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Crimes and Punishments

By: ANASTASIA

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Ever since CYsarc Beccaria, the Italian philosopher and reformer, proposed an end to the death penalty in a celebrated study "On Crimes and Punishments" in 1764, it has been a topic of continual and often acrimonious debate. In spite of being a leader and showing the world the way in most areas, the fact remains that among the (so-called) western nations, America is the only country that hasn't abolished the death penalty.

A poll in 1997 for Time magazine confirmed that 74% of respondents supported the death pen ally, but also found that 52% did not believe that it deters people from committing crimes. A 1995 poll of 386 police chiefs commissioned by the Death Penalty Information Centre, a research group, found that two- thirds did not agree that the death penalty reduced homicide or served as a useful tool of law enforcement. Over 80% thought that murderers Breitling Bentley Replica did not think about punishment before killing. Nevertheless, a majority of these police chiefs, like a majority of the public, still said they favored the death penalty.

In the' late 18th century, American states began restricting the use of the death penalty to first-degree murder while most European countries were still hanging people for a wide variety of crimes. The state of Michigan, closely followed by Rhode Island and Wisconsin, led the way in completely abolishing the death penalty in 1846, almost 20 years before Portugal became the first European country to do so. From being a leader in abolishing it, America has today become an exception in enforcing it. Today 38 states, the federal government and the American armed forces apply the death penalty. And for most of the past 30 years, according to opinion polls, public support for the death penalty has risen.

A reason for this phenomenon may be the fact that in many ways America is deeply democratic. Ear more public officials — including police chiefs, prosecutors and judges — are directly elected in the United States than in any other country. To voters alarmed about crime, and with an appetite for retribution, the death penalty has on occasions become a litmus test which few candidates, national or local, dare to fail. In 1992, during his party's New Hampshire primary, Bill Clinton, then Arkansas governor pointedly refused to halt the execution of a man with brain damage.

Although 70% —80% of Americans regularly tells pollsters that they favor capital punishment, when given the chance few actually apply it. Juries impose the death penalty in only about 10% of capital cases, and this despite the fact that Breitling Replica American capital juries are always "death qualified" — meaning that death-penalty opponents are disqualified at jury selection.

That last bit of statistics gives me reason to hope. To hope that whatever be the cost to them, the people of this great nation would not advocate barbaric rituals even upon the worst barbarians amongst us. That the people of this country irrespective of their creed and belief would set an example, that other barbarian nations around the world would be forced to follow. Until then we sit with them, the criminals and the barbarians.

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