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Summary Week 5 Assignment.docx The Ambiguity of Capital Punishment PHI 208: Ethics and Moral Reasoning The Ambiguity of Capital Punishment Part 1: Introduction Is capital punishment ever ethically justifiable? If so, in what specific cases and for what purp$7.49
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Summary Week 5 Assignment.docx The Ambiguity of Capital Punishment PHI 208: Ethics and Moral Reasoning The Ambiguity of Capital Punishment Part 1: Introduction Is capital punishment ever ethically justifiable? If so, in what specific cases and for what purp
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Week 5 A The Ambiguity of Capital Punishment PHI 208: Ethics and Moral Reasoning The Ambiguity of Capital Punishment Part 1: Introduction Is capital punishment ever ethically justifiable? If so, in what specific cases and for what purposes? Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is nothing...
week 5 assignmentdocx the ambiguity of capital punishment phi 208 ethics and moral reasoning the ambiguity of capital punishment part 1 introduction is capital punishment ever ethically justif
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The Ambiguity of Capital Punishment 1
The Ambiguity of Capital Punishment
PHI 208: Ethics and Moral Reasoning
The Ambiguity of Capital Punishment
Part 1: Introduction
Is capital punishment ever ethically justifiable? If so, in what specific cases and
for what purposes? Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is nothing new historically
speaking. It has existed since civilizations rose from the earth. The ethics behind capital
punishment is often in question, at least in the perspective of the people that reside in the
United States of America. Capital punishment is currently authorized in 28 states, with
six states having abolished the death penalty legislatively and replacing it with a sentence
of life imprisonment with no option for parole; states within the United States still debate
its fairness, reliability, and cost of implementation (Widgery & McInnes, 2020). In the
modern perspective, it is questioned whether capital punishment is a cruel and unusual
punishment, specifically focusing on the flaw in ethical or moral reason in the justice
system. The fallacy in capital punishment lies in racial discrimination, errors, and
fickleness of the judicial system, which in the end turns the criminal into a victim.
Amnesty International (2012), which is a human rights organization, shined light
on the racial biasedness of capital punishment, stating that “since 1977, the
overwhelming majority of death row defendants (77%) have been executed for killing
white victims, even though African-Americans make up about half of all homicide
, The Ambiguity of Capital Punishment 2
victims”. It is also worth mentioning that since 1973, only 140 people were released from
death row throughout the U.S. from newly acquired evidence, acquitting them from their
sentence, with over 1,200 people being executed, which gives further support for the
fallacy of capital punishment (Amnesty International, 2012).
Despite these fallacies, retribution is still imperative. The proven guilty
individuals deserve punishment in a level which corresponds to the gravity of the crime
that they have chosen to commit. The results of capital punish indefinitely lead to a
greater overall good. Through the application of the ethical theory of utilitarianism, it will
be shown that capital punishment is for the greater good of the public, while also taking
into consideration the greatest opposing argument, the Kantian deontological perspective,
where the ends do not necessarily justify the means.
Part 2: Ethical Argument
There is an adage that goes along the lines of “an eye for an eye”. This adage is in
correspondence to retributivism. The retributive argument has three beliefs, including that
all those who are guilty deserve to be punished, that only those who are guilty deserve to
be punished, and that those who are guilty deserve to be punished in the same manner
and to an equal level of those crimes that they have committed (Waller, 2011). In society
at large, there is a system of laws and rights that all society members agree upon, along
with punishments for breaking those laws.
The main argument against retribution, claiming that it is immoral, is the fact that
retribution is a form of vengeance or revenge. However, just retribution can easily be
distinguished from revenge. In a society at large, there is a system of laws and rights that
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