Essays on Death Penalty

Assignment #4: Parties and Elections

The paper will examine the party platforms from the end of the 20th century and hence the year 2000. The examination of the Republican and Democratic platforms will show the similarities and differences between the platforms represented by the running candidates Albert Gore Jr. and George W. Bush. Bush has won the 2000 presidential elections with 271 electoral votes compared to the 266 electoral votes won by Albert Gore, Jr. The first differences seen in the platforms is the length since the Democratic platform with 24.220 words is shorter as the Republican platform with 34.555 words (The American Presidency ...

Capital punishment is one of the debatable forms of punishment in the United States. There are various views that have been raised in support and against capital punishment. Historically, capital punishment has existed for many decades. Reformist continue to support the use of alternative forms of crime. The capital punishment was inflicted in America to punish those who spied against the state and committed dangerous crimes. Also, the death penalty began to be used in the correctional facilities (Mandery, & Mandery, 2011). The legislatures inflicted capital punishment to reduce crimes in society. The legislatures believed that capital punishment was the ...

When we are talking about the death penalty, what state are we thinking about? Of course it is Texas. Everyone knows that this state is, for sure, the capital of death punishment. It got this name after numerous executions with lethal injection. As for example, we can see that the quantity of such death penalties here since 1976 includes more than five hundred cases (DPIC). First of all, this number shows us that Texas was actually a leader state for such executions. Secondly, it has the historical grounding. The first such action was taken here – on December 7, 1982 ...

The death sentence is not only unjust but also unethical. I, therefore, believe that it should be abolished. The death sentence is against the human rights, and this makes it be an immoral way of sentencing people. I believe that any administration across the world should abolish death sentence as a form of capital punishment. Capital punishment is the infliction of deaths for capital crimes such as murder, rape and even crime (Theroux& Krasemann, 2014). This form of punishment is just like the eye for an eye sentiment, which is also unjust and immoral. Sentencing people by murdering them ...

This paper is about Freddie Lee Hall and the review of the case Hall v Florida No. 12-10882 (2014), with reference to Atkins v Virginia. Mr. Hall committed multiple crimes of rape, kidnap, robbery and murder, although with an accomplice in 1978. There was an effort to refute his claims of being intellectually challenged because of the degree of planning needed to conduct such a robbery and also a consideration of the fact that he had an IQ score of 71. Automatically, the fact that he killed two people, one of them a deputy, should have gotten him a ...

1. There are many situations when telling a lie can be considered moral. In this instances, the “truth” is usually called a white lie. For example, if you are trying to protect your close friend from someone’s judgement, it will be ethical to tell a lie. It is important to consider the feelings of your family and friends. In this cases, one should not tell the full truth but just partial. When you overheard, some guys calling your friend not pretty, there is no necessity to tell it to your friend right away. This truth is likely to ...

Introduction

There are numerous debates about the death penalty in the United States. America continues to allow states to decide whether to apply the death penalty or not. There are 32 states in America that have the death penalty as opposed to 18 states that have abolished the practice. The United States of America continues to act as the leader of the free world. American exceptionalism is premised on the fact that America is a uniquely free nation based on democratic ideals and personal liberties. America has led the process of exporting liberal democracies around the world and many nations ...

I. Introduction- The Life of Socrates (Perdue, 2014)

Overview of the Hierarchy- A brief overview of who mentored whom, and their greatest contribution to the study of Philosophy.

Brief biography of Socrates- An overview of some of the most significant information about the life of Socrates. II. Body- The Apology of Socrates (Plato) The Accusation and the Accusers (17a to 19a)– Narrates the accusation against Socrates, and how he addressed these accusations. He also recognized the difficulty of convincing the youth of his innocence. The Oracle at Delphi (19a to 24e0- Socrates addressed his Meletus, and his accusation about his misuse of his wisdom. As he tried to disprove the oracle in Delphi, he then proved that it is ...

Discussion on Various Topics

The problem relates to how marijuana should be legalized throughout the United States. There are now twenty-four U.S. jurisdictions that have enacted medical marijuana laws (MMLs), or laws that protect individuals who use marijuana upon recommendation of physicians, farmers who plant and supply the market, and doctors who issue prescription regarding use of marijuana (Smart 1). The legalization of medical marijuana will create a need for change, for example, new laws, policies, knowledge of medical and psychological effects, and education to help people understand the proper use of marijuana. There are many issues to be resolved if legalization of ...

David Sinclair, the father of five-month-old Joshua, was sentenced to seven years and three months in jail. Originally the cause of the tot’s death was unidentified. The man stated that the baby simply turned blue and stopped breathing, that’s why he immediately dialed 999. The High Court in Glasgow that took jurisdiction soon discovered information. A team of medical experts found out that the man assaulted his baby son by shaking him and caused the injuries which killed him (Glanfield, 2016). Though Sinclair knew that he shook Joshua approximately five seconds, he disclosed that only after the ...

Introduction

Exordium The death penalty is something which has existed for centuries in various countries, but recently it has been coming under increased scrutiny. More people are turning to the view that it is somehow inhumane, or perhaps that it is immoral to say that we who obey and make the law are better than those break and oppose it, while still committing the same acts as they do (presuming that the offenders are murderers, of course). It could be said that the death penalty was a simple solution for a simpler time. Today, not only do we have the ...

There are various guidelines in the United States of America that decide how tests may be used in legal cases. The three main systems are statutory, case law, and the one that corresponds to the American Psychological Association. Even though these three have the same principles and main points, they differ on their approach and the stipulations that they set for practitioners. The more legal aspects of these procedures respond to either statute or case law. Mental health standards vary from state to state, including the competency to be applicable for capital punishment. There are federal statutes that must ...

The media plays a crucial role in society by reporting some of the heinous crimes that a number of individuals perpetrate. They might use the articles of criminal activities to inform, warn or report current stories. This essay will use and analyze two crime reports from The Guardian. These include an article on assault charges faced by a top entrepreneur in the country and the article of a notorious serial killer who has killed about 25 women over a span of two decades. Behavior theory and low self-control theory will explain the first article while mental illness and naturalization ...

Many people who support the death penalty believe that putting convicted criminals to death is a cheaper alternative than housing them in federal prisons for the rest of their lives. In fact, from prosecution to incarceration, the costs associated with carrying out capital punishment are far higher than the costs associated with imposing a life sentence. The burden of these high costs is almost entirely carried by tax payers in sentencing states. Researchers in Maryland empirical study analyzing the financial effects of the death penalty relative to lesser sentences handed down between 1978 and 1999. The researchers found that, ...

Jane Doe

Alaska, the state in which I reside currently does not allow for the death penalty. Two years prior to Alaska gaining statehood, the death penalty had already been abolished in 1957 (Death Penalty Information Center, 2016). Only seven individuals were executed in Alaska while under the miner’s court, which was in place prior to 1899; between the years of 1900-1957 an additional eight individuals were condemned to legal executions (Death Penalty Information Center, 2016). With a grand total of only 15 people killed as a result of murders committed, the state of Alaska clearly has not been a ...

In 1516 Thomas More published Utopia which described a perfect society situated on an unknown island. This book has become an embodiment of the perfect society from these times to the present. This book was not only a beginning of a new age in evaluating a prototype of the society, but also a new stage in literature. This book is still the most provocative and has a lot of opponents. As a proving example, The Guardian (‘Utopias, past and present: why Thomas More remains astonishingly radical’, 2015) reveals that this book is not a favorite one in Buckingham Palace. ...

The death penalty is defined by Alesina & La Ferrara, (2014) as the kind of punishment given to individuals who have committed capital crimes. When trying to justify punishment, one can adopt either a consequentialist or retributive justification. Pojman arguments in favor of the court’s decision is a combination of consequentialist and retributive reasons. Consequentialist justification views that harming those who have committed wrongdoing serves as an example to those who may want to do the same in future. Retributivists on the other hand claim that physically harming those who have committed criminal offenses is an intrinsic good. According ...

Yes, I agree with this decision, and the court was right to hold that capital punishment or capital punishment cannot be applied to the case of rape of minors for various reasons which I will set out in the subsequent sections of this paper. The law on the capital punishment in the US is found in the individual criminal codes of each state, but the jurisprudence of the death penalty has largely been shaped by the US Supreme Court. The law in this area was enunciated by the same court when it made it clear in Coker v Georgia ( ...

Death Penalty

When we talk about religions of the South, Islam is the first religion that comes to mind. In general, Islam accepts the death penalty, but emphasizes that forgiveness is preferable. Life was given to people by God and shall be treated as sacred, that is why only exceptional cases of justice and law may justify capital punishment. Only crimes of suitable severity may be commanded to death penalty by the respective court. Each case should be examined individually in order to avoid any mistake and to punish right person. However, many Muslims believe that sinners will find their punishment ...

These authors primarily talk about gender, race, and class discrimination in the United States of America. For instance, Margret& Patricia titled their work, "why Race, Class, and Gender still matter." The discussion is based on how different people in the United States are affected by different types of discrimination based on where they live, their color and gender. Although America seems like one of the less discriminative countries in the world, there are still central areas and situations where it is practiced. Through electing, the first black president, Barrack Obama, the war on discrimination of color seems to be ...

Many people agree that the most severe crimes deserve the most severe punishment. A great deal of people views the death penalty as a just and the most appropriate measure in this case. But do you know how many executions were carried out since 1978? Only thirteen. And these thirteen deaths cost about $4 billion taken from the pocket of California taxpayers (Alarcon and Mitchell 541). Impressive numbers, aren’t they? These figures speak for themselves. The death penalty system turned out to be ineffective and has to be replaced with more productive measures. The Proposition 34 is a ...

Basis of opinions

The presented case was argued on 13th October, 2004 where the constitutionality of capital punishments for juveniles was challenged through an appeal. The basis of the argument of the Eighth Amendment as it is related to unusual and cruel punishments for crimes committed by individuals (Lane, 2005). The decision of the Supreme Court in 1988 under Thompson v. Oklahoma was to bar the execution of offenders who are below 16 years. Another case was heard in 1989; Stanford v. Kentucky, which indicated the possibility of having capital punishments rendered to individuals below 17 years. Based on the evolving standards ...

Theoretical Essay

In the world of law punishment (alternative name – penalty) is considered as an “infliction of some kind of pain or loss upon a person for misdeed (i.e., the transgression of a law or command).”1 Penalty may take different forms and vary from forced labor, flogging, body mutilation, fines and imprisonment to the capital punishment. The punishment has been very retributive, mostly in the form of revenge, during the pre-modern ages and usually the prosecution was executed by the victims or their families. There was not any proportion between the quantity and quality of wrongdoing and the punishment. The ...

Inaction is more harmful than taking the wrong decision. The callous attitude of the Judges in the Supreme Court in recent times is affecting different sections of the society in the United States. Whether it is their reluctance to ban assault rifles or to withhold immigration reforms, the consequences are difficult to bear by the citizenry. There are several incidents of inaction in the past which disgraced the United States in the international arena. It is not surprising that neighboring countries are slowly isolating ties with the nation. Even allied nations choose to hold a neutral position. Inaction has ...

Death penalty is also known as capital punishment, and it is a kind of punishment approved by the government whereby criminals are punished by death. However, the death penalty has been a controversial topic for ages, and various countries have different views on death penalty. While many countries have outlawed death penalty, other countries such as United States (Soss, Langbein and Metelko 398) and Japan are still using death penalty to punish criminals. The purpose of implementing death penalty is to punish those criminals declared guilty of murder or other flagitious crimes to set an example to other people ...

a. Prior to 1972, the death penalty legal procedure varied from one state to the other. However, in Furnam v. Georgia, a Supreme Court case which was decided in 1972, the constitutionality of the death penalty was addressed. In this case, the Supreme Court decided that the death penalty was imposed b as a result of an arbitrary and discriminatory process (Lynch and Haney 337). In this case, the defendants claimed that the imposition of the death penalty represented a violation of their rights under the 8th and the 14th Amendment (Dunn). Furman, the main defendant, was charged of ...

ABSTRACT

Capital punishment is the most serious sentence that can be assigned to any criminal offender. Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is one of the most controversial, social, ethical and legal topics of debate in the modern era. Many American states allow the death penalty and others do not. There are many people who are opposed to the death penalty claiming it is morally, ethically questionable and unjust. At the same time, there are many who fully support the death penalty, at least in the severest of cases; like murder. That said, finding common ground between the two antithetical ...

(College/Institute)

Introduction

In the opinion of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, the death penalty must be removed from the operations of the international community in the 21st century. Moreover, Ban called for all the states to implement steps designed to abolish capital punishment from their respective legal systems. Nonetheless, The UN head proffered concern on laws in a number of countries that allows the death penalty to be imposed on juvenile offenders and on large groups of people (UN News Center, 2014). Many of the countries in a recent summit for the abolition of the death penalty who do ...

INTRODUCTION

The American criminal justice system is a very complex entity that most people hope to have little interaction with. Most people will tell you that it can also be incredibly confusing. People become most invested in court proceedings when they are high profile cases that garner a great deal of media attention; some that many are familiar with include Amy Fisher, Casey Anthony and, certainly, the O.J. Simpson trial. Another case that became the center of media attention is the trial of Jodi Arias. Jodi Arias is a 32-year-old woman who is currently serving a life sentence, without the ...

The death penalty is capital punishment for the crime that is carried out legally against a person. It is the government's sanctioned practice that puts the person to death for committing a serious crime. The punishment of execution reduces capital crime in a country. The capital crimes are serious and mostly related to murders. I am arguing that capital punishment is a good practice as it solves the core problems of society and reduces the rate of crimes and murders. The capital punishment is good for society because it limits and reduces the rate of crimes in society. I ...

Assignment 7B- Video Review

Assignment 7B- Video Review Police interrogations and false confessions have been an issue in the system of law and order. It is not news that innocent people have been sentenced to prison for crimes they never committed. Several factors have affected this decision by the police and law enforcement agencies. In the case on “PBS Confessions,” the story of the Norfolk Four has become notorious and highlighted in the phenomenon of false confessions. The video encased the 1997 crime of the murder and rape of Michelle Moore Bosco, a housewife in Norfolk, Virginia (Foundation, 2010). She was alone in ...

According to the NHS complementary therapies, also referred to as complementary and alternative medicine, CAM, are interventions against ailments that do not fall under mainstream medicine. However, NHS purports that there is a difference between ‘complementary’ and ‘alternative’ therapies, although the terms are always used together. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, NCCIH, gives a distinction between the two terms. A therapy is referred to as complementary when it is used alongside conventional medicine. Alternative therapy replaces conventional treatment, becoming the main intervention for a patient. This paper will focus on complementary therapies and how they impact ...

If post-Furman death penalty statutes and Court decisions had the impacts desired by the Court’s majority in Furman

The court ruling and post-Furman death penalty statutes have not achieved the desired effects since capital punishment still follow the same trend. Importantly, racial discrimination is still evident in convicting murder and other serious offenders. Black Americans have higher chances of facing capital punishment as compared to Natives with similar offenses. Since the revival of the capital penalty in the 1970s, close to half of offenders on death row are blacks (Uniform crime report, n.p.). Evidently, the White and Black Americans exhibit equal chances of committing murder or rape. Thus, the reports on the ratio of blacks and whites ...

Second Chances

Introduction More than 20 years ago, adult murderers were getting arrested for manslaughter which was common back in those days and people did not expect any concept of juvenile murderers of being created. Incidentally, America was not prepared to send a child to jail for murderous crimes and it can hardly be argued that it was thought inhumane. However, with more juvenile murderers on the rise, more and more people such as families of those murdered have begun to agree that juvenile murderers should be locked up. Cruel and unusual punishment has been mentioned in cases such as these ...

The Texas Democratic Party and Texas Republican Party platforms have various similarities and even more differences. Both platforms are representing the main party principles. The major differences in both will be further discussed. The Republican Texas party stands and defends the traditional values of the Bible, limited government with the free enterprises. The Democratic Party platform views the government more positively with promoting the government as a possible way to achieve and it lacks the religiosity characteristics which are more obvious in the platform of the Republican party. The democrats support the public education through the independent school districts ...

Capital punishment or the death penalty is one of the most contentious types of punishments in the United States of America. It is the type of punishment that puts to death an individual who is found guilty of a crime as a result of a legal trial. The implementation of the death penalty dates back to the 1600s but has undergone many reforms thereafter. The discharge of the death penalty is very uncommon because it is usually applied for crimes of aggravated murder. Because the public views the death penalty as too harsh, immoral, and inhumane, it has been ...

Technology exists as a creation of people, produced through the various ideas to help make the lives of people easier and more productive. However, technology has become too deeply integrated in people’s lives that they start being overly dependent on it, even to the point of stating that they are not able to live without it. Such an idea, significantly evident in today’s society is the thematic background of E.M Forster’s The Machine Stops, serving as a prescient warning of its implications. The isolation and shunning of human nature and a worship of technology will eventually ...

[Class Title]

Introduction Death, as a form of punishment, is being practiced even in the earliest days of human civilization. The people of ancient Mesopotamia, during the time of Hammurabi, have been observed to perform death sentences on certain transgressions and immoral acts, as determined by their codes . Similarly, the Hebrews has also been using death as a capital punishment for several transgressions under their law. The traditional Law of Moses, which can also be read in the Christian bible, is, in fact, a relic of the age old tradition of exacting death penalty that has been practiced for ...

Juvenile Murderers: A Second Chance or Death

Introduction The question over treatment of juvenile murderers creates a major debate in the social and political circles. There are proponents of public supporting punishment in the form of a life in prison without parole called LWOP, many believe that capital punishment is needed, and others support the implementation of life in prison with work and restitution called LWOP + W/R (Moon, Wright, Cullen, & Pealer, 2000, p. 663). One common aspect is the belief of the public is the need for bringing people to justice by either jail time or capital punishment. Another important aspect of the juvenile punishment system ...

A time to kill is an American drama film produced in 1996 by Arnon Milchan, John Grisham, Michael Nathanson and Hunt Lowry (Ebert 1).it depicts how racial discrimination affected social life in America. It is based on the novel ‘A time to Kill’, written by John Grisham in 1989. The film revolves around a black family, father and daughter who are living in Mississippi, and two white men who are racists. Tonya the black young girl is aged ten years. She was seized by Doug Hutchinson and Nicky Katt who raped her in turns. The men also beat ...

Release on parole or a shortening of a prison sentence are both highly complex issues that need to be viewed from both a legal as well as humanitarian standpoint. While ‘imminent danger to society’ is an integral component in determining if parole should be granted to any convict, I believe that when the crime relates to sex offences, even more care and precaution is necessary. The option of early release should only come in question if and when there are very explicit mitigating circumstances, such as the criminal being afflicted by a mental disease that prompted the action, and ...

The judicial process in the United States of America has become flawed over the years. This has arisen from the fact that most of the American citizens have come out in large numbers condemning the prosecution and injustice to innocent men and women all over the country. As a result, legal scholars have had to engage with the public over issues such as racism, as well as the general degree of anti-Semitism in a bid to reduce the unlawful prosecution of innocent men and women in the United States. In this light, it is important to analyze the Leo ...

Death penalty, simply means the lawful implementation of an order of a court or any other public authority to kill an adult person found guilty of a capital offence; first degree murder and aggravated murder. It is a form of punishment availed to the courts or public authorities with the intention to discourage members of the public from future committal or omission of the particular offence. The methods of killing the convicted persons include hanging, gun shooting by a firing squad, electrocution, lethal injection and confinement in a gas chamber (ACLU 1). This form of punishment has proved to ...

1. “La isla del cielo” is an island characterized by unique political and legal systems. One can say that the political system of the island unifies principles from various political systems. First, the rule of the island can be considered as democratic, involving both election of the temporary ruler through the majority vote and, at the same time, a direct democracy, as people of the island make decisions together on some criminal cases. On the other hand, the political system of the island has characteristics that are at odds with the democratic rule. For example, there are no parties ...

Any crime in the society will flourish if the deterrence or punishment for that particular crime is not strong and effective. Crimes always boom in the face of less harsh punishments and penalties which provide the initiative to criminals to continue their work. Child trafficking and abduction have been carried out in almost all countries and regions of the world, especially those where poverty and high population rates have existed. Even though there is ample awareness on the matter today, a large number of babies and children are abducted and sold off to various people in lieu of a ...

The death penalty is imposed to provide justice as well as deter homicide and bring down the crime rate. However, evidence and research cannot provide any consensus which agrees that the crime rate goes down, or it increases with the imposition or non-imposition of the death penalty (D. Vergano, 2012). Therefore in order to determine the correctness of the gathered research, a study will be dedicated to finding out whether the death penalty deters homicide or not. The relation between the death penalty and the homicide rate is found on several variables and surveys which are analyzed, and data ...

Throughout the history of criminal law and policymaking in the United States as well as in other countries, the death penalty has always been the issue of paramount importance kept on the front burner by media, policymakers and public. The controversy in terms of capital punishment relates not only to religion and morality, but is also associated with considerable social and economic costs. In other words, “the contemporary debate over capital punishment involves a number of important arguments based on either moral principles or social welfare considerations” (Dezhbakhsh & Shepherd, 2003, p. 1). Numerous researchers and influential leaders of public ...

The death penalty remains a most controversial topic not only in the ‘US but the rest of the world for many years now. It was in 1622 that the first execution took place in the United States in Virginia for a criminal in the American colonies as stated by Marcus (838). Many oppose while several others support the death penalty. What adds to the debatable issue are the process, mistakes, and costs involved. The last execution in the US took place in 2015. The paper considers all those issues related to the death penalty and if it is the ...

A 19-year-old high school girl was shot twice and buried while still alive in 1998 and Clayton Lockett was convicted of her murder (“Clayton Lockett” 1). After conviction, he was given the death penalty to be imposed by lethal injection and fifteen years later, his execution was botched when drug dosage was not adequate for death, finding veins for giving the drugs required multiple attempts, and the medications leaked into his muscle tissue (Connor). Witnesses to his death described it as agonizing and the response of the public again stirred the debate concerning using government sanctions to kill in ...

The man cannot be separated from many things. He cannot live without food, air and water. However, it’s not the complete list of items that are necessary for human existence. Humanity is also obsessed with the violence. Throughout the whole history, people invented a lot of different methods of punishment, murder and torture. So, the human history is full of cruelty and violence. Consequently, it’s possible to talk an infinitely long time about how some representatives of humanity have punished, tortured, and killed others more unfortunate representatives of mankind. However, we’d remember only the most noteworthy ...

In m any states, crimes are usually divided or broken down into two major categories of misdemeanors and felonies. The main difference based on this classification is usually in the form or type of punishment that can be meted out on the commission of either offense. Thus, it is the amount of jail time that an offender once convicted can be sentenced to serve in incarceration that forms the primary difference between these two categories of crimes. Dear client, please refer to the above subject. A misdemeanor is a crime that involves petty offences involving violations that are normally ...

The person on death who forms the basis of this research is Anthony Shore. He was a serial killer who was born in 1962 to parents who both worked in the Air Force of the United States. His birth took place in South Dakota where his father had been stationed. Because of the nature of work of the air force, they moved a total 9 times before he finally joined high school. Shore had two beautiful sisters. Worth noting is that he also had a talent in music which he didn't go after. However, he later followed the line ...

Just the sound of the words murder or killing someone tells us that something is wrong. The thoughts and feelings we get after learning that someone has been killed, proves to us that killing is very wrong. Therefore, how can we be comfortable with passing a law that supports the death penalty? The death penalty is a legal procedure whereby the state executes a person as a punishment for the crimes/offenses he/she has committed (Kaufman 546). Therefore, when the capital punishment law is not abolished, it means that we will see many murders of people who this sentence has ...

Introduction

Criminal punishments in the society are approved by many as a necessary action against those who commit crimes. Despite this universal appreciation of punishment, various theories have different justifications for such punishments. The Kantian approach differs from the utilitarianism approach in justifying criminal punishments. This paper analyzes how the Kantian justification for criminal punishment differs from the utilitarian approach,

Research design and Method

This research will be based on the historical concept. It entails analyzing the characteristics of the two theories and determining how best they could justify criminal punishment in the society as a means of punishing unjustified behavior. It will employ ...

Affiliated Institution

Introduction For many years, Amnesty International has been a champion for global humanitarian and human rights issues. With the world continuously evolving, Amnesty International has adapted to these changes and accommodated them. Due to population growth, the world has witnessed continued conflicts over resources specifically in Africa and the Middle East. These conflicts are fueled by political regimes and their ideologies, (Weinstein 2010). Terror groups such as Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab and Islamic State (IS), have continuously violated human rights. In most African countries, dictatorial rule has come under threat with masses becoming more educated and informed of their human ...

<Institution Name> The news article chosen by me discusses murder and rape committed as an act of violence against an innocent woman. The crime covers one of the most serious acts of violence that can be committed against humanity because it is a crime which goes against decency and humanity. According to the story, the rapist murdered a woman and then murdered her, while dumping her body at a distance from the beach. Rape is defined as sexual assault against a person, which can involve sexual intercourse and sexual penetration of any sort to a non-consenting party, against ...

Introduction

No form of punishment engenders more controversy than the death penalty. Although capital punishment has been used since ancient times, its modern utilization is repeatedly called into question. The United States stands alone among Western world counterparts in its continued use of the death penalty. Among the international community, the general trend largely reflects a discontinuance of capital punishment. For instance, member states of the European Union have all abolished the death penalty (Shin, 2007, p. 505). Given the overwhelming number of nations that have since abolished the death penalty, it is somewhat surprising that the United States continues ...

While the Civil War may have legally ended slavery, remnants of slavery and racial animosity continued to exist, and perhaps still do, in many parts of the country. Even after the passage of the Reconstruction Amendments, which attempted to empower newly freed African American slaves and give them equal rights of citizenship, states managed to find ways to disenfranchise blacks from exercising their newly acquired rights of citizenship. Racial prejudice was especially pervasive in the South. The era of Jim Crow laws, which controlled nearly every aspect of Southern public life, maintained strict separation of whites and blacks (Welke, ...

Introduction

Capital punishment or the death penalty is the process by which a state puts an accused person to death for perpetrating a grave crime. The matter has been of considerable controversy over the past century in various countries and states. Human rights activists have continually criticized the states of being inhuman, immoral, and irresponsible for the welfare of its people through killing suspected criminals (Vaughn 78). Religious groups such as Christians have also expressed their disappointments over capital punishment, as it goes against the wishes and plans of God. The various reasons that state carrying out the process hold ...

Proponents of utilitarianism envision a situation where human actions are judged by their consequences. According to Bentham, the best moral action must always maximize utility. Simply put, actions should ensure they bring about the greatest happiness among human beings. An action that does not promote happiness among people therefore does not meet this threshold. Bentham further argues that such actions must involve the two aspects of happiness; quality and quantity. Consequences, therefore, not legality, should form the basis of justification of actions by humans. Stuart Mill supports this proposition by arguing that bringing or increasing pleasure among humans should ...