... myself pro-capital punishment. I was of the mind that if someone killed me, I would like my death avenged, but pondering on the issue of cultural differences has made me doubt my prior convictions. First of all, I am against the use of the lethal injection. I understand that it is cleaner, but if the law wants to inflict death as a punishment, it must understand that death is not a pretty thing. Criminals are painlessly put to sleep, and die in the same manner that Dr. Kavorkian's patients choose. Personally, if I was faced with the option of living the remainder of my life in isolation, perpetually haunted ...

... - Motive should not be the reason for an increased sentence, but severity of the crime. - Is it reasonable to assume that committing a criminal act on someone because of their race is terrible? Is it then also reasonable to assume that committing a criminal act on someone because they have refused your advances or simply because they got pleasure out of hurting people is also terrible? Are you than saying that the former case , the ones that you would call "hate crimes" are more terrible even if the actual act is the same? You do realize that this is what you are saying by assuming that hate crimes deserve a more ...

... the decrease in the number of violent crimes was 8 percent. In the 64 largest cities, with populations over 250,000, Crime Index totals dropped 3 percent. Crime Volume: In 1995, the Crime Index total of 13.9 million offenses, 1 percent lower than the 1994 total and 7 percent lower than the 1991 total, represented the fourth consecutive annual decline. A comparison with 1986 figures, however, showed a 5- percent increase over the last 10-year period. By region, the Southern States recorded 38 percent of all Crime Index offenses reported to law enforcement. The lowest volume was reported in the No ...

... discussion of major governmental activities and legislation affecting the legal profession, as well as details of ABA involvement in the policymaking process. The GAO staff also sends out periodic memoranda on issues of special interest, provides bill status information, and assists in obtaining copies of bills, congressional reports and other government publications. The GAO serves as the focal point for association efforts to inform federal policymakers about the ABA's views on issues and to influence the outcome of federal policy decisions on these issues. This involves testimony, circulation of position paper ...

... punishment. But the court left open the possibility that the death penalty might be imposed for certain crimes and if it was applied according to clear standards. After this decision was made, new capital punishment laws were made to satisfy the Supreme Court's requirements. These laws limit the death penalty to murder and to other specified crimes that result in a person's death. These crimes include armed robbery, hijacking, and kidnapping. Many countries, including most European and Latin-American nations, have abolished the death penalty since 1900 - including Canada, which did so in 1976. In the ea ...

... to commit the crime. Although prison is made out to be a scary place, it could never repulse someone more than frying in the chair, dying of poison injection, or hanging. Why allow any vicious murderer the chance to escape prison and harm another person? People put an animal down once it has imperiled a human's life or safety. If humans are so concerned with their well being they ought to be guaranteed the same sanctuary from killers. Prisons, for the most part, are inescapable. But what if, the man that hunted you down, kidnapped you, and killed your friend, was the one of the few whom successfully escaped from ...

... It is legal only in the state of Nevada. The rationale for its continued illegal status in the United States rests on three assumptions: prostitution is linked to organized crime, prostitution leads to violence, and prostitution is the cause of an increase in sexually transmitted diseases. Organized crime is “any group having a corporate structure whose primary objective is to obtain money through illegal activities, often surviving on fear and corruption,� (“Interpool� by Fenton Bresler, page 1). A person engaging in organized crime has the sole purpose of generating profits from his/her victims. His cr ...

... committing crimes. Methods of inflicting the death penalty have ranged "From stoning in biblical times, crucifixion under the Romans, beheading in France, to those used in the United States today: hanging, electrocution, gas chamber, firing squad, and lethal injection"(Bedau 124). There were drastic penalties for such serious crimes as homicide. Execution was a suitable punishment for those times. Today, though, the law is not as strict. This leads potential criminals not to fear the death penalty because government today uses more "humane" methods of execution, rather than the brutal punishment that history port ...

... plant that is one of the oldest cultivated crops in the world: Hemp. The first known rope was made from it. The Chinese used it to make the first fish nets 6,500 years ago. The ancient Greeks wore hemp garments. Thomas Jefferson raised hemp on his Virginia farm, and he drafted the Declaration of Independence on hemp paper. Plus, this renewable resource is an environmental Godsend. It requires very little fertilizers or pesticides to raise; it uses very little water; it produces four times as much fiber per-acre as wood does, so it can drastically cut deforestation. Hemp is simply a natural for our country and it c ...

... that they are not at all convincing. One argument states that the death penalty does not deter murder. Dismissing capital punishment on that basis requires us to eliminate all prisons as well because they do not seem to be any more effective in the deterrence of crime. Others say that states which do have the death penalty have higher crime rates than those that don't, that a more severe punishment only inspires more severe crimes. I must point out that every state in the union is different. These differences include the populations, number of cities, and yes, the crime rates. Strongly urbanized states are more l ...