In a society where the death penalty is a prevalent issue there are those who support and those who do not support capital punishment. These two sides can be defined with bias as evil murderers and those that desire to exist with evil murderers. My mission is to define things without bias as this offers a clear view of both sides of the argument.
I need to examine both sides and discover why the sides believe the way they do, what they are both arguing for, how they come to different conclusions and the contradictions with the two sides.
The first of the two sides to be examined is the side that can be defined with bias as evil murderers or without bias as those that support capital punishment. Why would someone be in favor of capital punishment? All the reasons that will be mentioned clearly contain bias but this must be examined in order to fully understand this particular side of the argument. Perhaps it is because they believe in retribution or revenge, the natural feeling that occurs when something bad happens to you or someone close to you. They could possibly have the mindset of Hitler, something I will refer to as the “Hitler complex” – which involves being that the current human population is contaminated with people who do not deserve to be here. The people who support capital punishment could feel justified by the idea that the execution of the criminals was part of karma, that they got what was coming to them. Now that I have examined the bias of this side I must do the same for the other side.
The other side of the argument can be defined with bias as those that desire to exist with evil murderers or without bias as those who do not support capital punishment. Why would someone not support capital punishment? Religion plays a big role in the decision making process with number six of the Ten Commandments from The Holy Bible saying “Thou shalt not kill.” The 8th Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment and people can interpret that as protection against capital punishment. Trials in which capital punishment is a possible punishment cost more than trials in which execution is not an option. This fact deters some people for sentencing someone to execution. Currently there only 50 women on death row in the United States in comparison to around 3,000 men. Typically more criminals are sentenced to execution when the defendant is black and the victim is white then when the defendant is white and the victim is black. This is completely biased but it must be concerned. Some people view this as gender and racial discrimination and therefore they advocate for an end to capital punishment. With a position such as a judge or a police officer comes power and prestige and naturally there will be those who abuse this power. The idea that there are corrupt people involved in the judicial system deters some people from capital punishment. Now that I have examined the bias of both sides of the argument I must examine the contradictions on both sides.
With those that support capital punishment do they consider the situation under which they are someone close them was the defendant in which they may very well change their mind and under those specific circumstances be against capital punishment. Something else that may cause those who are supposedly for capital punishment to be against it is the tremendous cost of the trial, housing the criminal until their execution and then the actual execution itself. This cost is much more than it would be for a criminal that is not facing execution. For those that are against capital punishment their views very well might change if someone close to them was the victim of a truly heinous crime. Now that the contradictions have been discussed I must demonstrate how the two sides are actually arguing for the same thing but still coming to different conclusions.
In order to know exactly what both sides are arguing for all bias must be removed. What is the central issue behind the argument? Both of the sides are arguing for holding criminals responsible for the crimes they commit but they are coming to different conclusions. Obviously those that are in support of capital punishment want to keep execution open as an option of punishment and those that do not support capital punishment say that there are other methods of punishment other than execution that should be used, such as life in prison without the chance of parole.
No comments:
Post a Comment