Capital Punishment

Course: Business English

Assignment: Capital Punishment

Work done by:

Instructor: Loutfi Hemadi

JADRA - LEBANON

Fall 2004-200

Capital Punishment

Capital punishment is one of the most important concerns society is complaining about since its birth. Capital punishment which is widely known as the death penalty has taken many form and has spread quickly to almost all countries in the world. And as we know no system of justice can produce results which are 100% certain all the time so death penalty can some times be very cruel and injustice and could end the life of innocent civilians. This point of view has created two points of view from the people’s side some who believed in capital punishment and other who wanted it be completely banned from the system of justice.

To start with, in many countries death penalty was seen as a service for justice. People who believed in capital punishment believed that there are some defendants who have earned the ultimate punishment that our justice has to offer by committing murder with frustrating circumstances. And these murders committed end the life of many people, and life itself is sacred. So death penalty is the least punishment. So Capital punishment is justified if it prevents the criminal from repeating his crime, or prevents crime by discouraging would-be offenders. Life imprisonment is no adequate and acceptable alternative for the death penalty. Murder without death penalty does not eliminate the risk that the prisoner will murder a guard, a visitor, or another inmate again and again. So justice won’t be compelled to take that risk. It is also known for inmates to escape from prison and knowing that these prisoners are considered to be very dangerous and injurious to our society. Capital punishment is based on the idea that every person is a valuable and worthy of respect because of their ability to make rational and free choices. The murder, too, is worthy of respect; we, thus, show him respect by treating him the same way he declares that people are to be treated.

The retributive notion of punishment in general is that as a foundational matter of justice, criminals deserve punishment, and punishment should be equal to the harm done which is commonly expressed in the expression "an eye for an eye.

Historically, capital punishment is most often associated lex talionis retribution. One of the earliest written statements of capital punishment from the lex talionis or "eye for an eye" perspective is from the 18th century BCE Babylonian Law of Hammurabi: “If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in and kills its owner, then that builder shall be put to death. If it kills the son of the owner, then the son of that builder shall be put to death”. But as a strict formula of retribution, lex talionis punishment may even be inadequate. For example, if a terrorist or mass murderer kills ten people, then taking his single life is technically not punishment in kind.

On the other hand, no system of justice can produce results which are 100% certain all the time. Mistakes will be made in any system which relies upon human testimony for proof. To avoid such mistakes and be more alert less countries has banned the capital punishment. The risk of making a mistake with the extraordinary due process applied in death penalty cases is very high. These countries see the life imprisonment is much more adequate and is a less risk of making any mistake. Life imprisonment not only gives the chance for some innocent to prove there innocence but also give the prisoner and those who are guilty a chance to be forgiven not only by people but also by god. The guilty will have another chance for another life.

In the U.S 100+ death row inmates who were innocent were exonerated and released, as trumpeted by anti-death penalty activists, is a fraud. The actual number of factually innocent released death row inmates is closer to 40, and from 80 death raw inmates 14 were executed wrongfully and were proven to be innocent years later. So