Murder In The First

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Murder in the First

“A society that respects life does not deliberately kill human beings.
An execution is a violent public spectacle of official homicide, and one
that endorses killing to solve social problems - the worst possible example
to set for the citizenry. The benefits of capital punishment are illusory,
but the bloodshed and the resulting destruction of community decency are real.”
-- Hugo Bedau, in The Case Against the Death Penalty



In American society, the threat of capital punishment stands as the ultimate sentence for

a criminal. The moral ramifications of the taking of another life, whether it be by murder or as

legally accepted punishment, remains an unresolved conflict between Americans. Despite the

fact that capital punishment, otherwise known as the "death penalty", is legal in only a handful of

countries in the world, the majority of Americans regard it as acceptable retribution. In the 1981

Gallup Poll, two-thirds of Americans voiced general approval of capital punishment. By 1994,

the same poll concluded that a tremendous 80% of Americans approved of capital punishment

(Moore, 1994:5). It is no wonder that many of our countries leaders endorse the death penalty.

The former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich, believes that mass

executions of "27 or 30 or 35 people at a time" would be effective in the reduction of the

importation of illegal drugs in to America (Taylor, 1995). In 1972, capital punishment was

eradicated in the United States when the Supreme Court declared that under then existing laws

"imposition and carrying out of the death penalty... constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in

violation of the 8th and 14th amendments." (Fruman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238). This decision,

however, was repealed in 1976 by the Supreme Court. Advocates of capital punishment claim

that it is an effective deterrent against cr...