Is capital punishment a good sentencing option Essay

Is capital punishment a good sentencing option - Essay Example Colon-Cruz), declaring it unconstitutional (Bedau, 190). Essentially, capital punishment may be referred to as â€Å"the taking of a criminal’s life by an organized society in view of his crime† (Moreland and Geisler 1990, 103) In the US, the legal methods to carry out the death penalty through the years are as follows: lethal injection, electrocution, gas chamber, hanging. Arguments in favor of the death penalty can be classified into three: utilitarian, retributive and egalitarian. The first is that view which holds that enforcing capital punishment would serve the common good because society would benefit from it by deterring crime either by discouraging future offenders or by incapacitating the criminal. Many view the utilitarian argument as a forward-looking and objective perspective since it weighs both the cost and benefit of the penalty. The retributive argument, meanwhile, follows the classic â€Å"an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth† principle. There is no thought given to what the society may reap or achieve from the act of killing an offender. What matters is that the criminal should be punished because he deserves it. Finally, there is also the egalitarian point of view. Here, capital punishment is seen as part of the principle that all people must be treated the same and that too little punishment may constitute an injustice for a criminal that has committed a far grievous crime. On the other hand, proponents who object to capital punishment argue that it violates the right to life, that it is inhumane and actually do nothing to deter crime. As one would find, the arguments are anchored on what is moral and in some areas dwell in the utilitarian line of reasoning as well. Many of those who favor the abolition of death penalty cite the â€Å"inalienable right to life† which Thomas Jefferson himself has eloquently stated in the Declaration of Independence as â€Å"Nature’s Laws† given by God and that no man has the right to