Should capital punishment be at the discretion of a judge or a jury?

Student name:
Course name:
Civil Law
Luis Barriga
PHI 208 Ethics and Moral Reasoning
Prof. Ephraim Janssen
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Table of Contents
Ethical Question...............................................................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Explanation of Ethical theory..........................................................................................................4
Application of Ethical Theory.........................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6
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Student name:
Course name:
Ethical Question
Should capital punishment be at the discretion of a judge or a jury?
Introduction
Capital punishment refers to the death penalty that can be stated as the accomplishment of an
offender sentenced to death after the conviction of court. It is a rule-governed procedure in which
warrant execution is the conclusion for the person who stands responsible for going against or
violating the rules and norms. Historically it has been seen that punitive executions have been
levied by the authorities for various kinds of misconducts. Certain amendments have been made
in the procedures and it is made sure that the punishments are given after fully analyzing the
evidence and proofs against the person. It is the responsibility of the judge and the jury to take an
appropriate decision regarding the punishments as a result of which each case is analyzed in a
deep manner (Conway & Gawronski, 2013). It has also been noticed that decisions taken by a
judge are a much speedy procedure than decisions taken by the jury. In a jury system, different
people have different opinions, as a result of which decisions taken by a judge is more reliable
and accurate.
A sense of satisfaction arises when it is seen that serial offenders get punished through capital
punishment. In the entire system of criminal justice, it has been seen that the death penalty is a
critical part and is applied to the worst offenders. Capital punishment is important in some
serious cases so that others get a lesson from this and positive balance is maintained in the
environment (Yost, 2019). The scope of capital punishment i.e. death penalty is wide as this law
has been practiced in all the countries since early ages. Capital punishment is significant and is
important to be practiced in cases where people have committed serious crimes (Hood, 2019).
This gives a lesson and teaching to the other people for not repeating the crime which the capital
punishment gainers commit. In recent times, it has been seen that almost 103 out of 195
countries do not allow capital punishment and the remaining 54 countries actively implement it.
Retribution aims at what the people deserve for their wrongful act whereas incapacitation aims at
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