Death Penalty The death penalty or as it is formally called capital punishment should be totally abolished for many reasons. First and foremost no one should have the right to take anyone else’s life, ” neither individually nor as a society representative, has the right to take another man’s life, even apart from the seriousness of his guilt.” (Thinkquest,). Killing is a sin under God. “Thou shall not kill” is one of the ten commandments. Although not everyone in this country is Christian our constitution was founded on the principle that we are one country under God.
Throughout history there have been a number of arguments in favor of capital punishment. These arguments include the deterrent argument, the retribution argument and the protection of the public argument. The deterrent argument claims that the death penalty serves as a deterrent to criminals because it instills fear sufficiently to stop criminals. However, statistically this has been found not to be true. “None of the many studies about the matter has been able to show the death penalty is more deterrent than other punishments.” (EZ,). Most people who commit the most serious crimes do so under unnatural circumstances.
Fear is not even present. ” Most serious crimes such as murders .. are committed when the criminal is blinded with passion, when emotions prevail over reason.” (Collegain,). Even those who plan crimes such as murders do so thinking that they are not going to be discovered. “Criminologist assert that the best way to discourage murderers isn’t by increasing the severity of punishment but by increasing the possibility of discovering the crime and condemning the culprit.”(Thinkquest,).
Retribution as a reason for capital punishment assumes that the public wants revenge. Although victims of crimes and their relatives deserve to know that the criminal is being punished for their crime, our country beliefs in rehabilitation. Penalties do not “have to tend to the revenge or the mere punishment of the criminal, but must reeducate him and rehabilitate him morally and humanly; and what rehabilitation would be possible towards a dead man.”(EZ). To protect the public from dangerous criminals it is not necessary to kill them. Again, the idea is that our penal system is supposed to rehabilitate people. In fact, in order to carry out justice and fearing the neglect of details “and legal means to which the sentenced can apply, protracts trials and postpones the execution, so the condemned its often changed from the man who committed the crime with the result of executing pe3ople different from the condemned ones.” (Thinkquest).
In addition to these issues which have been argued there are two other important concerns that should be considered regarding the death penalty. One is the possibility of the “miscarriage of justice, that is not remote. The possibility of killing an innocent is reason enough on its own to abolish the death penalty.” (Thinkquest). The other concern is that the death penalty is discriminating.
“Mostly criminals of weak social classes or marginal groups are sentenced to death; members of ethnic minorities, little-educated people whose familiar life is adrift, poor opponents.”(Thinkquest). For all of the above reasons, if our aim as a country is to create a fairer safer world where crime is not acceptable then we have to begin by honoring life itself. We must abolish the death penalty. Bibliography www.deathpenalty.com Legal Issues.
