Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Ms. Oberg
English 11
2 October 2016
The death penalty has been around for ages. It has been used for only the most
extreme cases such as mass murder or other tragic crimes. Though it wasnt such a
controversial topic in the eighteenth century, jump to present day where many states are
wondering if the death penalty is constitutional due to its cruel and unusual
punishments.Time magazine's The Death of the Death Penalty, by David Von Drehle
and procons.org, shows how the death penalty is very confusing topic in the states of
in my opinion is unconstitutional due to the fact that it breaks many amendments, such
as the Fifth amendment, the Eighth amendment, and the Fourteenth amendment with
The death penalty is probably one of the most questionable actions the U.S. has
committed. The reason people think the topic is unconstitutional is because the way
they perform the actions is just downright cruel. There are many ways to do the death
penalty that show this, one way being making rooms full of witnesses shifting miserably
as many unconscious men are gasping and snorting as they are strapped to a gurney (2
Drehle). Doesnt that kind of affect the constitutionality of the action since they are
committing cruel and unusual punishments? O r how they are using lethal injections,
saying that its a superior alternative to electrocution? (2 Drehle) How is it any better?
Though the process is different it doesnt change the fact that they are killing someone
Many people believe that this act breaks the amendments V(nor shall be
compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life,
liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for
public use, without just compensation), VIII(Cruel and unusual punishments), and
XIV(defining national citizenship and forbidding the states to restrict the basic rights of
citizens or other persons). Many people like Jed S. Rakoff, a US District Judge in the
Southern District of New York. Believes that it breaks the fifth amendment because it
convicts too many innocent people and that there is no time for their 1exoneration,
denies them their due process, and state sponsored human murder (Procon.org).
People also believe that it breaks the 8th amendment like William J. Brennan, a Justice
of the US Supreme Court. "Death is not only an unusually severe punishment, unusual
in its pain, in its finality, and in its enormity, but it serves no penal purpose more
effectively than a less severe punishment... The fatal constitutional infirmity in the
objects to be toyed with and discarded. (Procon.org). This is a very debatable topic
because of some of the methods they use and how effective they are, such as lethal
injection, if they mess up the dosage the process of killing someone with it could take
hours. Some methods are better effective than others like the firing squad where they
have a whole squad shoot one man but only one of them is shooting. Its still cruel to kill
a man to kill because he killed people, doesnt that sound more like an act of revenge
Department of Political Science at the University of South Dakota; evidence that the
Founders inherently supported the death penalty... If a person can never be deprived of
life by the state, why is the clause 'without due process of law' necessary?... By
including a phrase that allowed for the possibility that citizens might be denied their life,
that the fifth amendment is not being broken due to what the Founders wrote how they
support it, they are denying that people are receiving any cruel or unusual punishment.
Saying its constitutional. Many other people agree that its constitutional and doesnt
affect the amendments. Like In Trop v. Dulles (decided Mar. 31, 1958), the US Supreme
Court Fines, imprisonment and even execution may be imposed depending upon the
enormity of the crime, but any technique outside the bounds of these traditional
constitutional depending on what crime they shall commit. But even if the crime is huge
its just that there is no method that counts as humane anyways. Lethal injection is not
humane because you deliberately trying to stop someones heart, electrocution is just
cruel, shooting squad is just terrible thinking about that, so many ways they used to kill
The death penalty should be abolished because of these many reason and more.
Its an inefficient system that has since been backed up due to the sheer lack of
conductivity due to many money constraints, many inmates awaiting appeal, also how
this is system is one of the most unconstitutional due to the fact that is a cruel and
unusual punishment no matter how they conducted even if they say its more of
humane way of putting it. Saying that they are doing a lesser punishment to make it
constitutional does not mean that it is. Any method they commit is a cruel or unusual
punishment because they are literally killing human beings and denying them, acting as
though they are inhumane. Breaking the the XIV amendment which states Nor shall
any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.
Works Cited
Drehle, David Von. The Death of the Death Penalty Time magazine. Web.