Assignment BUS231

Assignment
Submitted To
Mr. Dr. Md. Manzoor Elahee
Professor
Department of Business Administration
East West University
Submitted by
Jannatul Maua Nisha
Id: 2019-1-10-042
Course: BUS 239
Submission Date
9th May, 2022

Capital Punishment
Introduction
Justice requires that society impose on criminals losses equal to those they imposed on
innocent persons. Thus the governments provide the judicial system to impose capital
punishment on the offender who seem to be eligible. By inflicting death on those who
deliberately inflict death on others, the death penalty ensures justice for all. Though there are
conflicting school of ideas, in different countries capital punishment is considered as
inhumane and it is criticized for its irreversibility. Once capital punishment is imposed it
cannot be undone.
What is Capital Punishment

Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is a state-sanctioned practice of killing
a person as a punishment for a crime. The sentence ordering that an offender is to be
punished in such a manner is known as a death sentence, and the act of carrying out the
sentence is known as an execution. A prisoner who has been sentenced to death and awaits
execution is condemned and is commonly referred to as being "on death row".
Crimes that are punishable by death are known as capital crimes, capital offences, or capital
felonies, and vary depending on the jurisdiction, but commonly include serious crimes
against the person, such as murder, mass murder, aggravated cases of rape (often including
child sexual abuse), terrorism, aircraft hijacking, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and
genocide, along with crimes against the state such as attempting to overthrow government,
treason, espionage, sedition, and piracy, among other crimes. Also, in some cases, acts of
recidivism, aggravated robbery, and kidnapping, in addition to drug trafficking, drug dealing,
and drug possession, are capital crimes or enhancements.
Country-wise view on Capital Punishment:

Most countries, including almost all First World nations, have abolished capital punishment
either in law or in practice; notable exceptions are the United States, Japan, Taiwan, and
Singapore. Additionally, capital punishment is also carried out in China, India, and most
Islamic states.
After the Second World War, there has been a trend toward abolishing the death penalty. 54
countries retain the death penalty in active use, 108 countries have abolished capital
punishment altogether, 7 have done so for all offences except under special circumstances,
and 26 more have abolished it in practice because they have not used it for at least 10 years
and are believed to have a policy or established practice against carrying out executions.
According to Amnesty International, 18 countries are known to have performed executions in
2020. There are countries which do not publish information on the use of capital punishment,
most significantly China and North Korea. According to Amnesty International, around 1,000
prisoners were executed in 2017. Amnesty reported in 2004 and 2009 that Singapore and Iraq
respectively had the world’s highest per capita execution rate. According to Al Jazeera and
UN Special Rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed, Iran has had the world’s highest per capita
execution rate as they follow the Islamic law where capital punishment is mandatory for any
murder.
Arguments in favor of capital punishment

According to utilitarian theories, punishment is justified by its deterrence of criminal
behaviour and by its other beneficial consequences for individuals as well as for society.
Among several utilitarian theories recognized by criminologists, some stress general
deterrence and some individual deterrence. And involves Justice, which requires that society
impose on criminals losses equal to those they imposed on innocent persons. By inflicting
death on those who deliberately inflict death on others, the death penalty ensures justice for
all.
Capital punishment is often defended on the grounds that society has a moral obligation to
protect the safety and welfare of its citizens. Capital offenders threaten this safety and
welfare. Only by putting murderers to death can society ensure that convicted killers do not
kill again. Also such extreme outcome will discourage other’s from committing such capital
punishment.
Second, those favoring capital punishment contend that society should support those practices
that will bring about the greatest balance of good over evil, and capital punishment is one
such practice. Capital punishment benefits society because it may deter violent crime. While
it is difficult to produce direct evidence to support this claim since, by definition, those who
are deterred by the death penalty do not commit murders, common sense tells us that if
people know that they will die if they perform a certain act, they will be unwilling to perform
that act.
Additionally there are multiple Arguments in favour of capital punishment which are
 Retribution.
 Deterrence.
 Rehabilitation.
 Prevention of re-offending.
 Closure and vindication.
 Incentive to help police.
 Arguments in against capital punishment
“(Capital punishment) is . . . the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal's deed,

however calculated can be compared . . . For there to be an equivalence, the death penalty
would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date at which he would
inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at
mercy for months. Such a monster is not encountered in private life.
Arguments against capital punishment:
- The death penalty puts innocent lives at risk. Since the reinstatement of the death
penalty in the United States in 1976, 138 innocent men and women have been
released from death row, including some who came within minutes of execution. In
Missouri, Texas and Virginia investigations have been opened to determine if those
states executed innocent men. To execute an innocent person is morally reprehensible;
this is a risk we cannot take.
- Race and place determine who lives and who dies. Those who kill whites are more
likely to be sentenced to die than those who kill African-Americans. In Oregon,
prosecutors from some counties are more likely to pursue the death penalty than
others are.
- We pay many millions for the death penalty system, According to the Oregonian, in
1995 the trials for three Washington County murder cases cost more than $1.5
million. One was sentenced to death. The two others, one of whom was found guilty
of four murders, are not on death row. In 2000 a fiscal impact summary from the
Oregon Department of Administrative Services stated that the Oregon Judicial
Department alone would save $2.3 million annually if the death penalty were
eliminated. It is estimated that total prosecution and defense costs to the state and
counties equal $9 million per year.
- Poor quality defense leaves many sentenced to death. One of the most frequent causes
of reversals in death penalty cases is ineffective assistance of counsel. A study at
Columbia University found that 68% of all death penalty cases were reversed on
appeal, with
- Scientific studies have consistently failed to demonstrate that executions deter people
from committing crime. Around our country, states without the death penalty have a
lower murder rate than neighboring states with the death penalty.
- Families of murder victims undergo severe trauma and loss which no one should
minimize. However, executions do not help these people heal nor do they end their
pain; the extended process prior to executions prolongs the agony of the family.
Families of murder victims would benefit far more if the funds now being used for the
costly process of executions were diverted to counseling and other assistance.
- The death penalty is a lethal lottery: of the 15,000 to 17,000 homicides committed
every year in the United States, approximately 120 people are sentenced to death, less
than 1%.
- Capital punishment goes against almost every religion. Although isolated passages of
the Bible have been quoted in support of the death penalty, almost all religious groups
in the United States regard executions as immoral.
- Mentally ill people are executed. One out of every ten who has been executed in the
United States since 1977 is mentally ill, according to Amnesty International and the
National Association on Mental Illness. Many mentally ill defendants are unable to
participate in their trials in any meaningful way and appear unengaged, cold, and
unfeeling before the jury. Some have been forcibly medicated in order to make them
competent to be executed. Although the U.S. Supreme Court has decreed that people
with “mental retardation” may not be executed, Oregon has not yet passed a law
banning the execution of the mentally ill.
Conclusion:
The death penalty can provide families of victims with some closure, which may help them to
deal with their suffering. Without the death penalty, some criminals would continue to
commit crimes. It deters prisoners who are already serving life sentences in jail from
committing more serious offenses. Also it creates a sense of fear among the general Auto
driver.
Reference:
1. Dardis, F.E., Baumgartner, F.R., Boydstun, A.E., De Boef, S. and Shen, F., 2008. Media
framing of capital punishment and its impact on individuals' cognitive responses. Mass
Communication & Society, 11(2), pp.115-140.
2. Hood, R., 2001. Capital punishment: A global perspective. Punishment & Society, 3(3),
pp.331-354.
3. Dowler, A., 2008. The death penalty in Bangladesh. Retrieved on March, 22, p.2012.

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Assignment

Mr. Dr. Md. Manzoor Elahee

Department of Business Administration

East West University

Jannatul Maua Nisha

Course: BUS 239

9th May, 2022

What is Capital Punishment

Country-wise view on Capital Punishment:

Arguments in favor of capital punishment

“(Capital punishment) is . . . the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal's deed,

Arguments against capital punishment:

Communication & Society, 11(2), pp.115-140.

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