death penalty in England and USA?

Question

I need to write my opinion but i don't know much about it. Could anyone tell me anything they know about the death penalty or their opinion about it to help me understand the death penalty.

Answer 1

I'd address three topics:

1.Is it justified (eg. eye for an eye, revenge Vs rehabilitation, rights of the victim and their family, risk of miscarriage etc)
2.Is it effective (eg. is it a deterent, does it make better societies, is it cheaper than permanent incarceration etc)
3.Is it legal (eg. is it a cruel and unusual punishment, the position of international law, etc)

You've probably been asked the US/UK part because we are fairly similar societies with a largely common ancestry
and tradition, but the UK abolished the death penalty whilst much of the US still uses it. You can go two ways on this -
1. the US is a much younger society still in a vigourous development phase facing the challenges of it's huge size and diversity so frontier justice is still appropriate (similar claims for China by the way, the other big executor). when the UK was trying to hold a huge empire together it executed loads of people too.
2. the existence in the US of a more fundemental christianity gives people a different perspective on life (and death) from the broadly humanist (post christian) views in Europe (including the UK) where morality is more personal and less something learned from religion. Religious Europe was a very bloody place indeed for hundreds of years.

Hope this helps, BTW my opinion is that it is as morally justifiable as war. I really don't want to have to do it, but sometimes I might have to protect my family and society. Right now I think both our societies could live without capital punishment, and therefore should - but that could change.

Answer 2

The death penalty was in the UK and still is in parts of the USA the ultimate penalty for the ultimate crime.

For example instead of spending millions of pounds keeping Ian Chapman, the moors murderers, dennis neilsen in prison if the UK had sentanced them to death it would have saved money and possibly sent a stronger message to others.

In this day and age with all the CSI equipment when it can be proved that a person did commit the crime without a shadow of doubt it is definately something I feel should be brought back for certain crimes as the british justice system is no longer a system for the victims more a system that is sypathetic to the criminals (baby rapist got 6 years for repeatedly raping a 18 month old child and filming himself whilst doing so)

Personally I would bring the death penalty back.

Answer 3

In England the death penalty only went out when the UK signed up to the declaration of human rights. Before that people could only be executed for High Treason (killing or threatening to kill the monarch or the whole of parliament). I think the last person to be hanged for murder in the UK was in 1965.

In the USA it is quite common in some states (such as Texas) for murderers to be killed, this normally applies to people of ethnic minorities, especially the black community.

Amnesty International is a good place to get info against the death penalty.

Answer 4

Try the Amnesty International website, they've got loads of info.
www.amnesty.org

My son used it when he did this project. States like Texas that use it the most also have really high rates of violent crime. So it doesn't act as a deterrant.
Sometimes the justice system gets it wrong. The Guildford 6 and The Birmingham 4 are just 10 people from Britain who would have been wrongly executed. You can't bring people back from the dead.

Answer 5

We do still have the Death Penalty in the UK. You can still be put to death for; TREASON, PIRACY and ARSON IN THE ROYAL DOCKYARDS. Just attend a session of any Crown Court, the Judges still carry the Black Cap and White Gloves they are supposed to put on before passing a death sentence. The fact that we have not legally murdered someone for years does not mean we cannot do it.

Answer 6

The death penalty is no longer on the statute books in the Uk but has been seriously considered in parliment a few times. A few states (notably Texas) still use it as the ultimate sanction in the US.

Answer 7

Well Im pretty sure England doesn't have it anymore. The U.S. still does. Most places have eletrocution or gas chamber or lethal injection killing. Both countries used to have firing squad and hanging executions as well.

Many including myself feel that death is a good deterrent against crime. Western society with it roman law and judeo-christian values has had a stance towards executions for harsher crimes. Murder and sedition being the most common reasons.

Answer 8

No DP in England...

In US its not allowed in Michigan, legal in all other states. But many states have restriction (like you can only get it for murder or a jury has to unanimously recommend it). Texas has most people on death row, and executes most people per year.

try going to www.wikipedia.org and searching death penalty.

Some people think its immoral to kill another human, others take and eye for an eye approach. Some consider it a very good preventive tool (a murderer might not murder if he knows he could get the chair for it)

most states use lethal injection or gas chamber to kill, others use older methods, (the chair, even firing squad).

Answer 9

We dont have the death penalty in England were not as barbaric as the Americans

Answer 10

It's a barbaric outdated practice that is only carried out in the USA and third world countries.

It stems from the theory of an eye for an eye which is possible why it appeals to the US which is full of religous zealots.

Many young and mentally challenged people are put to death in places like Texas, where people are quite unforgiving and ignorant.