大学英语formal essay论文范例——论中国死刑的废除.docx

The Prospect of the Death Penalty in ChinaⅠ. IntroductionThe death penalty, also known as capital punishment, is the sentence of death imposed on a convicted criminal. Death penalty has a long history in China which can be traced back to the ancient time. There were many forms of the death penalty back then (most of them were very cruel) in order to punish those who violated the law and intimidate others. Although the death penalty still remains today, it is carried out only in two forms—a bullet to the head or using lethal injections. However, the Chinese government should take steps to abolish the death penalty.Ⅱ. Necessities of abolitionActually, the abolition of the death penalty has become a global trend. Since Italian Beccaria Marchese di has first advocated the abolition of the death penalty in his On Crimes and Punishment in the 1760s, people have been reflecting on and reforming the death penalty. Many countries have abolished the capital punishment already such as Canada and Germany. By September 5th, 2006, 88 countries have thoroughly abolished the death penalty while 68 countries still reserve it (ZhaoⅠ. 3). Proponents of the abolition of the death penalty maintain that “all men…are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life…” (Jefferson), therefore even the country has no right to sentence people to death. The trend of abolishing the death penalty has influenced China already. “Since the late 1990s, the European Union has been engaged with China in dialogues, seminars and projects aimed to create and then develop a debate that would be conducive to the abolition of the death penalty in China” (Hood, 1).In terms of the death penalty itself, it has a lot of defectiveness. First, it has racial inequality. Black people are more likely to be sentenced to death than white people, and when the victim is white instead of black, the suspect is more likely to be executed. Second, it has economic inequality. The poor have m