Cultural Pluralism: A Critical Analysis of the Death Penalty Debate

This essay delves into the complex issue of the death penalty within the framework of cultural pluralism, examining arguments for and against capital punishment in the United States. It highlights the evolving perspectives of the Catholic community and other pressure groups, noting the declining use of the death penalty and legal challenges related to its application. The essay references key legal decisions and research, emphasizing concerns about human rights, potential for error, and the lack of conclusive evidence regarding its deterrent effect. Furthermore, it explores the ethical considerations and moral debates surrounding state-sanctioned executions, providing a comprehensive overview of the multifaceted controversy surrounding the death penalty in contemporary American society. Desklib provides access to similar essays and study tools for students.

Running head: CULTURAL PLURALSIM
Cultural Pluralism
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Table of Contents
1. Research Paper on Death Penalty..........................................................................................3
1.1 The New Movement.........................................................................................................3
1.2 Account of death penalty in the country...........................................................................3
1.3 Further Debate..................................................................................................................5
Reference List............................................................................................................................6

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1. Research Paper on Death Penalty
1.1 The New Movement
25 years earlier the first call to ameliorate death penalty was being raised by the bishops. The
catholic community in the USA is again actively promoting the call to stop educe death
penalty. In the current time as well as circumstances the death penalty seems redundant
according to the Catholic community. At this moment, human life is highly undervalued and
the rate of murder has increased. In this context, it is essential that instead of death penalty,
judgement and justification of crime be the policy of change.
As discussed by Updegrove and Longmire (2018), death penalty should be forgotten by the
US for some subtle reasons as follows:
 The sanction for death is currently redundant for protection of the society since this
punishment reverence towards life and dignity towards life.
 Killing sanctioned by state diminishes the social value of human
 The application of capital punishment can be irreversibly wrong and can be accounted
by inadequate legal representation.
 There are always other legal windows to punish criminals
1.2 Account of death penalty in the country
About 1000 convicts have been given death penalty in the United States in the last 30 years.
There have been a major use of death penalty in only 5 of the important states of the US. In
other 12 important states, death penalty have been pulled off (Garrett & Jakubow, 2017).
Again, among all the developed nation in the world, it is only the US who makes regular use
of the death penalty. The question regarding the deterrence value remains yet unproven. The
states in the US where the rate of execution is reasonably low do not have any exceptional
low rate of murder or other forms of crime. In this context, Updegrove and Longmire (2018),

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reports that the number of capital punishments have been declined as many questions have
been raised on the parameter on which the judgment in certain cases of conviction have been
done. Besides that, MacDougall and Williams (2017), have reported that the Supreme Court
has decided that the execution rate of the mentally retarded and those who were juvenile at
the time of committing the crime, should be initially made nominal and latter obliterated
totally. Another important decision that have been taken by the court is that the jury in an
accumulated decision can only take the decision of death penalty of a convict. Otherwise no
judge can call for a death penalty of a convicted.
Figure 1: The evidence of reduction of death penalty in the US
(Source: Updegrove & Longmire, 2018)

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1.3 Further Debate
Various active pressure groups in the USA are against the death penalty in the country. For
evidence the Fiqh Council in America have called for a fatwa on capital punishment
demanding a moratorium on this punishment until preconditions in American law code are
clarified. Similarly the Law Institute in America also favoured to disavow the legalisation
favouring capital punishment that is evident in the legalisation framed in 1962. Current they
feel that the capital punishment should be called off:
“In light of the current intractable institutional and structural obstacles to ensuring a
minimally adequate system for administrating capital punishment”.

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Reference List
MacDougall, M. J., & Williams, K. D. (2017). The Federal Death Penalty Scheme Is Not a
Model for State Reform of Capital Punishment Laws. Am. UL Rev., 67, 1647.
https://heinonline.org/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/aulr67&section=43
Updegrove, A. H., & Longmire, D. R. (2018). Systems Thinking, System Justification, and
the Death Penalty: Thirty-Eight Years of Capital Punishment Legislation in
Texas. Corrections, 3(4), 248-265.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23774657.2017.1382401
Garrett, B. L, & Jakubow, A. (2017). The American Death Penalty Decline. Journal of
Criminal Law and Criminology. 107(4), 91-419. Retrieved on 23rd October 2018.
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