Capital Punishment
In the 1960's capital punishment was still an issue in our country. It
brought up many questions about morality which finally led to its
abolition in 1969.
In the 1950's the houses in Rillington Place were divided into 10
flats. From the outside Number 10 looked the same as every other,
however the horrors that were found in it in March 1953 made it one of
the most infamous addresses in England.
John Christie's murder method was to lure women to his house, get them
drunk then gas them. Once they were unconscious he strangled them and
finished by raping their corpses.
In 1949, Timothy Evans returned home to find his wife and 14 month old
daughter strangled to death. With shock and panic he fled to London. A
few days later he went to the police in Wales and told them of the
murders- he blamed his neighbor John Christie however he was charged
and tried for both murders and hanged in 1950. John Christie had also
fled his flat but a tenant found three dead prostitutes hidden in
Christie's kitch
Capital Punishment
Capital Punishment is regarded by most as a successful deterrent to murder, but that is because these people don’t look at it as it is applied. According to retributivists such as Kant and Van Den Haag the guilty deserves to be punished. On the other hand, people against the death penalty like Bedau think that the death penalty is just as much an effective deterrent as life in prison.
The most famous retributivist Kant, states that the guilty ought to get punished because they chose to act wrongly, and by punishing them, we are respecting them as a moral agents. This occurs because humans are given the ability to reason and act morally and thus if we don’t punish them we are not treating them as moral agents. Also, according to retributivists the punishment must fit the crime committed. Hence, if an offender commits a crime we must treat him as a moral agent and punish, but while...