{"id":434113,"date":"2018-06-21T23:01:28","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T23:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essaypaper.org\/?p=28073"},"modified":"2018-10-24T09:09:51","modified_gmt":"2018-10-24T09:09:51","slug":"english-article-writing-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/english-article-writing-2\/","title":{"rendered":"English – Article writing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is punishment by execution of someone officially judged to have committed a grave and capital crime\u00a0BY THE STATE.<\/strong>\u00a0I \u00a0say this because the “State” is an abstract entity, it is not like an individual killing another individual (although in the ONION video this is alluded to in that no one actually kills the criminal, the machine takes care of it). Over the years, this has ranged from firing squads, \u00a0hanging, electrocution, gas chamber, or lethal injection. What is up for \u00a0debate currently is whether lethal injection itself is cruel and \u00a0unusual as well, so the question here turns to methods as well as the \u00a0act.<\/p>\n

Key terms:<\/u>
\nAbolitionists<\/strong>: \u00a0Those who are for the complete abolishment of the death penalty, based on human rights in violation of the 8th Amendment “cruel and unusual punishment” clause.
\nRetentionists<\/strong>: Those who wish to retain the death penalty as a viable legal option, but use it sparingly\u00a0and for the worst of cases
\nRetributivism<\/strong>: \u00a0Those who argue offenders deserve to be punished, or \u201cpaid back\u201d for their crimes and punished in proportion to the severity of their offenses. In other words, justice, or retribution.<\/p>\n

The \u00a0death penalty has also been banned in most countries in the world based \u00a0on human rights arguments. It is not illegal here and certain criteria \u00a0must be fulfilled in order to even be considered for the death penalty \u00a0in the United States, defined as:
\n1.) First degree murder (killing with premeditated intention)
\n2.) Committed while during another crime, such as rape or robbery
\n3.) \u00a0Involving multiple victims or special circumstances, like children or \u00a0state officials; particular heinous nature of the crime, treason and \u00a0terrorism. (As a side note, multiple victims in capital punishment \u00a0include pregnant women in any trimester, so the fetus is considered \u00a0legally a person here but not under abortion).<\/p>\n

Legal Framework:<\/strong>
\nFurman \u00a0V. Georgia: (1972) The Court ruled that capital punishment as practiced in certain states was unconstitutional, in violation of the 8th \u00a0Amendments \u201ccruel and unusual\u201d clause. They ruled, not that the death penalty was intrinsically unconstitutional, but the methods were violative. This in effect put a stop to all executions.<\/p>\n

Gregg \u00a0v. Georgia: (1976) The Court again rules that death penalty laws that \u00a0followed \u201cproper guidelines\u201d were constitutional. States have to take \u00a0reasonable measures to ensure protection under the 8th Amendment. This \u00a0is effect re-instated the death penalty and the law has been upheld ever \u00a0since with certain modifications.<\/p>\n

1.) \u00a0Execution of the mentally retarded is unconstitutional because they \u00a0lack the competence – this has become the insanity defense over the \u00a0years.
\n2.) Minors (under 18) can not receive the death penalty for \u00a0the same reasons. Before this, the majority of states had no minimum age \u00a0or it was as low as 14 years old.
\n3.) All other methods of the death \u00a0penalty are banned, ushering the age of lethal injection.\u00a0 Some states \u00a0today still retain firing squad as an option.<\/p>\n

Utilitarianism argues strictly according to\u00a0deterrence<\/strong>, \u00a0the notion that putting criminals to death will, in theory, deter other \u00a0criminals and therefore promotes more social welfare. Even life in \u00a0prison is not enough of a deterrent for the utilitarian. The problem \u00a0here is establishing deterrence as a non-moral statistical fact. It has \u00a0to be proven that a death penalty jurisdiction has less crime than a \u00a0non-death penalty jurisdiction and even that depends on many other \u00a0social factors.<\/p>\n

I \u00a0want you to be careful with Kant – he himself in other writings defends capital punishment based on notions of Justice – we respect people’s natures as being free rational autonomous and equal BY PUTTING THEM TO \u00a0DEATH, because they had a choice not to kill and they did anyway. IN a \u00a0sense, Kant argues you lose LEGAL personhood, thereby allowing the state to execute you.\u00a0 But, that is different from using the framework of the categorical imperative strictly.\u00a0 Here, it is prohibited to kill and use a person as a means to an end.<\/p>\n

After \u00a0reading your e-text chapter on capital punishment and watching the \u00a0following video links, please answer the following: (If the links do not \u00a0open, simply\u00a0copy and paste into your browser)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Links:\u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lfsMMVgIToA<\/strong><\/p>\n

Links:\u00a0https:\/\/www.cbs.com\/shows\/60_minutes\/video\/c77u_9DB_JMZCukdtURkP9SUu0TFLlK8\/from-the-archives-60-minutes-first-pelican-bay-report\/<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.) \u00a0What is your belief about capital punishment? Do you find the \u00a0utilitarian argument pro-death penalty regarding deterrence convincing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

2.) Do you think the State has the moral and legal right to execute a convicted criminal? Explain using your moral theories.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

3.) \u00a0State your reaction to the Onion Video, i.e. the methods of the death \u00a0penalty.\u00a0 (Note: the Onion is completely satirical, but the video does \u00a0force you to think about the humaneness of lethal injection and that \u00a0machines will be able to now do what prison officials used to have to \u00a0do, or at least sometime in the future.)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

4.)\u00a0 What is your belief regarding solitary confinement?\u00a0 Is this more “cruel and unusual” then the death penalty itself?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is punishment by execution of someone officially judged to have committed a grave and capital crime\u00a0BY THE STATE.\u00a0I \u00a0say this because the “State” is an abstract entity, it is not like an individual killing Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-434113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essay-paper-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434113\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}