NCJ Number
111809
Journal
Western State University Law Review Volume: 15 Issue: 1 Dated: (Fall 1987) Pages: 127-178
Date Published
1987
Length
52 pages
Annotation
In recent years, capital punishment has reemerged on the American scene and executions are taking place with increasing frequency.
Abstract
There appear to be three main reasons for the existence of capital punishment: its existence throughout the country's history, increasing crime rates, and uninformed public opinion favoring its retention. However, there are numerous legal, philosophical, and moral reasons for abandoning the death penalty. Despite numerous U.S. Supreme Court decisions, there is nothing to suggest that the criminal justice system has significantly been able to remove randomness and arbitrariness from the selection process that decides who lives and who dies. Indeed, the very nature of capital punishment renders the system ill-equipped to deal with several glaring and fundamental problems inherent in the system itself. Additionally, since human error cannot be eliminated, executing some individuals by mistake is inevitable. Racial bias, too, has been shown to exist historically and currently, although the Court has rejected constitutional challenges on this ground. Deterrence cannot be demonstrated, retribution can be secured through life imprisonment, and no real benefit can be shown to derive from imposition of capital punishment. Finally, concepts of individual human rights are incompatible with this sanction, and more and more countries are abandoning it as brutal and dehumanizing. 343 footnotes.