Research Proposal

8 April 1011

Justice is a controversial issue that has pledged the world since Adam and Eve. What kind of punishment is too harsh, and what punishment is equal to the crime? Prison holds inmates who have committed petty offenses but for those who commit a crime against the community and God, a greater debt needs to be paid. Capital punishment is the ultimate price for the ultimate crime.

Rita J. Simon and Dagney A. Blaskovich reference the Bible in A Comparative Analysis of Capital Punishment, when stating “an eye for an eye, and tooth for tooth.” This quote means that the punishment should be equal to the crime, like the death penalty for murder. The Old Testament in the Bible, which is the foundation for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, clearly states that capital punishment is accepted through God’s laws. Most people who stand against capital punishment try to hind behind religion as an excuse. However, the majority of the world’s population is either Christian, Jewish, or Islamic, and all of their faiths fully support the death of criminals.

Criminals have forfeited their human rights the moment they decided they could live above the law, and kill innocent people. Even though their acts were of cruel and unusual nature, the government has gone to great lengths to make their death humane. After years of torturous methods like hanging, beheading, shootings, and the electric chair, governments went to great lengths to make the death penalty humane. This introduced the lethal injection, which brought with it a humane death for criminals but an ethical issue for the medical field. Most medical professionals saw their jobs as healing people not killing them. Even though doctors did not approve of such an act, they still leaned help when making the lethal inject humane. Three steps were outlined in Lethal Injection by Amnesty International, “an anesthetic to induce unconsciousness, a paralyzing agent to stop breathing, and a toxic agent to stop the heart.” Murders now fall into asleep for entirety for robbing the community of an upstanding citizen.

For further research I would like to read cases on death row inmates. These cases could give insight on the reasoning behind the conviction and how the community reacted. Also I would further research the support of the death penalty verse the criticism against it. Through my initial research I found that most people support capital punishment, even if their government does not.