MORAL ASPECT
WEB SITE PROCON.ORG:
IS DEATH PENALTY IMMORAL ?
http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=001038
SHOULD DEATH PENALTY BE ALLOWED ?
http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=1324
10 PROS AND CONS ABOUT DAETH PENALTY
http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=002000
CASEY’S CRITICAL THINKING
The Death Penalty: Morally Defensible?
http://www.hoshuha.com/articles/deathpenalty.html
SOCIAL ASPECT
PROCON.ORG
Does a person's race affect the likelihood of him/her receiving the death
penalty?
http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=001187
Does a person's income level affect the likelihood of him/her receiving the
death penalty?
http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=001190
Should victims' opinions matter when considering the death penalty?
http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=001005
death penalty information center
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/student-resource-center
DEATH PENALTY THROUGH A MORAL AND SOCIAL ASPECT IN THE USA IN THE 21st
CENTURY
1.The Death Penalty in America: Current Controversies," H. Bedau, editor, Oxford University
Press, 1997.
(2.K. O'Shea, "Women and the Death Penalty in the United States, 1900-1998," Praeger 1999).
(3.W. Schabas "The Abolition of the Death Penalty in International Law," Cambridge University
Press, second edition, 1997).
4.(Last Rights: Thirteen Fatal Encounters with the State's Justice, by Joseph B. Ingle, Sterling
Publishing, May 2008
5.Executing Justice: The Moral Meaning of the Death Penalty, by Lloyd Steffen, (Wipf &
Stock Publishers of Eugene, Oregon 2006)
6.Bohm, Robert M.: "Humanism and the death penalty, with special emphasis on the postFurman experience"; 6 Justice Quarterly, Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences 173 (1989)
7.Bright, Stephen B.: "The electric chair and the chain gang: choices and challenges for
America's future"; 71 Notre Dame Law Review 845 (1996)
8.Dieter, Richard C.: "Ethical choices for attorneys whose clients elect execution"; 3 The
Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics 799 (1990)
9.Freedman, Alfred M. and Halpern, Abraham L.: "The erosion of ethics and morality in
medicine: physician participation in legal executions in the United States"; 41 New York Law
School Law Review 169 (1996)
10.Lamont, Corliss: "Yes to life"; 28 The Bill of Rights Journal 35 (1995)
11.Symposium: Robert Blecker, Jeffrey Kirchmeier, the Honorable William Erlbaum, David Von
Drehle, and Jeffrey Fagan: "Rethinking the Death Penalty: Can We Define Who Deserves
Death?" - 24 Pace Law Review 107 (2003)
(all these sources are from the death penalty infor
mation center in USA)
(
Support for the death penalty has fluctuated
throughout the century. According to Gallup
surveys, in 1936 61% of Americans favored the
death penalty for persons convicted of murder.
Support reached an all-time low of 42% in 1966.
Throughout the 70s and 80s, the percentage of
Americans in favor of the death penalty
increased steadily, culminating in an 80%
approval rating in 1994. A May 2004 Gallup Poll
found that a growing number of Americans
support a sentence of life without parole rather than the death penalty for those convicted of
murder. Gallup found that 46% of respondents favor life imprisonment over the death penalty,
up from 44% in May 2003. During that same time frame, support for capital punishment as an
alternative fell from 53% to 50%. The poll also revealed a growing skepticism that the death
penalty deters crime, with 62% of those polled saying that it is not a deterrent. These
percentages are a dramatic shift from the responses given to this same question in 1991, when
51% of Americans believed the death penalty deterred crime and only 41% believed it did not.
Only 55% of those polled responded that they believed the death penalty is implemented fairly,
down from 60% in 2003. When not offered an alternative sentence, 71% supported the death
penalty and 26% opposed. The overall support is about the same as that reported in 2002, but
down from the 80% support in 1994. (Gallup Poll News Service, June 2, 2004).
)