Portfolio Paper 2

Should people sit in a cell and receive their three meals a day after murdering, raping, abusing or assaulting someone? Or should they be sentenced to the death penalty and no longer be living? Is this right or is this wrong? Capital punishment is something that is accepted in some countries but in other countries it is not. Is this form of punishment constitutional or unconstitutional?
There is a lot of history behind capital punishment. It is used for the execution of criminals and political opponents to punish people for crime. The United States has mixed feelings about the death penalty. Most states do allow capital punishment except for 13 including: Wisconsin, Hawaii, Alaska, Main, Iowa, Michigan, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia and Rhode Island. I think that all states should have capital punishment because it is not different if you commit murder in one state as to in another. Once convicted the convict then goes on to the second part of the trial, the punishment phase. Overtime, different states have used different forms of execution for punishment since the early 1900’s but have recently declared laws as to what forms can be used. The most common form of capital punishment is now lethal injections followed by electrocution. Each year there are more than 200 people that are put on death row, California being the state with the most convicts on death row (660 out of 3,500).
Capital punishment was once ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. It was ruled unconstitutional under the eighth amendment stating it was cruel and unusual punishment. There was a wait for execution which was typically seven to eight years. This was taken into congress and was ruled out when lethal injections were founded. There are still some confusions with the death penalty on whether it should be legal in all states or not. Some states say that they do not want the death penalty because some innocent people are placed on death row when not proven one hundred percent guilty. Another factor is the eighth amendment as some people do see it as cruel and unusual punishment. Obviously, there has to be evidence and guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in order for someone to be punished to death row. Although, in some cases people are convicted of a crime and it ends up after some time has passed it turns out that they didn’t do it. Should there be a wait to be convicted of a certain amount of years or should it be done instantly? There are groups of people that can not be sentenced to execution including: pregnant women, juveniles, anyone with mental retardation, and any girl who has convicted a crime as a minor. Why? Is this fair that if a 17 year old girl has murdered someone and there is cold hard evidence to this, why should they not be sentenced to death row? It is stated in Time magazine that people under the age of 18 are not fully developed and are not a legal adult so they can not be convicted as one. I don’t think that this is fair. I believe that no matter what age you are and no matter what state of mind you are in if you murder someone and there is evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that it was you who did this crime then you should be sentenced to death row. This may seem a little harsh but think about how many murders we could avoid? If everyone was sentenced to death row and people knew there would be NO exceptions if you are convicted of this, do you think as many people would mess around with it? I believe that some people are convicted of this crime and think they will still sit in a cell and receive their meals that they need everyday and watch television. If people do not have the opportunity to do this I don’t think that they will do these crimes. In 1642 there were 364 juveniles offenders that were executed later this was signed and ratified by the United states and some other countries that this is unconstitutional for a juvenile to be sentenced to the death penalty. Time magazine also states that you can not be sentenced to death row if you are mentally handicapped. This is an exception to me, I think that people with mental retardation are in a whole different category then anyone else. Congress should come up with a law for people of mental retardation if they commit such a crime. They should not be let off free but also should not have such a harsh punishment.
Overall, Capital Punishment is a hard topic to discuss. There are many different circumstances to this. Some people believe that it is something that no one deserves, but how is anyone ever going to learn if they aren’t sentenced to a harsh punishment. When people sit around and watch other people getting off free or sitting in a cell, although it may not be fun, they are still receiving three meals a day and getting to watch television and doing some things that they enjoy. There are still some kinks in the system that I think need to be worked out but for the most part I think that capital punishment is a good punishment.