Capital Punishment

Capital Punishment

Capital punishment is the legally authorized killing of a person as a type of penalty to a crime. The United States is the only Western country currently applying the death penalty and is one of 54 countries worldwide allowing it (Ncsl.org, 2018). The United States has given each individual state the right to decide if they want to allow the death penalty or not. Currently, 31 states have the death penalty and 19 do not (Ncsl.org, 2018). The ethics and need for capital punishment have been debated for many years within the United States with a divide between opinions on its morality and effectiveness with preventing crime. There is such a big divide on which side is right that in 1972 the U.S. Supreme court in the Furman v. Georgia case struck down capital punishment and then overturned the previous ruling in 1976 with the Gregg v. Georgia case (Ncsl.org, 2018). Since the death penalty was re-established in 1976 there have been more than 7,800 defendants sentenced to death, over 1,400 executed, and countless debates on the justification for capital punishment (Ncsl.org, 2018).

A recent example of the controversy over capital punishment can be seen in Ohio’s Supreme Court upholding the death penalty in 2017. The article Ohio’s death penalty is back, and that’s a good thing published by The New Political, takes the stance that the death penalty has flaws but the benefits out ways cost. The author of the article Dawson Mecum, tells the story of Ronald Phillips to show support for the death penalty. Ronald Phillips is Ohio’s first execution since 2014 and was 19 years old when he was convicted of raping and murdering his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter in 1993 (Mecum, 2018). The execution of Phillips was put on hold after multiple inmates challenged the use of certain drugs in capital punishment as cruel and unusual (Mecum, 2018). The author believes the death penalty is necessary to serve and protect future victims and is the only logical answer to such heinous crimes like Phillips and expresses it by stating “The real cruel and unusual punishment was the rape and murder of a 3-year-old girl who never got to enjoy the life that was in front of her, and who never got to have those moments of childhood that we cherish and hold onto so dearly.” (Mecum, 2018). Many against capital punishments would argue that a life sentence would bring just as much justice to Phillip as death but Mecom would disagree. Mecum argues a life sentence in Ohio that is second degree murder is 15 years to life and that’s not good enough because according to the Institute of Justice 76.6 percent of released prisoners are rearrested, and over half will be rearrested within the first year of being released (Mecum, 2018). The death penalty guarantees these inmates won’t be hurting anyone again and that is more than enough to justify capital punishment for Mecum.

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