Constitutional Issues 1

Constitutional Issues

Colton Green

Tolt Middle School

8th Grade Social Studies

 Constitutional Issues 2

Imagine sitting at home watching the endless gossip that loiters about your local

news channel. It's raining outside, the fire is crackling, and your dog is snoring at your

feet. Suddenly, the peaceful atmosphere is interrupted. You tune in on what the

anchorman is saying. Horrified, you learn about the death of an innocent prison guard at

Graterford prison. You continue to listen only to be acknowledged that this murderer was

already serving life in prison for a triple murder; the murder of two infants, and an elderly

woman. Slapping your head in anger and frustration, you know that the life of the

innocent prison guard could have been saved if originally the cold blooded murderer

would have been sentenced to the death penalty. An overwhelming unpleasantness

swallows you, and you began to wonder why a murderer could get away with such

crimes, four different times. For reasons such as these, the death penalty is constitutional

according the 8th amendment.

The death penalty should be supported because, with no doubt, it is a deterrent to

murder. Countless criminals have been convicted of murder, sentenced to life in prison,

and murdered again. Take Arthur James Julius for example. Julius was found guilty of

murder and sentenced to life in prison. He was given a brief leave from prison in 1978, in

which Julius committed yet another crime, the rape and murder of his cousin. Julius was

sentenced to death and was finally executed November 17th, 1989. The innocent life that

was taken by Julius’ second murder would have been saved, if Arthur James Julius would

have originally been sentenced to death for his first murder. Formerly, Opal Cooper was

an innocent elderly woman who was murdered in August 1974. Her murderer was

Howard Allen who was found guilty and sentenced to 21 years in prison. Howard Allen

was then released January 1985, less then ten years after being incarnated. On July 14th
 Constitutional Issues 3

1987, at lunchtime, Ernestine Griffin was found murdered. On June 11th 1988 Howard

Allen was found guilty of Ernestine’s murder. But, six weeks previous to Ernestine’s

murder, Allen had struck again, breaking into the home of eighty-seven year old Laverne

Hale, viciously beating her to death. In 1994, a criminal was already serving two life

sentences, when sentenced to three more, after stabbing three prison guards. On October

22nd, 1983, two separate inmates who were both serving life sentences, in two different

instances murdered two prison guards at the federal penitentiary, in Marion, Illinois. “On

November 9, 1983 Associate U.S. Attorney General D. Lowell Jensen told a Senate

subcommittee that it is impossible to punish or even deter such prison murders because,

without a death sentence, a violent life-termed inmate has free rein ‘to continue to murder

as opportunity and his perverse motives dictate.’” (Lowe, W. (1996). How many more

innocent lives should be risked, giving cold hearted murderers more chances?

A common argument of those who oppose capitol punishment is “We show

people that killing is wrong, by killing them.” This is most certainly not true. To “kill” is

defined as “depriving of a life”, as opposed to “murder” which is defined as “The un-

lawful, malicious, killing of another human being under conditions specifically covered

in law”. Capitol punishment is taking the life of a murderer who took the live(s) of

innocent people, to furthermore protect innocent people and to show people that murder

is wrong. The death penalty is not murder because it is lawful. Is rape the same as love-

making? Neither is assault and self-defense? When two actions have the same outcome,

doesn’t mean they have the same intention. The end result of both killing and murder is

death. Nevertheless, they are completely different.

 Constitutional Issues 4

Most people consider it acceptable to kill an attacker in self defense. It would be

an automatic response, if, when under attack, you do whatever is possible to protect

yourself. If lethal force is expectable in self-defense at the moment of an attack, then why

is it not ok, after the fact, for prevention of further victimization of innocence? When

probing these similar moral implications how could one possibly stipulate that the death

penalty is cruel and/or unusual?

The framers of the constitution were clearly not referring to the death penalty as

cruel and unusual punishment when writing the 8th amendment. As a matter of fact, they

supported capitol punishment. The death penalty was practiced regularly during the time

that the 8th amendment was written. They even constructed laws to carry it out. As Justice

Antonin Scalia put it… “The Fifth Amendment provides that ‘no persons shall be held to

answer for a capital… crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of Grand Jury… nor

be deprived of life… without the due process of law.’ This clearly permits the death

penalty to be imposed, and establishes beyond doubt that the death penalty is not on of

the ‘cruel and unusual punishments’ prohibited by the eighth amendment.” – Justice

Antonin Scalia. (Camical, C.) Take note of: “…a capital, or otherwise infamous

crime…”, “…be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb…”, “…nor be deprived of the life…

without due process of law…”

May it be, because of the definitions of words that make up the death penalty,

because it’s a deterrent to murder, or because self-defense justifies the matter. Next time

you are sitting at home enjoying the quite, safe atmosphere of your living room, let us

hope that following the ill-fated event of a murder, that it will never be followed by a

second un-justified murder.

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Work Cited

Carmical, C. (n.d.). The Death penalty: morally defensible?. Retrieved February

4th, 2010 from http://www.hoshuha.com/articles/deathpenalty.html

Hall, C. (2010). Pro-death penalty. Retrieved February 4th 2010 from

http://www.prodeathpenalty.com

How Lethal injection works. (1998). Retrieved February 9th, 2010 from

http://www.howstuffworks.com/lethal-injection.htm

Introduction to the death penalty. (n.d.). Retrieved February 4th, 2010 from

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/part-i-history-death-penalty

Lethal Injection. Wikipedia. Retrieved (2010, February 11) from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lethal_injection

Lowe, W. (1996). Pro capital punishment. Retrieved February 9th, 2010 from

http://www.wesleylowe.com/cp.html