Capital Punishment Essays (2709 words) - Sentencing,

Capital Punishment Putting to death people who have been judge to have committed certain extremely heinous crimes is a practice of ancient standing. But in the United States, in the latter half of the twentieth century, it has become a very controversial issue. Changing views on this difficult issue led the Supreme Court to abolish capital punishment in 1972 but later turned to uphold it again in 1977, with certain conditions. Indeed, restoring capital punishment is the will of the people, yet many voices have been raised against it. Heated public debate have centered on questions of deterrence, public safety, sentencing equality, and the execution of innocents, among others. One argument states that the death penalty does not deter murder. Dismissing capital punishment on that basis would require us to eliminate all prisons as well because they do not seem to be any more effective in the deterrence of crime. Others say that states which have the death penalty have higher crime rates than those that do not. And that a more sever punishment only inspires more sever crimes. But every state in the union is different. These differences include population, the number of cities, and the crime rate. Urbanized states are more likely to have higher crime rates than states that are more rural. The state that have capital punishment have it because of their high crime rate, not the other way around. In 1985, a study was published by economist Stephen K. Layson, at the University of North Carolina, that showed that every execution of a murderer deters, on average of 18 murders. The study also showed that raising the number of death sentences by only one percent would prevent 105 murders. However, only 38 percent of all murder cases result in a death sentence, and of those, only 0.1 percent are actually executed. During the temporary suspension on capital punishment from 1972 - 1976, researchers gathered murder statistics across the country. Researcher Karl Spence of Texas A&M University came up with these statistics, in 1960, there were 56 executions in the United States and 9,140 murders. By 1964, when there were only 15 executions, the number of murders had risen to 9,250. In 1969, there were no executions and 14,590 murders, and 1975, after six years without executions, 20,510 murders occurred. So the number of murders grew as the number of executions shrank. Spence said: While some [death penalty] abolitionists try to face down the results of their disastrous experiment and still argue to the contrary, the...[data] concludes that a substantial deterrent effect has been observed...In six months, more Americans are murdered than have been killed by execution in this entire century...Until we begin to fight crime in earnest [by using the death penalty], every person who dies at a criminals hands is a victim of our inaction. And in Texas, the highest murder rate in Houston (Harris County) occurred in 1981 with 701 murders. Since Texas reinstated the death penalty in 1982, Harris County has executed more murderers than any other city or state in the union and has seen the greatest reduction in murder from 701 in 1981 down to 261 in 1996 - a 63% reduction, representing a 270% differential. Also, in the 1920s and 30s, death penalty advocates were known to refer to England as a means of proving capital punishments deterrent effect. Back then, at least 120 murderers were executed every year in the United States and sometimes the number reached 200. Even then, England used the death penalty far more consistently than we did and their overall murder rate was smaller than any one of our major cities at the time. Now, since England abolished capital punishment about thirty years ago, the murder rate has subsequently doubled there and 75 English citizens have been murdered by released killers. Abolitionists will claim that most studies show that the death penalty has no effect on the murder rate at all. But thats only because those studies have been focused on inconsistent executions. Capital punishment, like all other applications, must be used consistently in the United States for decades, so abolitionists have been able to establish the delusion that it does not deter at all to rationalize their fallacious arguments. But the evidence shows that whenever capital punishment is applied consistently or against a small murder rate it has always been followed by a decrease in murder. There is not an example on how the death penalty has failed to reduce the murder rate under those conditions. So capital punishment is very capable

Success is Key; Failure is not an Option Essays

Success is Key; Failure is not an Option Essays Success is Key; Failure is not an Option Essay Success is Key; Failure is not an Option Essay Failure and success are a massive part of life. Everything that is done can be interpreted into being successful or a failure. Being successful meaner that the expectations that were given were either met or exceeded, whether it is in school, sports, work, etc. Failure, however, would be falling under the given expectations or standards, and Just not trying hard. My parents have high expectations for me that sometimes I feel like I cannot meet. Failure is not an option in their eyes, as many other parents. They expect me to work hard to achieve their expectations and to get what I want in life. Sometimes, Im excited at first to work to get what I want. For example, in One Last Time, the author says When we arrived I was frisky and ready to go (Sotto). When work first started for him, he was excited and ready to learn new skills in order to be successful. I can relate to this because every time I try something new, Im excited to do it at first but then farther down the line, once Vive been doing it for a while, it Just becomes routine and boring to me and my parents expect me to keep going. In One Last Time, Sotto says, that he would rather wear old clothes than go to work. He is giving up on something that could one day help him to learn responsibility and discipline. My parents, expect me to get straight As and go to a US right out of high school. While, their intentions are for me to be successful, they also want me to follow in their footsteps. In The Way to Rainy Mountain, Mayday is following in his grandmothers footsteps to find out if the story she told him is true. It says, At the top of the ridge I caught sight of Devils Tower up thrust against the gray sky as if in the birth of time the core of the earth had broken through its crust and the motion of the oral begun. There are things in nature that engender an awful quiet in the heart of man; Devils Tower is one of them (Mayday). When he found Devils Tower, he was successful in finding out if the story his grandmother had told him was true or not. Similar, to this, my mom used to tell me that I will always be successful if I followed after something I believed in. Their notions of success and failure put a great amount of stress on me because I always feel like there is Just one expectation that they have that I Just cannot quite reach. School for instance, my parents want me to maintain a 4. G. P. A and get a full ride scholarship, I feel like this is an incredibly high expectation because if I dont do just that, I will end up feeling like I failed at the task that was given. Overall, I believe that they have Just the right amount of expectations for me because there are only some that I have a hard time meeting but I do. Mayday, N. Scott. The Way To Rainy Mountain. The Blair Reader. 4th deed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Laurie G. Serener, 2002. 36-41. Print. Laurie G. Sterner, 2002. 12-19. Print.

Common Law 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Common Law 3 - Essay Example the landlord will remain as occupier for the parts of the building he has retained as a result of the letting; where a landowner gives a licence to a person to use premises and retains the right to enter premises to do repairs, the owner retains control and is the occupier; and finally where the owner employs independent contractors to do work on premises, the owner will generally retain sufficient control to be classified as an occupier, however there is a possibility that the contractors will also be found to be occupiers, depending on the amount of control they have while the work is in progress. The liability of occupiers for lawful visitors is governed by Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 and will be discussed in respect of Messrs Jones and Thompson. The issue of rights and liabilities between Sunshine Beach Holiday Park Owners and Messrs Jones and Thompson will now be discussed. The principle of common duty of care bestows a duty upon the occupier to take such care in all circumstances of the case as is reasonable to ensure that a (lawful) visitor will be reasonably safe when he uses the premises for the purposes for which he is invited or permitted to be there. (s.2(2) Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957) Further the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 goes on to state that a licensee (a person to whom a license is given) is owed a contractual duty of care (s.5(1) Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957). One of the most important defence to actions brought under the Occupiers’ Liability Act is the defence of contributory negligence, that is where a visitor fails to use reasonable care for his own safety and such failure causes him damage. The effect of this will be a reduction in damages. When the common duty of care is considered, the circumstances that are included are the degree and want of care which would ordinarily be looked for, in such a visitor. Contributory negligence may allow for a reduction in damages or may extinguish damages per