Criminal Justice Ethics—CJ2250
December 1, 2012
Capital punishment has long been a part of the American criminal justice system and the topic has created much debate on if this punishment is appropriate for the U. S. society. Many believe capital punishment is a necessary punishment for those who commit capital offenses and acts as a deterrent to violent criminals. Essentially, Americans that support the death penalty believe that it contributes to the overall wellbeing of U. S. society. Activists still desire to eliminate the punishment. Though, this country’s founding fathers broke away from England they did not completely disagree with everything they believed. When it came down to capital punishment, they adopted it from British common law. Even as history is reviewed, debate over capital punishment can be seen as far back as the American Revolution Debates over capital punishment continued from the Civil War until the 1960’s. During this period some states abolished and later reinstated the death penalty, but from 1968 to 1976, due to public outcry, no executions took place in the U.S. In 1972 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the death penalty in the Supreme Court case Furman v. Georgia because of the unfair application of the death penalty, and in this case, capital punishment was declared as excessive as well. This decision was then overturned by the 1976 U.S. Supreme Court case Gregg v. Georgia after the state of Georgia amended its law so that it would be applied more fairly (Grant, 2005). In the U.S. there have been cases where people were wrongfully convicted. This is enough reason for some to abolish capital punishment, but not for Samuel Francis, a contributing editor of Chronicles, which is a monthly conservative journal. Francis stated, “None of the arguments against...