The death penalty goes against our most basic human right - the right to life. In the US, that number is 65%. Choose your death penalty articles from a variety of sources. Capital punishment should be distinguished from extrajudicial executions carried out without due process of law. Gun Control. Among Republicans and Republican leaners who favor the death penalty, 94% say it is morally justified; 86% of Democrats and Democratic leaners who favor the death penalty also say this. DC and Puerto Rico Statehood. The New York Times Company, 19 Dec. 2013. It also carries the risk of carrying out a wrongful execution. Anti-death penalty campaigners have been hoping the Biden administration would end the federal death penalty and commute sentences of the remaining 45 federal death row inmates to life imprisonment. The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. But the widest partisan divide wider than differences in opinions about the death penalty itself is over whether White people and Black people are equally likely to be sentenced to the death penalty for committing similar crimes. Before I get to the good stuff, Ill let you know the secrets to choosing the right kinds of death penalty articles for your essay. The use of the death penalty is gradually disappearing in the United States. It also provides links to a study from the University of Colorado and a paper from Emory University to help back up these claims as well. One year after the announcement federal executions resumed, and ten prisoners were executed by the federal government in the last six months of 2020. In fact, being pro-death penalty is a pro-life position. Like earlier appeals in defense of the men's lives, this argument proved ineffective. This doesnt always mean that you have to get an article from a well-known news website or national newspaper, but that the article should be backed up with cited facts. Illegal Immigration. The move provoked immediate debate, as public support for capital punishment had reached historic lows in many states and regions of the country. Among Republicans, a narrow majority of conservative Republicans (56%) say the death penalty does deter serious crimes, while a similar share of moderate and liberal Republicans (57%) say it does not. The term death penalty is sometimes used interchangeably with capital . Alaska 100. However, he backs up his emotional statements with statistics and links to studies that indicate that the death penalty is costly, doesnt necessarily deter murders, and is imposed on people who are innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted. A large majority of liberal Democrats (82%) and a smaller, though still substantial, majority of conservative and moderate Democrats (70%) say the death penalty does not deter serious crimes. Read more about the ATPs methodology. On July 14, Daniel Lewis Lee was executed for the 1996 murder of a family, including an 8-year-old girl, by suffocating and drowning them in the Illinois Bayou after robbing them to fund a white-supremacist organization. However, a worldwide poll conducted in 2006 indicates that 52% of the world's population supports the death penalty. Grades: 8-10 More>>. About eight-in-ten Democrats (83%), including fully 94% of liberal Democrats and three-quarters of conservative and moderate Democrats, say Black people are more likely than White people to be sentenced to death for committing the same type of crime a view shared by just 25% of Republicans (18% of conservative Republicans and 38% of moderate and liberal Republicans). It also gives in-depth information about the lethal injection drug shortage and statistics on the publics views on the death sentence. The court's ruling is believed to have made proving racial discrimination more difficult. Mic Network Inc., 23 June 2013. The Court reasoned that the laws resulted in a disproportionate application of the death penalty, specifically discriminating against the poor and minorities. However, later on this type of punishment came to be regarded as a . About half of Hispanic (53%), Asian (53%) and Black (48%) Democrats favor the death penalty, compared with 42% of White Democrats. Rate this book. In your opinion, should pharmaceutical companies have the right to refuse to sell drugs for executions? In the July Opinion essay The Death Penalty Can Ensure Justice Is Being Done, Jeffrey A. Rosen, then acting deputy attorney general, makes a legal case for capital punishment: The death penalty is a difficult issue for many Americans on moral, religious and policy grounds. States and Death Row. Three Good Reasons Details the three main reasons why people support the death penalty. Through the Crimes Act of 1790, also referred to as the Federal Criminal Code of 1790, lawmakers of the newly independent United States granted federal judges the authority to impose the death sentence. Also, check with your teacher to see if you should be using a different type of citation style in your paper (such as APA or Chicago). 6. Governors had placed moratoriums on the death penalty in an additional three states. According to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), incarceration rates of racial minorities skyrocketed in the decade following the McCleskey decision. However, the nationwide execution rate began a slow but steady rise. "violent crime has declined 11 percent, with murder showing the largest decline at even more than 22 percent. Majorities of White (63%), Asian (63%) and Hispanic adults (56%) favor the death penalty for persons convicted of murder. Web. A similar ruling was handed down by the court in Moore v. Texas (2017), which stated that the standards used to determine intellectual disability in Texas created an "unacceptable risk that persons with intellectual disabilities will be executed.". Why its a good source: This source gives a lot of specific information about what one state is doing wrong, complete with anecdotes and numbers. Given the long delay that had already occurred, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to lift the order so the execution could proceed. After the unofficial moratorium on capital punishment ended with the executions of Gary Gilmore in Utah in 1977 and John Spenkelink in Florida in 1979, the execution rate remained low for an extended period. From 1972 to 1976, thirty-five US states revised their death penalty laws. The death penalty is far more expensive than a system in which life imprisonment without parole is the maximum sentence. The article lists his responses to common arguments from those opposed to the death penalty, such as the racial biases and whether the death penalty actually deters criminals. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. Across educational and racial or ethnic groups, majorities say that the death penalty does not deter serious crimes, although there are differences in how widely this view is held. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com. Republicans and Democrats also differ over whether the death penalty is morally justified, whether it acts as a deterrent to serious crime and whether adequate safeguards exist to ensure that no innocent person is put to death. Black adults are evenly divided: 49% favor the death penalty, while an identical share oppose it. Here are some tips. He responds by saying that capital punishment is not inherently racist and that the people studying deterrence are discouraged and, thus, quiet about their research. The recent executions reflect that consensus, as the Justice Department has an obligation to carry out the law. "Capital Punishment." Introduction Death penalty has been an inalienable part of human society and its legal system for centuries, regarded as a necessary deterrent to dangerous crimes and a way to liberate the community from dangerous criminals. Critics accused Arkansas officials of carrying out executions in an "assembly line" fashion, and drug companies also objected to the state's use of a pharmaceutical formulation in lethal injections. How so? European drug manufacturers objected to capital punishment procedures, and the European Commission banned the export of drugs used in lethal injection procedures in 2011. Web. As you can tell, there are a lot of different types of sources out theresome are emotional, some are dry and factual. Only three people in the United States have been executed by hanging since 1965, and only four people have faced a firing squad since 1960. This relationship holds among members of each party. He had set out his arguments in a major dissent in 2015, one that must have been on Justice Scalias mind when he made his comments a few months later. Despite this surge in federal executions in 2020, state executions reached their lowest number that year since 1991. CORRECTION (July 13, 2021): The following sentence was updated to reflect the correct timespan: Last year, in part because of the coronavirus outbreak, fewer people were executed than in any year in nearly three decades. The changes did not affect the reports substantive findings. If there is even a small possibility of putting an innocent person to death, we should abstain from the . Mastermind Behind Bars: Clarence Ray Allen. However, death penalty supporters decried the ban, arguing that judges should be able to decide if the death penalty is warranted based on the circumstances of each case. The decision to seek the death penalty against Mr. Lee was made by Attorney General Janet Reno (who said she personally opposed the death penalty but was bound by the law) and reaffirmed by Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder. Addressing the Counterarguments. In the years since the McCleskey ruling, opponents of capital punishment have continued to voice concerns about the role of racial bias in death penalty sentencing. Furman's death sentence was found to be "cruel and unusual punishment" that contravened the Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution. Both the mean and median age of the nation's death row population was 51. The New York Times Company, 28 Sept. 2003. The author considers reasons for the decline in capital punishment, as well as how geographical variance impacts the debate over execution as a fair and just punishment. Be aware of biases. The answer was unequivocal: He would stay as long as it took. Because of this unique argument, this article should not be ignored. This conclusion comes from careful state-by-state monitoring of maternal mortality, including deaths occurring at birth and around the time of birth. Overall this article points out the flaws of the death penalty system in Texas, but does not take a stance against the concept of the death penalty in general. Rather than forthrightly opposing the death penalty and attempting to change the law through democratic means, however, Mr. Lees lawyers and others have chosen the legal and public-relations equivalent of guerrilla war. Because of the requirements of some publications, they may not be able to vehemently express these opinions, but you should still be able to at least tell if its an article that is for or against the death penalty. By the early 1900s, most states had adopted laws that allowed juries to apply either the death penalty or a sentence of life in prison. Just over six-in-ten Republicans in this age group (64%) say this, compared with about eight-in-ten Republicans ages 35 and older. Since 1976, 1,336 death row inmates have been executed by lethal injection. 10-Year Unsolved Crime Leads to Death: Frank Welch Story. Over four ATP surveys conducted since September 2019, there have been relatively modest shifts in these views from a low of 60% seen in the most recent survey to a high of 65% seen in September 2019 and August 2020. The court overturned the death sentence of William Furman, an African American man whose murder trial had lasted less than one day. Nearly seven-in-ten adults (68%) who have not attended college favor the death penalty, as do 63% of those who have some college experience but no degree. It says that capital punishment serves as retribution for victims and their families, as well as a deterrence for other murders. More Americans favor than oppose the death penalty: 60% of U.S. adults favor the death penalty for people convicted of murder, including 27% who strongly favor it. Top 9 Pro Death Penalty Arguments. 1. Toobin, Jeffrey. The federal government lifted its capital punishment moratorium in 1988, though it did not carry out another execution until 2001. About eight-in-ten White Republicans favor the death penalty, as do about seven-in-ten Hispanic Republicans (69%). However, the court also determined that the death penalty does not violate the Constitution, capital punishment serves as a practical deterrent, and retribution provides a justifiable basis for execution. 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