Should we give it a chance? (Capital punishment)

Member Name: rob_writer

Product:	Capital punishment
Date:	05/01/01 (83 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Deters murderers

Disadvantages: What if we get it wrong?

I've had this debate at school many times before and while there are arguments for and against each side, but in general I think most people generally believe that capital punishment is wrong. But is it? America have capital punishment in a lot of their states and it seems to work OK over there, so why shouldn't it work over here?

First of all we consider ourselves civilised, and no civilised person wants to watch another die. Certainly the days of public executions in town squares are long over, but with modern technology it is possible to kill humanely and quickly so no one need suffer when executed. With it capital punishment would bring a large number of advantages. It must be a massive deterrent for potential murderers. Personally I would never even contemplate murder, and neither would 99.99% of the population, but for the people who may commit murder they would surely think twice if they knew that they too could end up dead. If you ignore the USA and look at other countries that employ capital punishment they generally have a lower rate of murder than countries without it. There will always be the insane murderers who won't care about the consequences, but to some people it should make a difference.

There are always crimes so disturbing and vicious that we all feel the current punishment system is not enough. It seems unfair that a common thief receives the same form of punishment that a murderer does; only the murderer has a longer term of imprisonment. Surely the most dangerous and violent murderers deserve worse than prison, and lets face it, prisons have come along way from the old dungeons people were held in hundreds of years ago. The modern prison isn't exactly a harsh place to live, we may say that everyone deserves a minimum quality of life, but surely these people forfeited theirs when they committed murder. People in prison here in the UK have a better life than a lot of people in third world countries. We may all
stand disgusted when we see the state of some foreign prisons, but maybe we should take a leaf out of their book.

Of course there are two main reasons why capital punishment shouldn't be allowed. Firstly, if we kill a person, even in the name of the law, surely we are no better than the murderer themselves? I once argued against capital punishment in a debate, and one the arguments I came up with was that by the definition of murder (I won't bore you with the dictionary quote) the execution of someone is actually murder. Now this may just have been a lawyer esque trick on my part, but it does raise the question is it right to kill another human being, whatever their crimes or sins. The religious of you out there will know that the bible says only God can destroy or create life, so it would appear that by executing someone we become a murderer too in the eyes of god.

Then of course, there is the biggest reason against capital punishment and the main reason why people are against it. Our criminal system is not 100% fool proof, many people have been sentenced for murder, served many years in prison only to be released as 'new evidence' came to light. At the moment all we do is ruin the persons life, a large enough price, but with capital punishment in place we would take that life too, kill an innocent person. One wonders just how many of the Americans sentenced to death are actually innocent, depending on who you believe some American states sentence people to death for the sake of it, and guess who sent the highest number of people to their deaths, good old President elect George W. Bush. Is this really the man you want running the most powerful country in the world?

If capital punishment was introduced and if just one person was killed wrongly we, as a country would have committed murder. There can be no greater miscarriage of justice than killing an innocent person, and by its very nature there is no amount of compensati
on or sorries that can bring a person back to life.

For this reason I have to conclude that while capital punishment has its plus points, these are out weighed by its negative points, especially the possibility that we kill an innocent person. If you can show me a way to make our justice system 100% effective then I will reconsider, but I have a feeling that could be very hard...............

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