Death Penalty

Death Penalty

Steven Solis

[Institutional Affiliation(s)]

Death Penalty

Bedau, H. A., & American Civil Liberties Union. (1992). The case against the death penalty. New York: American Civil Liberties Union.

The article is based on the belief of American Civil Liberties Union that death penalty is fundamentally against the ban imposed by the constitution to prevent harsh and infrequent punishment and the assurances of just protection according to the law. It is argued that the state should not reserve the right to execute a person, also when they plan and formally execute a human, claiming that it is under laws. The article suggests that capital punishment should be abolished because it is an excruciating rejection of civil rights. The authors claim that the central principle of our democratic system does not support the idea of capital punishment. In 1973, this article was published originally by Hugo Adam Bedau in an ACLU as a pamphlet. Indeed, the unmistakable worldwide trend is toward the complete abolition of capital punishment. Then, in 2012, it was revised by the ACLU. This article contributes significantly to the body of knowledge as it presents a case against capital punishment claiming it immoral. It gives another viewpoint to my research because it reveals that a general assumption, according to which the Americans support the decision of capital punishment, is not true. It made me rethink and re-evaluate the public attitude about punishment.

Daniel S. Nagin, & John V. Pepper. (2012). Deterrence and the Death Penalty | The National Academies Press. The National Academies Press.

This article is based on the report ‘Deterrence and the Death Penalty’ presented by the National Research Council. It evaluates the general assumption that death penalty impacts homicide rates. It concludes that no research provides a reliable result determining if the death penalty is effective or not. All researches, reviews by scholars, policymakers, and advocates has provided discordant conclusions. Nagin and Pepper’s article is of great significance to literature as it evaluates different studies based on outcome of death penalty on crime discouragement. It proposes that comprehensive and fact-based research should be conducted. It also suggests that the deterrent effects of both death penalty as well as other punishments should be explored. My research will benefit from the analysis of various studies concerning the subject. It provided me a broad spectrum to ponder upon.

Forst, B. (1983). Capital Punishment and Deterrence: Conflicting Evidence? The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-), 74(3), 927.

This article, similar to other related researches, does not support or reject the theory of deterrence due to the death penalty. It concludes that this punishment does not make a noticeable impact on the homicide rate. Key point of the article is that even if some individuals do not murder fear of being executed, according to the researches greater number of people are influenced to commit homicide. This article was published in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. This article provides a new dimension to my research with the fact the death penalty does not prevent delinquency rather than provokes more people to commit murder. It gave me a new focus area to research and analyze.

Dieter, R. C. (2016, December 5). A Crisis of Confidence: Americans’ Doubts about the Death Penalty.

The article discusses the results of the National Omnibus Poll conducted in 2007, which is a national public opinion poll. According to which confidence of the public in capital punishment is fading. The research suggests that people are reasoning the chances of an innocent being executed, biasness, and if the punishment is serving its purpose. The literature is fact-based as it draws a conclusion from the public poll. It is significant and related to my research as it gives me insights on the beliefs Americans that the punishment should be halted as it is inefficient and causes of death of innocents. The article made me rethink if capital punishment is a suitable punishment in a system affected by biasness.

Radelet, M. L., & Borg, M. J. (2000). The Changing Nature of Death Penalty Debates. Annual Review of Sociology, 26(1), 43–61.

The article by Radelet and Borg is focused on the debates during the past twenty-five years on the impact of the death penalty. It explores the varying nature of the arguments over the death penalty in six different focus areas including innocence, financial cost, bias and caprice, deterrence, vengeance, and incapacitation. The author concludes that their analysis proposes that social science literature is shifting the approach of Americans towards the death penalty. The views seem to gradually deviate towards the idea of eliminating the death penalty from the justice system. The article discusses the substantial subject as the laws are affected by the population’s standpoint eventually. This article is beneficial for my research as it presents the review of variation in public opinion as well as the results of social science research relevant to the issues.