87 lines
5.2 KiB
Plaintext
87 lines
5.2 KiB
Plaintext
___ ___ ___
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___|: |___|: \ ___|: \ DizDate: 12/95
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_______\___ \___ \___ ___\_______ WordCount: 745
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«¬¬¬¬¬¬| |: | |____| ___|¬¬¬¬¬¬«
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«¬¬¬¬¬| | |: | |: |¬¬¬¬¬« Subject/Topic is on:
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«¬¬¬¬| |: | |: | |¬¬¬¬« [Capital Punishment must be ]
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Grade Level: [ ]Grade School Type of Work: [x]Essay/Report/Term
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[x]High School [ ]Informational
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[ ]College [ ]Notes
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[ ]Misc
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ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>Chop Here>ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
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CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
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The Debate over the merits of capital punishment has endured for years,
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and continues to be an extremely indecisive and complicated issue.
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Adversaries of capital punishment point to the Marshalls and the Millgards,
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while proponents point to the Dahmers and Gacys. Society must be kept safe
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from the monstrous barbaric acts of these individuals and other killers, by
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taking away their lives to function and perform in our society. At the same
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time, we must insure that innocent people such as Marshall and Millgard are
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never convicted or sentenced to death for a crime that they did not commit.
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Many contend that the use of capital punishment as a form of
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deterrence does not work, as there are no fewer murders on a per- capita
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basis in countries or states that do have it, then those that do not. In
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order for capital punishment to work as a deterrence, certain events must
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be present in the criminal's mind prior to committing the offence. The
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criminal must be aware that others have been punished in the past for the
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offence that he or she is planning, and that what happened to another
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individual who committed this offence, can also happen to me.
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But individuals who commit any types of crime ranging from auto theft
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to 1st-Degree Murder, never take into account the consequences of their
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actions. Deterrence to crime, is rooted in the individuals themselves.
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Every human has a personal set of conduct. How much they will and will not
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tolerate. How far they will and will not go. This personal set of conduct
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can be made or be broken by friends, influences, family, home, life, etc.
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An individual who is never taught some sort of restraint as a child, will
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probably never understand any limit as to what they can do, until they have
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learned it themselves. Therefore, capital punishment will never truly work
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as a deterrent, because of human nature to ignore practised advice and to
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self learn.
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There are those who claim that capital punishment is in itself a form
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of vengeance on the killer. But isn't locking up a human being behind steel
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bars for many years, vengeance itself? And is it "humane" that an
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individual who took the life of another, should receive heating, clothing,
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indoor plumbing, 3 meals a day, while a homeless person who has harmed no
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one receives nothing? Adversaries of capital punishment claim that it is
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far more humane then having the state take away the life of the individual.
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In February 1963, Gary McCorkell, a 19 year old sex offender, was
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scheduled to hang. But just days before his execution, the then Liberal
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cabinet of Lester Person commuted McCorkell to life in prison.
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Less than 20 years later, McCorkell was arrested, tried, and convicted
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for the kidnapping and rape of a 10-year old Tenessee boy. He was sentanced
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to 63 years in prison. Prior to leaving Canada, he was sought by Metro
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Police in the attempted murder of an 11-year old boy.
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What has been gained by this? Had McCorkell been executed in 1963, two
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boys would never have had to have gone through the horror of being sexually
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abused. These individuals may themselves become sex offenders, as many sex
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offenders were sexually abused as children.
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McCorkell may have been a victim of sexually assualt in the past, but
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that does not justify what he did. He did not do this once, he killed two
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boys, and assaulted two others, leaving one for dead. He knew exactly what
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he was doing. What right does this man have to live? He has ruined the
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lives of 4 children, what will he do in life that will compensate for that?
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What kind of a life would the state have been taking away in this case? An
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innocent life? A forgiving life? No, a life that was beyond the realm of
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reform, and did not care to be.
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We must be careful. We must be very careful to never, even when
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suspicion may cause considerable doubt, send an innocent person to be
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executed. It could have happened to David Millgard, it could have happened
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to Donald Marshall. It probably has even occured numerous times in the
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history of the earth. But with proper police investigations, and where the
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evidence shows that the individual is a threat to the peace of society as
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long as he or she is alive, capital punishment must be used.
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