Death Penalty

The right to life and the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment is recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Many people consider that the death penalty violates these rights. And they insist the death penalty should be abolished. The death penalty should not be allowed under any circumstances because it is not a deterrent and the claim that the threat of capital punishment reduces serious crime is inconclusive. Also, it conflicts with many ethical issues and it is an act of a murder. Although murder is a horrible crime there are alternative ways to punish people who have murdered.

IЎЇd like to start with the positive aspects, if any, that the death penalty might have. I could not imagine going through what the families of murdered victims have to go through, but I can understand the amount of pain that blinds them with the thought of revenge. It is human nature to want to be paid Ў°an eye for an eye.Ў± By killing the person who killed someone else, one might expect the victimЎЇs family to have peace. Another aspect to consider is that once a criminal is dead, he can no longer be a threat or a problem to our society. It is also commonly believed that if people considering committing a crime see that the consequences can lead to death, the crime rate will decrease, and it deters criminals from committing serious offences. Besides, why should we spend our hard earned tax dollars to feed these heathens and keep them alive? It saves money for the governments. Giving custodial sentences is expensive in many countries.

Human life is human life nonetheless, and now new victims would be formed - the families of the executed. Moreover, the cruelty of the death penalty extends beyond the prisoner to the prisoner's family, to the prison guards and to the officials who have to carry out an execution. When will we learn that two wrongs do not make a right? By executing a criminal, we no longer have to worry about him or her. There is such thing as Ў°lie without parole,Ў± which is just as efficient in keeping the criminal out of trouble because there really is no chance he will ever get out of prison. The deterrence factor is a very important one because it alone should be more than enough evidence against the death penalty.

Also, it is possible that innocent criminals can be executed by misjudgment, and the claim that the threat of the death penalty reduces violent crime is inconclusive, certainly not proven. There have been 23 reported cases of executed innocent people. How can we sleep at night? The poor do not get fair trials that are no surprise. You will never see someone rich or powerful on death row. Look at O.J. Simpson. These facts support the abolition of the death penalty. The purpose of the criminal justice system is to punish