The article which is discussed in this paper is on the impact of capital punishment on the society as provided by the Northwestern University School of Law. The article provides the effects of capital punishment on the society along with the cost the authorities have to bear in order to maintain capital punishment. According to the article there are no benefits of capital punishment and when it comes to cost of maintaining it it is very high as compared to the other form of punishments.
The article provides principle arguments against the concept of capital punishment rebutting the concept provided by cases which show that capital punishment works in practice and not theory. The article presents the argument that death penalties have no effect on the crime rate and on the other hand it has caused murders and initiated a violent cycle thorough which murder rates are increased. According to the article maintaining death penalties are far more costly as compared to punishments like life imprisonment. The article also argues that many individuals have been victims of wrongful prosecution and have been killed on the basis of serendipitous discovery with respect to evidence not presented during the trial and there is no doubt that innocent individuals have lost their lives due to capital punishment. The death penalty is reserved for very rare crimes but practically is used for most crimes involving murders. Equality in capital punishment is just available in theory and racial discrimination is evident when the punishment is applied.
The article verifies each argument provided by it through the use of hypothesis. The first argument related to deterrence is verified by the Charles walker case. The arguments in relation to the cost of maintaining the punishment is proved by providing statistics of capital punishment cost and comparing it to that of life imprisonment. The arguments in relation to evidence is proved by stating the facts of the case of Furman v. Georgia 1972.
The concept of capital punishment is very significant to the society as human life is precious. Capital punishment not only fails to deter crime but also threatens the safety of the innocent individuals who have been subjected to malicious prosecution. It is true that the individuals who have committed the grievous crime of murder are liable to be punished and the family member of the deceased are entitled to justice however capital punishment cannot be the solution to this problem. In simple language capital punishment is morally deficient in the human society.