The Death Penalty and Capital Punishment
The death penalty is a sanctioned punishment by a judge, meted out to offenders who committed crimes like murder or other capital offenses. The death sentence, also known as capital punishment, may be proposed by Congress or any state assembly for crimes carrying the death penalty. The Supreme Court ruled that the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and inhumane retribution does not, in fact, apply to the death penalty. (Levinson et al.65). Furthermore, in the majority of American states, the Sixth Amendment does not mandate a jury trial in instances involving capital offenses. Among the crimes that carry the death sentence are first-degree murder and treason. Depending on the state, various methods of execution may be used once a person is found guilty of such crimes. These methods may include a deadly injection, hanging, or exposure to a firing squad.
The Death Penalty in Texas
Texas was the principal U.S. state to do an execution by lethal infusion, executing Charles Brooks on December 7, 1982. Since then, the execution of convicted felons in the state of Texas was seen to increase rapidly at the rate of a hundred people per year until 2005. Nonetheless, the rate has reduced from 2005 up to date. In Texas, not all crimes deserve a death penalty, but when one commits a capital homicide, he or she is punished by a death penalty. Capital murder is defined as the unlawful execution of an individual without defense and is thought to be the dullest wrongdoing man can do. Also, a man conferring homicide might be condemned to harsh punishment such as spending all of his life in jail. In most states, cold-blooded murder is viewed as the most dreadful wrongdoing an individual may do and directly attracts the capital punishment outlined by the state. Along these lines, the culprit might be condemned to death in most states.
Issues with Capital Punishment
For instance, Karla Faye Tucker (November 18, 1959- February 3, 1998) was convicted of murder and put to death in 1988, four years after her conviction. She was the first lady in the USA to be executed and the first in Texas since 1863. All in all, who gets executed? The question of gender or race has been a contentious one, is in some cases the punishment seems to be biased. Women are not as frequently executed as men, and blacks seem to face the capital punishment more than their fellow white wrongdoers. Another issue is whether or not adequate investigations are done, or whether material evidence is well scrutinized to see if it is legit. For instance, Antony Graves was locked up for sixteen years in jail before being discharged in 27October 2010. He was convicted in regards to a declaration issued by Robert Carter, who said Graves was his associate in committing the killings of the slain family. Two weeks before Carter was executed in 2000; he wrote a speech confessing that he lied in regards to Graves's contribution on the wrongdoing. He gave that announcement a few minutes before his death sentence. Grave’s conviction was reviewed in 2006 due to prosecutorial misconduct, and the new prosecutor relegated to his new trial dropped the case against him saying, "We found not one bit of truth confirming the connection of Anthony Graves to the commission of this capital murder.... He is a pure man."
Capital Punishment Worldwide
Capital punishment has been seen as a fearful way of executing prisoners, and due to this, different states in America have their way of killing their convicted prisoners. Not only the states in America but also the whole world has its way too, in the parts that have legalized this sort of punishment. In comparison to this data, I have found that: Texas is the state with the highest number of recorded executions - with 474 since 1976, followed by Virginia. California has the highest number of detainees waiting for capital punishment than other states with 721 inmates. California has not performed any executions since the 2006 ban, but rather systems are being initiated to restore capital punishments. For one Albert Greenwood Brown, it is a disturbing thought because his execution was suspended a year ago, but he knows that death will come sooner or later. One issue is that the state's supply of sodium thiopental has been terminated and Texas is just behind Oklahoma on the off chance that you take a gander at the rate of executions per million populaces. If you take a look at those numbers as an extent of US populace, obviously more black individuals, get executed, contrasted with their share of the masses.
Global Perspective on Capital Punishment
China has a higher rate of executing prisoners compared to Texas and even to the whole world (Hood et al. 76). However, the substantial degree of the utilization of death penalty in China is obscure as this data is viewed as unknown; the current figure of no less than 1,032 bars the vast number of executions suspected to have been done in China. Barring China, 87% of all executions occurred in only four nations, namely Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Pakistan. In 2016, two countries, Benin and Nauru nullified capital punishment in law for all wrongdoings. Altogether, 104 nations have done as such, a more significant part of the world's states. Just 64 countries were utterly abolitionist in 1997.
Work Cited
Bohm, Robert M. Death quest: An introduction to the theory and practice of capital punishment in the United States. Taylor & Francis, 2016.
Hood, Roger, and Carolyn Hoyle. The death penalty: A worldwide perspective. OUP Oxford, 2015.
Levinson, Justin D., Robert J. Smith, and Danielle M. Young. "Devaluing death: An empirical study of implicit racial bias on jury-eligible citizens in six death penalty states." NYUL Rev. 89 (2014): 513.
