Is the Death Penalty Just and Applied Fairly? Is the Death Penalty Just and Applied Fairly?

Is the Death Penalty just and applied fairly?Is the Death Penalty just and applied fairly?

PHI103: Informal Logic (GSJ1337B)

Is the Death Penalty Just and Applied Fairly?OutlineIntroduction

Thesis

　　"The Death Penalty" also known as Capital Punishment is the premeditated, thought out and planned taking of a human life. The Death Penalty is a sentence handed down by a judge and jury to a person legally convicted of a capital crime. Is the Death Penalty just and applied fairly? That is the question we are presented with. When looking at this one must conclude that taking a human life is morally wrong. So can there be any justification for taking a life even if it is a person convicted of a crime. If killing a human being is wrong, how can we turn around and kill another human being and say that it is fair and just because they have committed a crime. According to White (2009), approximately 139 countries, representing two-thirds of all countries in the world, have abolished the death penalty on moral grounds. If two-thirds of the world can see this is morally wrong, , does that not show us that we need to rethink our stand on Capital Punishment. One argument commonly made to abolish the death penalty is that innocent people will be executed. My argument is that the Death Penalty is morally wrong. How can we say that murder, the taking of a human life is wrong and then take the life of the murderer. As long as there are flaws in the judicial system there will be mistakes; you cannot give back the life of someone who was executed by a miscarriage of justice.

　　Argument for Thesis

There is nothing fair and just about the Death Penalty. DPIC (2012) has stated that since 1972, 142 prisoners have been exonerated from death row. Most all of these cases were found that through DNA testing the person convicted and sentenced to death was innocent. The new technology of DNA testing has proven they were not guilty of the crime they were sentenced for. The Death Penalty is a violation of the Eighth Amendment, which states that the U.S. can not use cruel and unusual punishment. The methods of the Death Penalty such as: "The lethal injection avoids many of the unpleasant effects of other forms of execution: bodily mutilation and bleeding due to decapitation, smell of burning flesh in electrocution, disturbing sights and/or sounds in lethal gassing and hanging, the problem of involuntary defecation and urination. For this reason it may be less unpleasant for those involved in carrying out the execution. However, lethal injection increases the risk that medical personnel will be involved in killing for the state, in breach of long-standing principles of medical ethics. Any form of execution is inhumane. All known methods can