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Case Against the Death Penalty

NCJ Number
151776
Author(s)
H A Bedau
Date Published
1994
Length
19 pages
Annotation
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) holds that capital punishment violates the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment and the guarantee of due process of law and the equal protection of the law.
Abstract
The organization seeks to prevent executions and to abolish the death penalty through litigation, legislation, commutation, and public opinion. The ACLU argues that capital punishment demonstrates a lack of respect for human life, is arbitrary, distracts public attention from the social measures that could effectively control crime, and wastes resources. Two conclusions that buttress the argument against capital punishment is that it does not deter crime and that the death penalty is uncivilized in theory and unfair and inequitable in practice. Additional arguments for the abolition of capital punishment include the inevitability of error, the barbarity of current execution methods, and the costs of prosecuting a capital case. 58 notes