Capital Punishment
Capital punishment, which is also referred to as death penalty is the procedure through which the state puts a person to death. According to the judicial decree, it is a punishment termed as death sentence and it is enforced by execution of the accused. In the past, capital punishment was accompanied by torture, and in most cases was done in public. Due to constitutional differences, today, approximately fifty-eight countries actively practice capital punishment while, on the other side, ninety eight have completely abolished death sentence (Rankin, 2011). More of it is that, almost all countries in the world have banned capital punishment on all individuals of age eighteen and below. On this note, it is evident that there is a growing debate on whether capital punishment should be abolished or upheld. This essay will try to compare and contrast capital punishment in terms of reason why capital punishment should be support and why, on the other side of view, it should not be supported.
Firstly, capital punishment should be supported because of incapacitation of criminals. It serves as one of the ways of eliminating crimes completely from the society. It has so far proven to be the permanent means of getting rid of unwanted behavior in the society because of the fact that, execution marks the end of the criminal’s ability to be involved in further criminal acts because of death.
Capital punishment also saves the state a lot of money. The state can use the money used to maintain and sustain lives of criminals on death row in prisons on other things like resources rehabilitations centers, caring for old people, or the young and sick instead of long-term imprisonment. This is true because there is no need to keep wasting funds supporting a life that has already been proved guilty in accordance to justice decree and sentenced to death for over ten years and execute them in the end. It does not add up.
Another reason for supporting capital punishment is the act of revenge. If a criminal was a murderer, the best way to revenge is through death sentence. This, it is one of the most just ways of dealing with criminals that deserve death penalty. In the old days, it was referred to as the “lex talens” meaning, eye for an eye. Here, if individuals committed murder, the state had to execute them too because that was the way justice was to be administered to the bereaved family members and the society.
Prevention of such crimes as the ones the death row prisoners committed from being repeated by other individuals in the society is another reason for supporting capital punishment. When people know and understand that committing certain crimes, such as murder or drug trafficking, are equal to death sentence, there is a likelihood of people in the society not committing the same crimes in the future? Although there is no conceptual prove of this concept, it has only worked in the situation where the ultimate execution is the final certainty. It works because it scares people who may be tempted to commit similar crimes. Usually, before people think of committing serious crimes, they always plan for outcome of their crimes. If they realize that some crime s could cost them their lives, they may decide not to commit them in the first place. In other words, capital punishment serves as a deterrent of crimes that are punishable by death.
Arguments against Capital Punishment
There are several reasons why capital punishment should not be supported. To begin with, there is a probability that genuinely innocent people can end up losing their lives. This is attributable to the quality of conviction process from the courts where actual judgment is made. According to Rankin, many ambiguities surround the cases that are prone to death sentence (2011). For instance, in a scenario where a person is accused of killing is convicted because they admit to the crime, but in the real sense, the killing was not a murder, but manslaughter. Such cases are good examples that pose a threat of executing innocent individuals.
Trauma and other kind of suffering families members, relatives and friends goes through in case of innocent execution is another reason for not supporting capital punishment. These people go through hard time leading up to, during and after the execution and it usually takes a lot of time for the victim’s family to recover.
Unjust ways was of administering death penalty. This is more experienced in countries where raisin and other forms of inequalities exist. For instance in the United State, a criminal can get as many appeals as possible or even stay in prison for a long time before a final decision is made. Consequently, there are other cases where, probability for death sentence for poor and black is high compared to the rich and white respectively.
Finally, there is no humane way of putting a person to death. Whether it is painful or not, the mental effect from the period of conviction leading up to and during time of death is detrimental. It should not be forgotten that these prisoners go through mental torture when they keep in prison for a long time while expecting to be executed.
Works Cited
Rankin, J. H. Changing Attitudes toward Capital Punishment. Social Forces, 58, 194-211. 2011. Print.
