Introduction
Capital punishment is a form of penalty allowed by some governments which involve the killing of criminals who have committed grievous crimes. In the US capital punishment is a legal penalty now used by 31 states and the centralized government. However, some states in the US have banned the death penalty among prisoners but instead introduced life imprisonment. America is the only developed country which is practicing the death punishment even now. Nevertheless, it was the first to introduce lethal injections as a method of execution although five other countries have adopted the technique. The essay shall discuss capital punishment in the US in full detail.
In recent years, the death penalty has grown increasingly rare. Even though research show that 60% of the Americans are still okay with capital punishment. However, the US Supreme Court has reduced the number of people executed .For instance; only 27 people were killed in 2015.Currently, the states of Texas, Florida, Missouri, Georgia and Virginia are the only ones conducting executions (Durlauf,et.al,2015).
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In the years the 1970s to 1990s, the Americans had invested full confidence in the Supreme Court to rule on the criminals who deserved the cake penalty. However, at the start of the year 2000, the public opinion began to change as claims emerged that the jury, as well as the Highest Court, couldn’t keep the death penalty consistent. Several people had been sentenced to death for crimes they had not committed, but luckily they were released causing the governors, prosecutors, and the jurors to stop the killings (Canes-Wrone, et.al, 2014).
For one to be sentenced for a capital crime, there are distinct offenses which they must have committed as discussed. Aggravated murder is one of the reasons. Inmates who have been executed since the reinstatement of the capital punishment in 1976 were found guilty of intentional homicide. Factors allowing for one to be accused of aggravated murder vary from one state to another. For instance, California has 22 factors whereas the New Hampshire has 7 (Jennings, et.al, 2016). However, some aggravating situations are universal to warrant death penalties such as killing a police officer, robbery murder, and raping and then killing the victim. Also, some states in the US have incorporated child murder to the list of aggravating killings.
Secondly, people can get the capital punishment if they commit crimes against the state. The crimes include treason, terrorism, spying and drug trafficking which are labeled as capital offenses by the federal law. Treason is punishable by death in seven States of the US namely Arkansas, Georgia, California, Mississippi, Louisiana, Vermont, and Missouri.
Further, capital punishment applies to individuals who commit crimes against other persons. However, this is not applicable in many states by the Supreme Court ruling in the Kennedy v. Louisiana which ruled that the death punishment could not be enforced for non-homicidal criminalities against a person (Hans, et.al, 2015). It removed a law which provided for an individual to be executed for raping a child under aged.
Legal paperwork of the death penalty in the US follows five critical steps. They involve a decision by the prosecution to advocate for the death penalty on an offender; sentencing; direct review; state collateral review and federal habeas corpus. Each has been discussed accordingly.
The first step involves the judges agreeing to sentence a person to death if requested by the prosecutor or accuser. Nevertheless, new demands have emerged about whether prosecutorial unpredictability has replaced sentencing changeability. Researchers have claimed that the motive behind prosecutors capital punishment bid is marked by unusual political behavior suggesting that they are not regarding the directive by the Supreme Court. Hence, the injustice that the Supreme Court wanted to eradicate may still affect capital cases.
Sentencing is the second step of the legal process towards capital punishment. Among the three states applying capital punishment, (Montana, Nebraska, and Alabama), deciding for the penalty involves one or three judges. 28 other states use a jury in determining the death penalty, and 27 of them need a united verdict. However, the states have different opinions on what to do in case the jury has equal votes.
In the states of California, Kentucky, Arizona and Nevada, a retrial is in order in such circumstances. In Missouri and Indiana, the presiding judge gives the final verdict.in the other 21 states; equal votes by the jury leads in an automatic life sentence. This is also a recommendation by the federal law. Florida uses a jury supermajority to enforce the death penalty although, in the case of fewer than ten people voting for the punishment, the offender gets life imprisonment. In Nebraska, sentencing involves three judges, and if one disagrees with killing, the criminal is sentenced to life imprisonment (Van den Haag, & Conrad, 2013).
A direct review of the case is the third step, and it happens when the defendant gets a death penalty at the trial level. The direct review can be termed as a lawful petition in an appellate court to examine the type of evidence provided in the tribunal of the first instance and the law which the lower court used to reach the decision. The direct review frequently results in three outcomes.
For instance, it can uphold the judgment made by the court if there are no legal errors .if it identifies legal miscalculations, it can nullify or reverse the judgment and order a new sentence hearing. Finally, if the jurors don’t see any reason for the accused to be eligible for the death penalty, the appellate court may recommend for the culprit to receive heavy punishment for which the offense is worthy. This process has saved at least 60% of the criminals who have been sentenced to death.
State collateral review is the fourth stage. After a direct review has advocated for the death penalty, supplemental methods to lessen the judgment are allowed for. These are what is referred to as the collateral review. It’s an avenue which gives the plaintiff the last chance for appealing his or her sentence. The review, though an important step, is rarely successful in most cases. Only about six percent of the cases can survive this .in the state of Virginia, the state habeas corpus for the sentenced criminals is determined by the state’s Supreme Court under select original jurisdiction as from 1995.This prevents ant trials at the lower courts making it the region which takes the shortest time to determine death penalties.
Federal habeas corpus is the last stage of the legal process of the capital punishment law. This involves a species of state collateral reviews and the last chance for the offenders from the different states to reject a death sentence at a federal level. This stage is guided by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1966.Tthe cases can be decided in a period of fewer than three years once rejected from the state collateral review.
Methods of Execution
If the convict cannot appeal for his or her death sentence to be removed, the next step is their execution. The capital punishment states have a variety of ways to killing the criminals. However, lethal injection is the primary method of execution. The state governments advocate for the use of three mixed drugs namely potassium chloride, pancronium bromide and an anesthetic which stop the heart after a few minutes. Even so, eight states have resorted to inflicting an overdose of a single drug to the convict (Steiker, & Stiker, 2013).
Other methods can be used if the culprit requests not to be injected. For instance, electrocution is employed in Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia, South Carolina and Arkansas. Similarly, gas inhalation is used in California and Arizona. Further, the state of Washington uses hanging.
Capital punishment has become a controversial issue as many people and organizations feel that it’s barbaric in this day and era. Religious leaders, as well as the amnesty international, are against the practice since it’s morally wrong. The innocence project also aims to free the wrongly convicted criminals, specifically for the death row inmate’s .the arguments for or against the death penalty are based on religion and morality. While some American citizens are supporting the practice claim that it discourages criminal acts, others think it’s not good to take a man’s life since its precious and God is the only one with the power to do so.
Even so, the US is allowed to offer leniency and commutations .In 2003, the Illinois outgoing governor pardoned four inmates set for the death penalty and reversed the judgments of the remaining 167 to life imprisonment .All this is in the effort of trying to stop the death penalty (Thaxton, 2013).
Conclusion
Capital punishment has been in existence for a long time .however, with time, most countries have altered the practice to life imprisonment. Though, some states in the US still practice execution. Intentional homicide, killing of police officers, murdering victims after raping and treason are some of the offenses that make one liable to the death penalty. The five legal steps to convicting a felon to death are necessary to prevent bad judgment. Similarly, execution takes place in many forms although injecting the culprits with poison is the primary.
References
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Durlauf, S. N., Fu, C., & Navarro, S. (2013). Capital punishment and deterrence: understanding
Hans, V. P., Blume, J. H., Eisenberg, T., Hritz, A. C., Johnson, S. L., Royer, C. E., & Wells, M. T. (2015). The Death Penalty: Should the Judge or the Jury Decide Who Dies?. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies , 12 (1), 70-99.
Jennings, W. G., Cochran, J. K., Meade, C. N., Smith, M. D., Fogel, S. J., & Bjerregaard, B. (2016). The Impact of the Rape/Sexual Assault Statutory Aggravating Factor on Death Sentencing Decision Making in Capital Murder Trials in North Carolina (1977–2009): A Propensity Score Matching Approach. Women & Criminal Justice , 1-12.
Steiker, C. S., & Steiker, J. M. (2013). Lessons for Law Reform from the American Experiment with Capital Punishment S. Cal. L. Rev. , 87 , 733
Steiker, C. S., & Steiker, J. M. (2013). Lessons for Law Reform from the American Experiment with Capital Punishment S. Cal. L. Rev. , 87 , 733
Thaxton, S. (2013). Leveraging death. J. Crim. L. & Criminology , 103 , 475
Van den Haag, E., & Conrad, J. P. (2013). The death penalty: A debate . Springer Science & Business Media
