Capital Punishment Do you support it or are you against it?

Philosophy is… …the study of the truth or principles underlying all knowledge

What is Capital Punishment? - execution by government depending on crime committed -eighteenth century you were executed for small crimes like stealing -Now you have to be convicted of doing something extremely wrong to deserve death sentence

Where can you find Capital Punishment? - No Capital Punishment in Canada - Pierre Trudeau banned it in United States still has it and each individual state decides the punishments - A murder conviction could be less than ten years in prison to even death

Death Row If you are to be executed, you are on death row Lasts usually 5-10 years (don’t want judge to find out you are innocent after they kill you) Texas has so many people on death row, that they can not kill them fast enough

In Canada... - Age 17 and under cannot go to adult prison (even if they murdered someone) - You can not be put on the death row no matter how old you are In the United States… - Age 17 and under cannot be on death row - Age 18 and over may get capital punishment

First Degree Murder -jury finds guilty person of intent to kill In Canada: life imprisonment (25 years) In U.S.: life imprisonment or death penalty

Second Degree Murder -Jury finds guilty person not intending to kill (ex: killing somebody while robbing them) -In Canada and U.S.: ten years to life imprisonment

Manslaughter - Death caused by unintended actions (ex: pushing an unable swimmer into the deep end of a pool and they drown without you knowing they couldn’t swim) - In Canada and US: up to ten years imprisonment

Pros of Capital Punishment -Murderer can never kill again -Deterrent to stop people from killing others because of harsh punishment -Costs less

Cons of Capital Punishment -P-P-P-Person found guilty may turn out to be innocent after their execution -D-D-D-Death penalty is still murder (can’t kill murder with murder) -N-N-N-Not a deterrent because there will always be murders -C-C-C-Cruelty and viciousness not destroyed by cruelty and viciousness th Commandment states, “Thou shalt not kill”, by killing, some people are going against their own religion

Activity

Story #1 There’s a man who enjoys murdering people just for the fun of it. He was finally caught by the police and sent to prison. Unfortunately he is Canadian, so no capital punishment can come to him. After about 15 years, a parole officer notices the murderer had been a good person and a model citizen. A judge then let’s the prisoner free. The free man then kills another 10 people after being released. Moral: the man wouldn’t have killed any more people if there was capital punishment in Canada.

Story #2 There was a woman married to a man who treated her almost like a slave and beats her whenever he gets drunk. She couldn’t leave him because she was afraid he will come after her. It went on for years until she decided she couldn’t take it anymore and went a little insane because of this. The next day she shot and killed her husband. Moral: The woman doesn’t deserve capital punishment because it really wasn’t her fault she shot him. She claimed that she did it in self-defense. It was mainly her husband’s fault for driving her insane enough to kill him.

Do you support capital punishment or are you against it?

Bibliographies Szumski, Bonnie, Hall, Lynn and Bursell, Susan, eds. The Death Penalty: Opposing Viewpoints. United States: Greenhaven Press, 1986 Brody, Baruch A. Beginning Philosophy. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1977

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