a potential last resort?? (Capital punishment)

Name: K.LEE07

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Product:	Capital punishment
Date:	16/01/06 (559 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: the world may be rid of criminals who would otherwise re-offend or spend their lives in prison

Disadvantages: people could be wrongly convicted

Capital punishment is for many people a highly emotive topic of conversation, and one that usually evokes a strong opinion one way or the other. Personally however, I find that I can see both sides of the argument and find it hard to get behind just one or the other. In a choice of pro or anti I would probably edge more towards pro, however that is not to say that I strongly support it.

I certainly can't help but feel that Britain is not in an improved criminal state to what it was 10 years ago. By this I mean that prisons country-wide are now packed to over-flowing with petty criminals, murderers and rapists. This battle for space has also been known to lead to the premature release of some of these criminals who then repeatedly re-offend once they are back in society. In some of these instances I cannot help but feel that it would be better for everyone if the offender involved was perhaps senteced to death. I have read several cases of peadophiles/rapists/murderers being released only to re-offend soon after, and I, personally, feel that anyone who could commit such atrocious crimes twice or more should be sentenced to death. If they have re-offended after being released from prison once then I do not feel that they should ever be allowed to go free in society again, and I therefore see no advantage to using tax=payers money to keep them alive and comfortable in a state prison.

I in fact see no advantage whatsoever in a court sentencing a person to life imprisonment, (and by life I mean their actual life span, as opposed to the generic term of a period far less in reality than an average human life span) and would rather see the money that would be spent keeping them in prison, spent elsewhere in the economy, perhaps we could donate it to charity or send it abroad as aid to third-world countries. It does seem in fact slightly sick, that in a world where we have never been more aware of the hardship that people face everyday in some of the poorest countries in the world, we spend millions of pounds a year keeping people in prisons, many of whom may never again be free. If we were to enforce capital punishment, even if only for the most serious of crimes and re-offenders, this extra money could in fact be sent as aid to keep people alive in these poor countries. It seems odd that we would choose to keep criminals alive over innocent people in poverty stricken countries.

I also cannot help but feel that there are some crimes so evil and severe that a person simply does not deserve to live out his life in a state prison paid for with tax-payers money. Ironically, in part, by the victims money paid in tax to the government (assuming they pay taxes etc.) There are some crimes a person would have to be so evil/twisted to commit that there can be little chance of re-habilitation. In this instance why bother to keep him alive in jail, risking a re-offence later in life.

However, I can also see there are many crimes whcih simply don't deserve this level of punishment. There is also always the issue of having certain proof of someone's guilt, I'm sure many people have seen the film the Green Mile starring Tom Hanks, this portrays the other side of the story of sentencing an innocent man to death. Capital punishment would only be an acceptable sentence if it were used as a last resort for the most severe crimes and criminals, and in cases where there was proof beyond doubt that the person in question was guilty of the crime.

Personally I would also not like to be employed in an area linked to such an extreme form of punishment. I would not like to be the judge who had to sentece a man to death. However that is not to say that I would not do it in a clear cut case.

Anyway, in summary I guess I am pro capital punishment, however only when used as a last resort. I believe that it would solve a problem of over-crowding and unnecesary waste of tax=payers money, and would reduce the risk of re-offence if used as a punishment for anyone who does re-offend. It may also help to drive crime rates down slightly by acting as a deterrent. I feel that any case in which capital punishment was being considered however, should be VERY carefully examined, the person needs to be guilty beyond doubt, and the crime also needs to have been severe. For example I would not sentence a person to death because they re-offended with a robbery. I believe it should only be used as a punishment for crimes which have a direct emotional impact on human beings, eg. rape and murder, not for such crimes as drug-dealing or robbery, which although have a huge impact on the people involved do not technically destroy lives in the same way. I realise that many people may disagree on the drugs issue, but drugs are almost always taken through the choice of the user therefore I do not feel that a dealer should be handled in the same way as a murderer.

This is just my opinion, but I hope it has made interesting reading for you, I would be interested to hear your views on the topic.

Summary: a potentiall last resort