Document Type
Essay
Publication Date
Spring 2024
Abstract
As there are evident flaws within the practice of capital punishment, I urge the United States federal government to question ways in which they should change how the death penalty is implemented into law. I propose that lawmakers consider fully abolishing the death penalty as a means of eliminating ethical and economic concerns within our judicial system. However, if this option does not seem possible, I instead propose the federal government act in revising the current practices used within the capital trial process. Previous research has found that the continued use of the death penalty can cause risk of economic loss, inhumane punishment, and racial discrimination within the sentencing process. In addition, data analysis has also highlighted the ineffectiveness of the death penalty in terms of its inability to deter crime and its potential to place innocent lives at risk.
Recommended Citation
Reyes, Emma, "Capital Punishment: Analyzing the Demise of the Death Penalty's Usefulness" (2024). Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics. 30.
https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/ethics_essay/30
Included in
Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons
Comments
First prize winner.