Pro Death
...ed capital offenses were put to death. The case from California had been dismissed after the California Supreme Court ruled the state’s capital punishment statute unconstitutional in February 1972. The remaining three cases, officially reported under the name Furman v. Georgia, were decided on June 29, 1972. In a brief general opinion, the Court declared that imposition of the death penalty in these cases would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. At the same time it announced its Furman decision, the Supreme Court issued order which reversed the death sentences in over 100 other capital cases under appeal. The ruling spared from approximately 630 people on death row across the country. However, in 1976 in Gregg v. Georgia, the Supreme Court restored capital punishment by upholding the constitutionality of the revised statutes. Thirty-seven states and the federal government authorize the death penalty for the commission of certain crimes. In most states, only murder is a capital offense. In order for a specific murder to warrant the death penalty, the Supreme Court requires that two conditions must be met. It must be a first-degree murder and one or more aggravating circumstances must be present. Aggravating circumstances refer to those aspects of a crime that increase its severity but are apart from the essential elements of the offense itself. Circumstances considered for murder include: The crime was particularly vile, atrocious, or cruel, There were multiple victims. The crime occurred during the commission of another felony. The victim was a police or correctional officer in the line of duty. The offender was previously convicted of a capital offense or violent crime. The offender directed an accomplice to commit the murder or committed the murder at the direction of another person. The death penalty is imposed most often for murder committed during the course of another major felony. These homicides are usually termed felony-murders. The law assumes that people who engage in serious felonies are responsible for the consequences of their actions and the dangerous situations they create. Defendants who kill, even accidentally, in the course of another felony may found guilty of first-degree murder. It is only necessary to show the offender intended to commit the crime. For over a century, the method for executing people in America was hanging. In 1888 New York directed the construction of the “electric chair”. It was believed that electricity would prove a more scientific and humane means of execution. Similar reasoning led to the introduction of the gas chamber in Utah in 1924. Death was brought on by asphyxiation from lethal fumes. The continuing desire for a less painful, error-free means of execution led to the development of the lethal injection method in the 1970’s. This method involves injecting a combination of a sedative and a fatal chemical agent’s into a prisoner’s bloodstream. It was first used to carry out a death sentence in 1982 in Texas. The most commonly approved methods of execution in the United States today are lethal injection, electrocution, and the gas chamber. Since the resumption of capital punishment in 1977, the majority of executions have been by electrocution. The most obvious reasoning that capital punishment is the right thing to do is to discuss the benefits to our society . Advocates of the death penalty contend that fear of death deters people from committing serious crimes. In addition, the death penalty is viewed as a severe enough sanction to keep professional criminals from taking part in violent acts. Deterrence is the most frequently made and widely accepted argument in favor of the death penalty. Proponents insist there in no valid substitute for the de...