0Hello everyone, the writing below is my research paper for this term. I looked through it once but my problem is not being able to see my own mistakes. 05000 I will really appreciate your help if you can give me hints to turn the language into formal British English and find grammatical mistakes. Thanks in advance.02br
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00INTRODUCTION02br
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00Capital punishment-executing of criminals, has been done all over the world, regardless of age, sex and nationality in different ways such as by using guillotine, hanging, injection, gases or electro shock. The only aim to do this was to hinder similar crimes, even some countries preferred to show execution to people to give a lesson to them and to make an unforgettable memory, while the others did it behind closed doors. But the interesting point is that though capital punishment has been done in many countries since ancient times, there are still no satisfactory evidence showing that it has a deterrent effect. In this paper, the ineffectiveness of it will be discussed by many different aspects. First, the history of it and where it is done will be described to give a general idea. Then, the thoughts of people and criminals’ family and what Human Rights Law tells about this will be explained. To provide these, information will be given on its expenses, other possibilities of wrong decisions and the non-deterrent effect evidences.00 02br
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00HISTORY OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT02br
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00There are different assumptions about the origin of capital punishment. Some experts believe that capital punishment was done to please Gods while others claim that it is hatred and revenge coming from the uncivilized Mediterranean, Germanic and Nordic people. Another claim is that the first capital punishment was done in 00 by the ruler Hammurabi, the founder of talionic principle (Franck, 2003) which requires the parallelism between the crime and punishment.00 02br
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00WHERE IS IT DONE?00 02br
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00If we look at today nothing seems to have changed much. Researches show us that from that time till now nothing has changed much. Despite all campaigns done against the capital punishment, Amnesty International revealed that at least 2.148 people were executed last year mostly in 0100China0200 (1,770), 0100Iran0200 (94), 0100Saudi Arabia0200 (86), the 0100USA0200 (60) and 00 (31) respectively and more than 20.000 people are waiting for their date of death. (Irons, 2006, par.1)00 00 02br
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00WHAT DO PEOPLE THINK ABOUT CAPITAL PUNISHMENT?00 02br
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00Aside from all these, the most surprising point is the change in the thoughts of people. A U.S. study of a group of 00 00randomly chosen people shows us that people knew very little about the effects of capital punishment and as they learned more about it, their thoughts changed too. Another point is that time has a role in this too. For example, in Germany many people were still supporting the capital punishment even after it was abolished but twenty years later hardly anyone seemed to oppose it. ( Franck, 2003). It is obvious that the attitudes of people are not a reliable source for learning the acceptance of a rule. So, people’s not opposing to capital punishment shouldn’t be shown as a reason by countries. 00 02br
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00However, if we look at a poll recently declared, we will see that people seem to be more determined on their thoughts about the non-deterrent effect of death penalty. The poll done by the Center for Survey Research at Penn Sate Harrisburg, declared that out of 865 respondents00 0042.9 % preferred the death penalty while 45.1 % chose life with or without parole. The theoretical margin of00 00error of the poll is 3.4 %. The other 12 % answered ‘don’t know/ not sure’ or didn’t answer. The spokesman for Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to Death Penalty said that this poll is a show of changing attitudes in the sate over a decade. (Morrison, 2007, par 4-6)00 02br
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00WHAT DO CRIMINALS’ FAMILIES FEEL ABOUT CAPITAL PUNISHMENT?00 02br
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00 00Despite of the fact that there are not many researches done on the effects of execution have on the families of condemned, a few of them shows us that such families encounter with much challenges in their lives. While some attempt suicide, others either lose their jobs or feel isolated.(Gelineav, 2006) To give an example, Christina Lawson, whose husband David Martinez,was executed last year for the rape and murder of Kierza Paul, a 24-year-old Minnersota University student, said:” When somebody says ‘how did your husband die?’ and you say ‘Oh, he was executed by the state of Texas,’ their hand leaves you and they walk away as if you are contagious with this death penalty disease.” (Gelineav, 2006, par 3). 00 02br
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00To give another example, a sociologist, Susan Sharp, said in her book, Hidden Victims, that she found family members who had been threatened, lost their jobs and had their tires slashed even one woman told her that her pets were killed by others accusing her relative’s crime. And one women , Reid(55), whose brother was executed in 00 said though she had support from the others she still felt isolated.(Gelineav, 2006, par 6) .As we can see, death penalty not only affects the person, but also affects the whole community and leave the condemners’ families in a hard situation. 02br
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00WHAT DO HUMAN RIGHTS TELL ABOUT CAPITAL PUNISHMENT?02br
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00Furthermore, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is a fundamental declaration for human rights and dignity, tells this about the liberty of life in article three: ‘ Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person ‘. This brief explanation is completely supports the liberty of human life. Moreover, no mention was done about the capital punishment let alone its being used. (Franck, 2003). 00 00Though 010200 is the founder of the Human Rights Declaration, it is among the countries which prefer the death penalty most. As a result, aside from what people think and do, there may not be an agreement between what countries do and what their laws tell about this.00 00 02br
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00CAPITAL PUNISHMENT COSTS TOO MUCH00 02br
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00 00By 1976, with Gregg and Georgia thirty five states made new laws about the capital punishment on the constitutional standards of sentencing phase. But from that day till now, all these changes failed and new procedures were tired to be enacted. But as Bennar says:” the constitutionalizing of capital punishment created an enormously complicated, expensive and time- consuming apparatus that had little affect on the outcome of cases. Being executed was still, as Justice steward had put it in Furman, like being struck by lightning; the only difference was now that it only took a decade and millions of dollars or public money for the lightning to strike. ( 00, 2006, par 15).00 02br
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00The only unlucky states are not them. Another report was done by New Jersey Policy Perspective, which says: 00, having the death penalty, spent $ 250 million in 1982, still thought not to be counted exactly which means the expenditure is higher than this. The only conclusion can be reached by this is that over the past twenty three years tax payers paid more than a quarter of a billion dollars on a capital punishment executing no one. ( Berman, 2007). These three states are among the hundred ones spending treasures on a non-working system. If we calculate the real costs, it would be better to use this money to hinder punishments rather than punishing condemners.00 02br
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00OTHER POSSIBILITIES OF WRONG DECISIONS00 02br
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00Taken into consideration, death penalty is found to be used unfairly against some racial minorities, the poor and mentally ill. So, agreeably it is a criminal system that no justice system can afford. (Irons, 2006)00 02br
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00As Ted Heath states the possibility of executing an innocent must be the strongest argument against the death penalty. The execution of Derenk Benkley in 1953 turned the tide of the abolition campaign in 00. Ted Heath, arguing in the Commons for abolition, said that the true test of a commitment to capital punishment was not a willingness to act as the executioner, but a preparedness to be executed by mistake. Since the death penalty was reintroduced in the 010200 in 1973, 122 people have been released from death row when evidence exonerating them came to light. Justice is always fallible; this is why an irrevocable penalty is unacceptable. (Irons, 2006, par. 5)00 00 02br
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00Other than these, there is also the possibility of executing mentally ill people. The American Civil Liberties Union reveals that more than 10 % out of 3,400 inmates mentally ill people who are waiting for their execution day .In 1997 The Dallas Morning News reported that 3/1 of 602 inmates nationwide responding the newspaper’s poll had been treated for various psychiatric problems.(Malone, 2005, par. 30) 00 02br
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00As we can see from the examples, capital punishment doesn’t give the chance to change the verdict in case of a wrong decision in the court. Also, the possibility of executing an innocent and its being used against the poor and some radical minorities are enough to show its ineffectiveness and useless.00 00 02br
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00Death penalty again fails deterring because criminals don’t think of future while they kill or steal. A Japanese prison psychiatrist studied 145 men put into jail because of murder between the years 1955- 1957. Surprisingly, he found out that o one has thought of the death penalty when they did kill. In 00 British Physician Roper found that most criminals were such in an aggressive situation during the act that they couldn’t think of anything or stop themselves while others could escape. (Franck, 2003)00 02br
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00CAPITAL 00PUNISHMENT HAS NO DETERRENT AFFECT00 02br
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00 00 00In 1959, Thorsten Sellin did a research showing the relation between the death penalty and crime rates in neighboring states within the U.S, some of which used the death penalty while the others didn’t. A comparison of 00, Massachussets and Connecticud showed that within 1920- 1963, the murder rate for every a hundred thousand people were as much high00 00in 00 as in the other two states where capital punishment had been abolished . Another comparison between 00, where the death penalty was introduced in 1935, Montano and 00, where the death penalty was abolished, showed that the crime rate was similar in three states. ( Franck, 2003)00 02br
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00In one of his recent studies he gave us these results: in one of the graphs he did comparing homicide rates among randomly chosen states, Texas, New York and California within the years 1982 to 2002, Texas executed two hundred and thirty nine prisoners, California ten a00 00New York none. In spite of these, the homicide rates are quite alike in all three states. (Goertzel, 2004)00 02br
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00To add, there is no statistical evidence showing that death penalty has deterrence. After a 00 00moratorium, executions resumed in the 00 in 1977. From that time till now, 00 has a third and one- half of all executions in the 010200 Moreover, since the first execution in 1982, violent crime has increased by forty six per cent in 00 which can be compared to an average rise of five percent for the rest of the country.00 02br
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00In 00 United Nations group trying to prevent drug trafficking found that the death penalty had no effect on drug traffickers. On the contrary, since they had a chance of obtaining guilty verdict, courts had to need more solid proof to condemn them to death penalty. So, they pointed out that it was better to sentence them to have a deterrent effect.00 02br
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00If it deterred criminals than other punishments, analyses of comparative legal systems would show a lower crime rate for the nations who didn’t abolish it than the abolished ones.00 00 02br
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00The only known study indicating that capital punishment has deterrence was done in 1975 by Isaac Ehrlisch in the 00 Within the time 1932- 1970, he found that while the executions were diminished, crime rates were increased which made him think that death penalty had a deterrent effect. However, he did not take into consideration the increased availability of guns and he forgot that the number of executions couldn’t affect the crime rate where the capital punishment were abolished or no longer used.00 02br
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00In 1975, the 00 of Science sent a group to approve these results. However, it came out that his study didn’t present any useful prove on the deterrence of the death penalty. The report also stated that the most widely assumptions on the deterrent effect couldn’t be used making certain decisions. ( Franck, 2003)00 02br
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00A recent study done by The Times shows that for the last twenty years the homicide rate in states with the death penalty has been 48%00 00to 101% higher than in states without the death penalty. The same study also showed that homicide rates sowed the approximately the same rates in the states between having capital punishment and the states which didn’t have it. (Bonner & Fessender, 2000)00 02br
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00Another recently done research supporting these findings points out that though 010200 has death penalty in its thirty eight states, crime rate and executions are showing the same rates. Even 00 using injection, has the most crime rate itself.00 02br
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00Furthermore, criminologists searching the effects of death penalty on people found that crime just leads to crime. (Irons, 2006, par 6-7). 00 02br
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00However, though people may not be seem to agree with this, in this point research results help us. For example, when Minnesota abolished capital punishment in 1911, 60 % of people were in favor of the capital punishment said, Susan Gardner, a career prosecutor in St. Paul and elected country attorney there since 1994. However, the research results didn’t say so said Ms. Gardner and added:” The public policy makers in 00 think the death penalty is not efficient, it is not a deterrent, it is a devise form of punishment that we simply don’t need.” (Bonner & Fessender, 2000, par. 15)00 00 02br
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00CONCLUSION00 02br
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00As it is understood from the results of researches and studies, regardless of place, state and time capital punishment still can’t be proven to have a deterrent effect on crime rates. On the contrary, all researches show very openly that crime breeds violence for people. Moreover, capital punishment not only gives harms to the person but also to condemners’ families and to society. They feel isolated and helpless. Furthermore, there is a contradiction between what laws say and what countries do about capital punishment as well as what people think and do. Also regarding the attorneys’ and judges’ thoughts on capital punishment, giving a reason showing these just seems nonsense. Capital punishment is also against the Human Rights Declaration and if we consider the expenditures done on it, the possibilities of wrong decisions in the court and the possibility of condemning an innocent and mentally ill people, it is absolutely an unnecessary and ineffective thing to do. Having not been proven to have a deterrent affect statistically should be taken into consideration as well.00 02br
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00Rather than preferring the death penalty and trying to find proofs to continue doing this, all this time and money should be spent on learning whether life imprisonment can be a more effective punishment and why capital punishment is still preferred00 00despite all these researches proving its ineffectiveness and why black people are condemned most. 00 00 010id7