Legislation and Legalization essays

Legislation and Legalization essays A Study of the Inconsistency of the Application of the Death Penalty A well-dressed, young-looking businessman casually walks into a soaring skyscraper filled with over a thousand people who are all going about their normal lives, carrying out their daily routines. The businessman holds his briefcase in one hand and clenches his other hand into a tight fist. Nobody gives him a second glance as he walks through the tall, glass entrance doors. He looks perfectly normal to everyone in the building. However, these people do not realize that this mans typical-looking briefcase hides a considerable stockpile of high powered explosives. He calmly boards one of the buildings many elevators and presses the button labeled 30, the exact middle floor. He exits the elevator, impassively sets the briefcase on the floor, and returns to the lobby. Two minutes later, the bomb detonates. The blast reaches nearly fifteen of the buildings sixty floors, killing nearly three hundred people and injuring many more. A witness standing a block away from the building notices the businessman suspiciously walking away from the scene with no expression of fear or panic, and he chases after him. Later, the man pleads guilty to charges of first degree murder. He is sentenced to life in prison without parole. Why is he not given a sentence of death? Why is he not relieved of the right to live for the horrible crime he has committed? The reason is that the crime is committed in the state of Massachusetts, one of the 12 states in the United States of America that do not allow the death penalty as a form of punishment. This inconsistency in legislation causes many serious problems with justice, deterrence, and retribution. The primary problems lie, obviously, in the fact that some states do not allow the death penalty. These twelve states are Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, ...