When viewing capital punishment in light of retributive...

When viewing capital punishment in light of retributive justice, Kants Respect for Persons ethics can be applied in order to uphold the retentionist argument. Capital punishment continues to be a growing controversial topic in society and is an important ethical dilemma to discuss. It can most prominently be supported by Kants Respect for Persons ethics which when applied to the practice of capital punishment implies that it is morally acceptable in the sense that it gives people what they deserve. Additionally, despite consistent arguments by those who oppose capital punishment, the death penalty appears to be the most practical practice of punishment granted certain conditions. Before addressing the dilemma of capital punishment†¦show more content†¦Additionally, capital punishment and how it is practiced has been greatly shaped by several Supreme Court rulings. In the 1972 case of Furman v. Georgia, it was determined that the death penalty sentencing as it was then carried out violated due process rights and was considered cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment, and in 1976 it was decided that state laws that mandated the death penalty for all first-degree murders were ruled unconstitutional. Perhaps one of the most important court cases regarding capital punishment is the 1976 case of Gregg v. Georgia, which reinstated the death penalty, making it acceptable as long as the sentencing process is reasonable. This Supreme Court ruling also developed an important two-staged process for appropriate death penalty sentencing with the determination of guilt or innocence being decided in the first stage and if found guilty, a second stage follows which involves a kind of mini-trial for sentencing options which weigh the aggravating and mitigating circumstances of the crime. Executing mentally retarded people was ruled cruel and unusual punishment and therefore unconstitutional by the Court in 2002, and in 2005 the Court made capital punishment for juvenile offenders illegal. Furthermore, other Supreme Court cases have ruled that capital punishment may only be imposed when it is reasonably