Use of the Death Penalty in the United States Today

Criminal Justice
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The debate on whether the death penalty should be abolished or not has been ongoing for many years, but the majority of people agree that this form of capital punishment is not relevant in the modern world (Carter, 2013). Despite the opposition from human rights activists, the execution has been going on across various states in the US. The Daniel Cook case in 2012 is one of the most egregious death penalty cases in the recent past (Pilkington, 2015). The case led to a massive outpouring, but this did not stop other executions. The most disappointing thing is that recent death penalties have many legal flaws that make it difficult to justify some of the penalties.
A 51-year-old Daniel Cook was executed on 8 August 2012, for strangling two men to death in 1987 (Pilkington, 2015). The strangulation murders were very horrendous in the manner in which they were committed. It was clear to everyone that those were heinous crimes that deserved capital punishment, but Cook's legal team had a different argument. They argued that Cook should have been sentenced to life imprisonment instead of execution because of his past life in which he had been continuously abused. According to his legal team, Cook suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after his terrible childhood experiences and this would later influence his future actions (Pilkington, 2015). They argued that Cook had been abused from the time he was an infant until he became a teenager and therefore this prolonged exposure to abuse affected him mentally. The cook had been raped by his grandparents, foster parents, stepfather and even his own biological mother. These events left him traumatized and his lawyers argued that they had some bearing in the murders that he committed (Pilkington, 2015). Expert witnesses testified during the appeal proceedings and confirming that Cook was prone to mood swings because of his childhood abuse, but the penalty was upheld despite the pleas for leniency.
Capital punishment has no place in the modern civilized society, considering the events that have happened in the recent past. The right to life is sacred and there is no justification to execute someone just because he or she killed someone. According to Hood & Deva, (2013), the world has made some good progress when it comes to protecting basic human rights and therefore continued execution of capital offenders is not a sign of encouragement considering the efforts that are being made. Therefore, the abolition of the death penalty will help a great deal...