Capital Punishment Essays Example

Capital Punishment: Outline

Introduction
Capital punishment in recent time has become rare as various democratic countries have abolished it. Many other countries are debating over the issue. There are various positive and negative aspects, associated with the capital punishment. Humanitarian organization, some religious communities and different groups of people vote against capital punishment. On the other hand, legal experts, authorities and some group of people vote in favor of capital punishment. The paper will explore different factors that are considered by the judges while deciding death sentence for any criminal.

Factor 1: The crime committed by criminal is performed under the pressure, threat and stress or without any pressure (Mandery, 2012).

Factor 2: Whether criminal is directly involved in the crime or helping the main offender (Kronenwetter, 2001).
Point 1: gravity and damage of the crime.
Point 2: modus operandi and intention of the offender.
Factor 3: Judges analyze the crime record of the offender to understand behavioral aspects of the criminal, and to understand if criminal performed crime first time or involved in other crimes as well (Edens et al., 2013).
Factor 4: Judges analyze the intention of the crime to see whether crime is committed by mistake where original intention was not to hurt anyone.
Factor 5: Mental stage, physical and emotional behavior and attitude of criminal towards specific victim and towards overall population play important role in determining punishment (Melusky and Pesto, 2011).
Conclusion: Capital punishment is most debatable and serious issue in today’s time. Various people and groups want to abolish capital punishment. However, there are certain instances where legal experts feel the requirement of such severe punishment.

References

Edens, John F., Davis, Karen M., Fernandez Smith, Krissie and Guy, Laura S. . (2013). No sympathy for the devil: Attributing psychopathic traits to capital murderers also predicts support for executing them. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, Vol 4(2), 175-181.
Kronenwetter, M. (2001). Capital Punishment: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO.
Mandery, E. (2012). Capital Punishment in America: A Balanced Examination. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Melusky, J.A., and Pesto. K.A. (2011). Capital Punishment. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO.