Maximum public safety
Abel Martinez:
If it is clear that a person is guilty of murder, then that
person should be sentenced to death. Justice must be served.
Placing murderers in prison isn't a tough enough punishment. In
jail they would have a possible chance for parole. If they
happen to make it back out to the world, who's to say s/he
wouldn't kill again. Of the 2,575 prisoners sentenced to death
in 1992, 1 out of 11 had a prior conviction of homicide (BJS
12-92). This means additional people had to die before these
murderers were sentenced to death. What kind of justice is that?
If the murderers were sentenced to death the first time they were
convicted, innocent lives would not have had to perish. By
executing the murderers the first time a round, justice will be
served. Thus, the punishment would fit the crime and the victims
family and society would be helped knowing one less murderer is
out in the streets.
Jessica Spinler:
Executions maximize public safety through a form of incapacitation and
deterrence. Incapacitating a person is depriving s/he of the physical or
intellectual power of natural of il/legal qualifications (Webster, 574).
Executing a person takes away the capacity of and forcibly prevents recurrence
of violence. Deterrence is the act or process of discouraging and preventing
an action from occurring (Webster, 307). The possibility of execution would
give a potential pause in the thought process of the murderer, using fear as an
incentive for preventing recurrence or quite possibly the first occurrence of
murder.