INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY-PHIL 101

Punishment and the Death Penalty

“Capital punishment,” also referred to as “death penalty” involves having to execute offenders by sentencing them to death upon conviction by court of law of criminal offenses (Black). “Capital punishment” is different from extrajudicial executions done minus any lawful procedures. The term “death penalty” is at times used instead of “capital punishment” although once it has been ruled it does not mean that execution will follow-“even when it is upheld on appeal”- since this can be appealed and a life imprisonment charged instead.

The concept capital punishment is something that has spurred heated debates in the past couple of years on the basis of its morality and how it affects criminal behaviors. Modern-day arguments for and against death penalty can be argued from three key theories. These include, moral, utilitarian, and practical theories. 

Moral Arguments

Those who support capital punishment argue that someone who kills another person has to pay with his own right to life (Ehrlich). To add on, they argue that death penalty is a mere example of vengeance as it involves having to express and reinforce the moral resentment to both the relatives of the victim as well as normal citizens (Laurence). In contrast, those who oppose this form of punishment believe that trying to legitimize the acts that are being repressed by the law-killing-death penalty is counterproductive in the ethical messages it does convey. Additionally, they note that using such form of punishment for relatively minor crimes is not moral as it is completely not proportionate to the harms caused. To them, death penalty tends to violate the fated individual’s right to life and is basically inhuman and humiliating.

Utilitarian Argument

Those in support of death penalty do argue that it has exceptionally strong off-putting effects on possibly violent criminals for whom the threats of being imprisoned are not a satisfactory restraint (Glover). Nevertheless, the individuals who are against this base their arguments on past studies that posit that death penalties are relatively not active deterrents when compared to the alternate sanctions of life imprisonments.

Works Cited

Black, Charled Lund. “Capital punishment: The inevitability of caprice and mistake.” (1981).

Ehrlich, Isaac. “The deterrent effect of capital punishment: A question of life and death.” (1973).

Glover, Jonathan. Causing death and saving lives: The moral problems of abortion, infanticide, suicide, euthanasia, capital punishment, war and other life-or-death choices. Penguin UK, 1990.

Laurence, John. A history of capital punishment. Citadel Press, 1963.