M06 Critical Thinking 2- Courts
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Option 5: Is capital punishment a viable sentencing option in the United States
today?
Queen Graddy
Ivy Tech Community College
Crim 101
Professor (or Dr.) Firstname Lastname
12/4/2023
In this day in age, capital punishment is mostly used as a tool that talks about what
America should not do when it comes down to punishment against criminals. Now a days, we
see capital punishment in only 27 out of 50 states use capital punishment as a form of
punishment against criminals. Many people believe that capital punishment is a bad idea.
Some believe that it is used as a tool to further push racism, in Death by
Stereotype( Grosso, Catherine, Fagan Jeffrey, Michael Laurence, etc.) is one of the many that
believe in this claim. In the article they state “Race as a contested jurisprudential factor in death
sentencing and execution reached a watershed in McCleskey v. Kemp.81 Although the Court
concluded that the proof of arbitrariness arising from race in death sentences was inadequate to
prove a constitutional violation, forty years of continued study since then have demonstrated that
the system is indeed arbitrary. Despite the strong evidence of interracial and intraracial
sentencing disparities, evidence that the Court did not contest, the McCleskey majority required
a showing of discriminatory purpose to satisfy the evidentiary demands of a discrimination
claim.” (Grosso, Catherine, 2019)
Samuel Gross is one of the many individuals against it, he claims “It is a policy that has
no affirmative value whatsoever in modern states. In particular, it does not deter murder or crime
in general. It is also extremely expensive. It inflicts huge costs and pain on many people,
including the surviving victims of capital crimes and the family members of those who are
killed”(Gross, 2018). In my own opinion however I beg to differ,
While I agree that capital punishment is expensive, to me it is not meant as a tool to deter
murder or crime in general. There are three different types of reasons for capital punishment, the
just deserts “The simple and forward claim that some people deserve to die for what they have
done”, the revenge “uses revenge attempt to appeal to the idea that survivors, victims, and the
state are entitles to closure”, and the protection which claims, “protection asserts that offenders,
once executed, can commit no further crimes”. I am a firm believer of the protection, there are
some criminals that have done some pretty horrible things that in my opinion, deserves capital
punishment to further make sure no other victim is harmed by said criminal ever again.
I believe that is what capital punishment should be used for, it is not meant to further
deter those but to punish those who deserve said punishment. It is a viable sentencing option that
should be used in this day in age.
References
Grosso, C. M., Fagan, J., Laurence, M., Baldus, D., Woodworth, G., & Newell, R. (2019).
Death by Stereotype: Race, Ethnicity, and California’s Failure to Implement Furman’s
Narrowing Requirement.
UCLA Law Review
,
66
(6), 1394–1442.
https://search-ebscohost-
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Gross, S. R. (2018). The Death Penalty, Public Opinion, and Politics in the United States.
St. Louis University Law Journal, 62(4), 763–779.
https://search-ebscohost-
com.allstate.libproxy.ivytech.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=136685001&site=ehost-
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Shmalleger, F.(2020). Criminal Justice: a brief introduction 305.