Capital Punishment Essays (1820 words) - Human Rights,

Capital Punishment Capital punishment is the lawful infliction of the death penalty and since ancient times it has been used to punish a wide variety of offenses. The Bible prescribes death for murder and many other crimes such as kidnapping and witchcraft. Major felonies carry the death penalty and some of these felonies are treason, murder, larceny, burglary, rape, and arson. In the 1800's however, England enacted many new capital offenses, and hundreds of persons were being sentenced to death each year. In the United States prior to the Civil War the death penalty was imposed on slaves for many crimes, but the penalty for others were less severe. Today, in 37 of the 50 states you can be sentenced to death if found guilty of a crime worthy of the death penalty. The United States is the only western democratic nation that has not banned the practice of capital punishment (Levine 160). Capital punishment is not answer to crime. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only lig ht can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction" (mccsc.edu). Due to lack of a fair trial, innocence on death row, and the myth that it saves citizens money, the death penalty should be abolished. The US constitution states, "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense." The US system is very good about keeping this right for every accused criminal. Although, there are those lawyers who don't care about the people they represent. There are lawyers who have passed the bar, and have taken the oath to honorably defend. However, because of their illegal and immoral actions they were disbarred. Lawyers like this should not defend the accused, but they do. This does not protect the right to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense. A major aspect of the death penalty is that it is final. So what should happen if mistakes are made? As of today April 28, 2000 there are about 3,500 men and women on death row (icomm.ca/aiusa). Even if only half of one percent were innocent that would mean that about 16 people are waiting their death for a crime they did not commit. There are so many aspects that go into the conviction that it is impossible to have an infallible legal system. Witnesses can mistake identification, false testimony can be given, and an overall prejudice can all affect the outcome of a trial. Prejudice and inadequate defense can all lead to a false death sentence. People who advocate the death penalty argue the point that it is cheaper to kill an inmate on death row, than it is to house them in a correctional facility. The idea is because they are dead the taxpayers will not have to pay for the inmate. One aspect that contributes to the support of capital punishment is that it affirms the principle of the rule of law. Law should be reflective over the ideas of the community that is outraged over the vicious crimes. Therefore, it would be fitting to sentence a punishment that is worthy of the crime. When a child is growing up and he takes a cookie out of the cookie jar, parents would say something like, "OK, well now you can not have any sweets after dinner." They would not ground the child for a week. It is human nature to make a punishment that fits the crime. In these terms the death penalty would be a sensible punishment. It states in the Bible an eye for an eye, which would support this claim fully. Although the sixth Commandment also states that though shall not kill. So because one sin has

Visit The Cosmic Pillars of Creation, Again

Visit The Cosmic Pillars of Creation, Again Do you remember the first time you saw the Pillars of Creation? This cosmic object and the ghostly images of it that showed up in January 1995, made by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope, captured peoples imaginations with their beauty. The PIllars are part of a a starbirth region similar to the Orion Nebula and others in our own galaxy where hot young stars are heating up clouds of gas and dust and where stellar EGGs (short for evaporating gaseous globules) are still forming stars that may someday light up that part of the galaxy.  Ã‚   The clouds that make up the Pillars are seeded with young protostellar objects- essentially starbabies- hidden away from our view. Or, at least they were until astronomers developed a way to use infrared-sensitive instruments to look through those clouds to get at the babies within. The image here is the result of Hubbles ability to peer past the veil that hides starbirth from our prying eyes. The view is amazing.   Now Hubble has been pointed again toward the the famous pillars. Its Wide-Field 3 camera captured the multi-colored glow of the nebulas gas clouds, revealed wispy tendrils of dark cosmic dust, and looks at the rust-coloured elephants’ trunk-shaped pillars. The telescopes   visible-light image it took provided an updated, sharper view of the scene that so caught everyones attention in 1995.   In addition to this new visible-light image, Hubble has provided a detailed view that youd get if you could strip away the clouds of gas and dust hiding the stellar newborns in the pillars, which is what an infrared light view gives you the ability to do.    Infrared penetrates much of the obscuring dust and gas and unveils a more unfamiliar view of the pillars, transforming them into wispy silhouettes set against a background peppered with stars. Those newborn stars, hidden in the visible-light view, show up clearly as they form within the pillars themselves. Although the original image was dubbed the Pillars of Creation, this new image shows that they are also pillars of destruction.    How does that work?   There are hot, young stars out of the field of view in these images, and they emit strong radiation which destroys the dust and gas in these pillars. Essentially, the pillars are being eroded by strong winds from those massive young stars. The ghostly bluish haze around the dense edges of the pillars in the visible-light view is material that is being heated by bright young stars and evaporating away. So, its entirely possible that the young stars that havent cleared their pillars could be choked off from forming further as their older siblings cannibalize the gas and dust they need to form.   Ironically, the same radiation that tears apart the pillars is also responsible for lighting them up and causing the gas and dust to glow so that Hubble can see them.   These arent the only clouds of gas and dust that are being sculpted by the action of hot, young stars. Astronomers find such intricate clouds around the Milky Way Galaxy- and in nearby galaxies as well. We know they exist in such places as the Carina nebula(in the southern hemisphere sky) which also contains a spectacular supermassive star about to blow up called Eta Carinae.   And, as astronomers use Hubble and other telescopes to study these places over long periods of time, they can trace motions in the clouds (presumably by jets of material flowing away from the hidden hot young stars, for example), and watch as the forces of star creation do their thing.   The Pillars of Creation lie about 6,500 light-years away from us and is part of a larger cloud of gas and dust called the Eagle Nebula, in the constellation Serpens.