner, S., & Banner, S. (2009). The death penalty: An American history. Harvard University Press.Malkani, B. (2016). Dignity and the death penalty in the United States Supreme Court. Hastings Const. LQ, 44, 145.