Capital Punishment

11 Pages 2795 Words

unishment should always stay in effect to punish violent criminals. Researching the

facts, state and federal laws, opinions, and cases that have taken place involving capital punishment and

views by people who are involved in capital punishment will show this.
In 1972 the Supreme Court of the United States made the act of capital punishment illegal in all

fifty states during this time capital crimes which, but, not limited to murder, rape, kidnapping, and threatening

to kill the President of the United States increased by 34% (Reptom, 1998, p. 76-78). But in 1977 the

Supreme Court reversed its decision and made capital punishment legal once again, with certain conditions.

These conditions were that each state would regulate capital punishment acts that were done in their state.

Also when a capital crime criminal was taken to court the jury was given more choices then capital

punishment or acquittal. The jury could choose to give the convinced criminal the life sentence without

parole, those were the tow major changes when the Supreme Court made capital punishment legal again in

1977 (Fritz, 1999, p. 27).
Even though capital punishment was made legal again in 1977 there were still many groups that

did not want it to take place and their main argument was that capital punishment did not deter other capital

crimes from happening. However in 1985 economist Stephen K. Layson published a study at the University

of North Carolina that showed that every execution of a murder deters, on average, 18 murders. The study

also showed that raising the number of death sentences by one percent would prevent 105 murders.

However, only 38 percent of murder cases result in a death sentence, and of those, only 0.1% are actually

executed (Glasser, Jan. 17, 2000, p. 47-49). Layson also took in to account certain changes in society

such as the number of youth in society, and al...