An Idea To Reprieve Of Criminals From Capital Punishment

A Proposal for Research on Capital Punishment

Introduction

The topic of the research is reprieve of criminals from capital punishment. The paper focuses on how the issuance of the death penalty to convicted criminals goes against the same human rights that the law tries to protect. The paper thus proposes a thesis proving that convicted criminals facing capital punishment should be granted reprieve.

Organization review

History of the problem

Capital punishment can be described as the planned termination of an individual’s life by law enforcement instruments as a result of the severity of the individual’s crime. It is estimated that since the colonial era, about 13000 individuals have been executed by the government of the United States. However, the public has always been divided with regard whether the penalty should continue.

Overview of the issue

Capital punishment should be abolished and convicted felons who are sentenced to be executed should be granted reprieve. this is because the law has accorded every individual with the right to live which is the most fundamental right that humans possess. going against the provision by legally allowing the execution of some does not only break the most sacred law provided by nature, but also makes the government guilty of double standards.

Literature review

According to Amnesty International, capital punishment does not reduce occurrence of brutal crime but rather encourages it (Amnesty International 28). There are currently 104 countries globally who have abolished the act (Schabas 34). Capital crimes have been misused in some countries to target and execute specific individuals by corrupt regimes (Beckett and Sasson 85). The most common methods of performing the punishment are electrocution, beheading, and lethal injection, hanging and facing a firing squad (Dieter 789).

Importance of Topic

The topic is crucial since it sheds light on the violation of the most sacred principle of nature by the very same systems that we expect to uphold the principle. The topic calls for discussion since it raises the question of the integrity of our governments and constitutions since they reflect who we are as a people. It is moreover important since it is a call to action for individuals to decide what values they wanted reflected in their law

Potential Audience

The proposed report seeks to target the general public and law-makers since people in the increasingly democratic world have the power to stand up against this vice through activism and advocacy. However, due to the sensitive nature of the topic and the statistics following it, children are excluded from the target audience.

Counter-arguments

There are several arguments in opposition to the proposed thesis. For example, some people assert that criminals engage in capital crimes in free will and therefore, setting up death penalties can reduce crime rates by discouraging criminal behavior. However, some researchers have rebutted the argument claiming that crime is a generally risky activity and thereby criminals are not afraid of dying.

Problems

There are however several problems that may arise during the research for the proposed thesis. Prime among them is the difficulty in finding sources that will provide objective rationales for the annulment of the capital punishment since most previous research conducted on the issue consists of subjective emotionally-charged arguments. The other challenge lies in the fact that acquisition of primary data will be inhibited since access prisoners on death row for interviews is made nigh impossible by the government.