Deck 11: The Death Penalty

Question 1

Which of the following is not a requirement on the definition of "legal punishment"?

A) It must be for an offense against legal rules.
B) It must involve unpleasant consequences.
C) It must not necessarily be of an actual or supposed offender.
D) It must be intentionally administered by human beings other than the offender.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

According to retributivist theories of punishment, those who break the law should be punished because

A) doing so will benefit society.
B) they deserve it.
C) punishment will give them an opportunity to correct their behavior.
D) lawbreakers unconsciously desire to be punished.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

According to consequentialist theories of punishment, a lawbreaker should be punished only if

A) the punishment would likely produce as much overall intrinsic value as would any other alternative punishment.
B) the punishment is consistent with treating the person as an end in him- or herself.
C) the punishment is proportional to the wrongness of the crime.
D) all of the above

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Nathanson supports which of the following kinds of retributivism?

A) preventive
B) proportional
C) equality
D) retaliatory

Question 5

According to Nathanson, criminals who commit murder forfeit their right to

A) life.
B) respect.
C) privacy.
D) humane treatment.

Question 6

Lex talionis is another name for

A) proportional retributivism.
B) the death penalty.
C) an eye for an eye.
D) the morality of restraint.

Question 7

One message that Nathanson argues we can send by abolishing the death penalty is that

A) we respect the dignity of human life.
B) there are some penalties worse than death.
C) there is no punishment that is proportional to murder.
D) none of the above

Question 8

Van den Haag suggests that the actual costs of imposing the death penalty are trumped by

A) Equality.
B) morality.
C) deterrence.
D) justice.

Question 9

Van den Haag thinks that we can't know whether a murderer who receives the death penalty

A) is justly punished.
B) suffers more than the victim.
C) is morally degraded.
D) is punished excessively.

Question 10

Reiman raises objections to the arguments presented by

A) Nathanson.
B) Kant.
C) abolitionists.
D) van den Haag.

Question 11

Reiman suggests that the refusal to execute criminals teaches

A) the wrongfulness of murder.
B) that the death penalty is a better deterrent than life imprisonment.
C) that criminals already face the risk of death.
D) that criminals are usually undeterred by the chance of receiving the death penalty.

Question 12

According to Reiman, van den Haag's arguments in favor of the death penalty

A) are incompatible with the right to retaliation.
B) prove that torture is morally impermissible.
C) should be accepted.
D) follow common sense.

Question 13

Which of the following is not one of the potentially negative consequences of imposing the death penalty?

A) the prevention of future murders
B) great financial cost
C) the incitement effect
D) the execution of innocent persons

Question 14

What is the overall percentage of capital cases that are overturned because of serious errors?

A) under 50 percent
B) 52 percent
C) 68 percent
D) 82 percent

Question 15

The consequentialist approach to punishment is at odds with

A) retributive theories of punishment.
B) perfectionist theories of punishment.
C) legal theories of punishment.
D) preventive theories of punishment.

Question 16

The retributive theory of punishment does not claim that

A) wrongdoers deserve to be punished.
B) specific punishments are justified based on the overall intrinsic value that they produce
C) the punishment should fit the crime.
D) the death penalty might be morally justified in some cases of murder.

Question 17

In response to the argument that the death penalty does not deter murderers, van den Haag claims that

A) he is still confident that the threat of the death penalty at least sometimes prevents murder.
B) criminal law is supposed to protect the innocent over murderers.
C) the severity and finality of the death penalty is appropriate to the seriousness and finality of murder.
D) all of the above

Question 18

Which of the following is a problem for Kant's principle of equality and an "eye for an eye" according to Nathanson?

A) It fails to tell us what the appropriate punishment would be for all cases of criminal action.
B) It does not provide an adequate measure of moral desert.
C) It requires that we punish criminals in ways that are morally unacceptable.
D) all of the above

Question 19

Nathanson proposes a form of retributivism that requires all of the following except

A) a list of crimes ranked according to their seriousness.
B) a scale of punishments that correspond to the seriousness of certain crimes.
C) treating criminals humanely.
D) the death penalty for the most serious crimes.

Question 20

Nathanson believes that killing another person in self-defense is compatible with

A) respect for the dignity of persons.
B) the principle of equality.
C) a consequentialist theory of punishment
D) equality retributivism.

Question 21

One of the messages Nathanson believes we can send by abolishing the death penalty is that

A) criminals deserve inhumane treatment.
B) killing in self-defense is never morally justified.
C) we should have respect for the dignity of human beings.
D) murderers should be killed by the state.

Question 22

Van den Haag is

A) a distributionist.
B) an abolitionist.
C) a retentionist.
D) a humanitarian.

Question 23

Van den Haag responds to the "miscarriages of justice" objection by claiming that

A) miscarriages of justice are offset by the moral benefits and usefulness of doing justice.
B) there have been no miscarriages of justice, in the sense used in the objection.
C) miscarriages of justice are inevitable and so irrelevant.
D) none of the above

Question 24

According to Reiman, van den Haag's argument leads to the conclusion that

A) we should refrain from imposing the death penalty.
B) the refusal to execute criminals has a civilizing effect.
C) we should institute death by torture.
D) murder is wrong.

Question 25

Reiman could be described as a(n)

A) consequentialist
B) believer in the principle of equality
C) abolitionist
D) retentionist

Question 26

The principle of proportionality requires that

A) murderers receive the death penalty.
B) punishments must be in proportion to the crime.
C) we should do to the wrongdoer the same kind of action done to the victim.
D) punishments must be equal to the crime.

Question 27

According to Metz, what is wrong with consequentialist arguments against capital punishment based on African values?

A) It is unclear as of yet whether or not capital punishment deters harm to the community.
B) It is unclear as of yet whether or not capital punishment deters harm to any individuals.
C) Consequentialism is not supported by African values.
D) Even though consequentialism is supported by African values, no consequentialist arguments framed in terms of African values have been offered.

Question 28

Why does Metz think that extant dignity-based arguments based on African values fail?

A) It is unclear that they show that capital punishment is degrading, and so therefore wrong.
B) They prove too much. They seem to entail that any instance of killing in self-defense is wrong.
C) Both A and B
D) None of the above

Question 29

On Metz's view, what kind of punishment is justified for wrongdoers?

A) Harmful punishment that is proportionate to the harm done by the wrongdoing.
B) Unfriendly action that is proportionate to the unfriendly wrongdoing, aimed at correcting the wrongdoing.
C) Degradation proportionate to the degrading impacts of the wrongdoing.
D) All of the above.

Question 30

Metz argues that dignity is based in

A) a capacity for communal or friendly relationships
B) a capacity for moral thought
C) a capacity for rational deliberation
D) a capacity for certain kinds of feelings or sentiments

Question 31

Retentionists think that the death penalty is always morally justified.

Question 32

The retributive theory of punishment is incompatible with the notion of "an eye for an eye."

Question 33

Reiman claims that van den Haag's arguments in favor of the death penalty follow our common-sense intuitions.

Question 34

According to Reiman, criminals would face the risk of death even without the death penalty.

Question 35

Proportional retributivism does not require that convicted murderers be punished by death.

Question 36

Nathanson believe that criminals deserve to be treated humanely.

Question 37

Reiman argues that we should trust our common-sense intuitions about the death penalty.

Question 38

Error rates in capital cases have decreased over time.

Question 39

Sixty-eight percent of the sentences in capital cases are eventually overturned.

Question 40

The average wait for a decision about whether a capital case is error-free is around seven years.

Question 41

Abolitionists do not think that the death penalty is ever morally permissible.

Question 42

Legal punishment does not necessarily need to involve pain or unpleasant consequences.

Question 43

Consequentialists do not need to be concerned with the negative consequences of the death penalty.

Question 44

According to Reiman, if we follow van den Haag's reasoning about deterrence, then we should institute death by torture to further deter murder.

Question 45

Nathanson believes that killing another person in self-defense is incompatible with respecting the dignity of persons.

Question 46

A retributive theory of punishment requires that murderers receive the death penalty.

Question 47

Van den Haag argues that an equal distribution of the death penalty is more just to convicts

Question 48

Van den Haag does not believe that the death penalty is a better or worse deterrent than other forms of punishment.

Question 49

Reiman and Nathanson agree that the refusal to execute criminals would send a message about the wrongfulness of murder.

Question 50

Reiman believes that the death penalty is a better deterrent than other forms of punishment.

Question 51

The retributive theory of punishment claims that the punishment for an offense should _________ the crime.

Question 52

Liebman et al. claim that reversals of death sentences indicate a misuse of resources.

Question 53

Nathanson supports the idea of _________ retributivism.

Question 54

The principle of punishment commonly known as "an eye for an eye" is also known by the Latin name _________.

Question 55

Nathanson objects to the equal punishment principle because it does not provide an adequate criterion for determining appropriate levels of _________.

Question 56

Van den Haag believes that the death penalty is no less or better a _________ than other forms of punishment.

Question 57

Reiman suggests that there are at least _________ reasons to doubt our common-sense intuitions about the death penalty.

Question 58

According to Reiman, the refusal to execute criminals teaches the _________ of murder.

Question 59

An error that substantially undermines the reliability of the guilty finding or the death sentence imposed at a trial is known as a _________.

Question 60

An error that substantially undermines the reliability of the guilty finding or the death sentence imposed at a trial is known as a _________.

Question 61

Legal punishment is punishment administered by a _________.

Question 62

As of 2012, the death penalty was legal in _________ U.S. states.

Question 63

One of the messages Nathanson thinks we can send by abolishing the death penalty is the respect for the _________ of human beings.

Question 64

Nathanson rejects Kant's view of _________ retributivism.

Question 65

Van den Haag believes that equality is morally less important than _________ when it comes to the death penalty.

Question 66

Van den Haag argues that there is no reason to think that the death penalty is _________.

Question 67

Reiman attempts to show that van den Haag's argument proves that we should institute _________.

Question 68

One of the reasons Reiman gives for why we should doubt our common-sense intuitions about the death penalty is that criminals already _________.

Question 69

One of the reasons Reiman gives for why we should doubt our common-sense intuitions about the death penalty is that criminals already _________. Type question here using underscores for your 'blank'

Question 70

Metz argues that the argument against capital punishment based on the right to life as grounded in _________, the Ngumi term for "humanness" fails.