Introduction
The question asked above is relevant because capital punishment involves death sentence, which must be awarded only after a thorough evaluation of the evidence available in this respect. Whether the capital punishment must be at the discretion of a judge or a jury is of significance because either of them who are deciding on the capital punishment has the responsibility of the life of another person and also of those associated with him/her (Slobogin, 2015). Furthermore, they are supposed to live with the decision for their entire life and hence, discussions regarding awarding capital punishments become all the more significant (Hans, Blume, Eisenberg, Hritz, & Johnson, 2015).
Capital punishment is a punishment awarded by the state when a person commits a crime which is of higher degree and involves execution of the person committing the crime. In other words, it is also called a death sentence and is awarded only after a proper legal trial. The US courts of law have two kinds of trial- bench trials and trials by jury. Bench trials involve decision-making by a judge, which means that judges decide whether the evidence is credible or not. In a jury trial, a jury is responsible to take decisions regarding execution of a person. Jury is a group of people who have been selected by the court of law to hear the facts related to a case and then, decide whether the person is guilty or not (Greenhouse, 2012).
The question revolves around the fact that awarding capital punishments not only has an impact on the life of a person, who has committed the crime but also on the panel involved in taking such a decision. Some laws related to this have been changed which required jury to decide on the cases however, cases related to death sentences have been excluded from the list. This is the case of Arizona’s. These types of changes have complicated the matters.
Position Statement
The position statement in this case would be“Awarding of capital punishments by judges is more acceptable because of the fact that such trials have a speedy procedure and this ensures timely resolution to a legal issue.”
Reasons in Support of Your Position
The decisions by bench trial or jury are faster as compared to jury decisions because the judges are not required to go through the process of selection of jury and framing of instructions(Capital Punishment in Context, 2019). Since the bench trials are less formal, complex cases such as the cases of capital punishments can easily be resolved.
Opposing Position Statement
Opposing Position Statement could be “Jury trials are more favorable than bench trials because the jury is not answerable to anyone on the decisions they have taken, hence there is less possibility that decisions goes for review to another jury.”
Reasons in Support of the Opposing Position
The opposing proposition states that the jury is not usually subjected to review the decisions taken by it, which makes them less answerable. This saves time of the parties involved. Also, the jury cannot be influenced as there are many members in the jury as opposed to bench trial.
References
Capital Punishment in Context. (2019). Death Qualification. Retrieved March 30, 2019, from capitalpunishmentincontext.org: https://capitalpunishmentincontext.org/resources/deathqualification
Greenhouse, L. (2012). Justices Review Judges’ Role in Deciding Death Penalty. Retrieved March 30, 2019, from Nytimes.com: https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/23/us/justices-review-judges-role-in-deciding-death-penalty.html
Hans, V. P., Blume, J. H., Eisenberg, T., Hritz, A. C., & Johnson, S. L. (2015). The Death Penalty: Should the Judge or the Jury Decide Who Dies? Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 12(1), 70-99.
Slobogin, C. (2015). Should Juries and the Death Penalty Mix?: A Prediction About the Supreme Court’s Answer. Indiana Law Journal, 70(4), 1249-1270.
