Capital Punishment Essay -- Capital Punishment, Death Penalty

a) Through the Utilitarian perspective, Bedau is a firm believer in the removal of capital punishment; Bedau thinks that no reason is good enough justify the more severe punishment like death penalty on the moral ground, and no evidence of deterrence and prevention is sufficient enough to support the retribution of justice to keep capital punishment. Bedau have raised several arguments direct to the issue of death penalty: The morality of self-defense and death penalty; the efficiency prevention and the deterrence through capital punishment; then finally the inequity treatment towards the racially disadvantaged and poor. Bedau does not believe in justifying capital punishment as self-defense on the moral ground just to avoid further killing of innocent victims. (Bedau CC Pg 406) Self-defense is only justifiable when an aggression is in present with violence, and lives are at risk without any alternate solution to neutralize it. However, in the case of hostile situation there is always more option other than kill or get killed; there is always the third option of running away before engaging in violent acts. (Bedau CC Pg 406) Only when lives are being threatened with the probability death, should the extreme measure of lethal force be applied to the immediate scene. (Bedau CC Pg 406) In the case of execution, there is no immediate harm posting towards any life at the time, along with alternative solution being available, the argument of capital punishment being justify as self-defense is simply not plausible. (Bedau CC Pg407) Capital punishment supposedly is serving as social utility to prevent the convicted to commit crime again and lowering the chance of others to commit the same crime, but Bedau argues otherwise. (Bedau CC... ...would choose to commit crime to make that dangerous money to seek for that thrill as stick up man, and getting away with it. (Katz CC Pg 316) Katz used the example of John Allen to make his point. All John Allen ever wanted was the thrill of being a stick up man; he never enjoyed pimping though the money was good. The record of his behavior shows that he would never stop robbing others for the thrill of living that identity to stick up. John Allen gave up the less dangerous career of pimping, chose the more dangerous route of drug dealing and robbing. (Katz CC Pg 317) By then we can see that crime is a choice, socio-economic factors doesn’t always come into play but more about what character the individual wants to be. After all, the crimes committed cannot be blame on the capitalism and poverty, but the individual themselves; whom the justice should punish.