The Rationale of Death Penalty
The Rationale of Death Penalty
Capital punishment, as the highest form of punishment a state would uphold has been a long debated issue. Often dubbed as Death Penalty, Deborah White defined it as “the pre-meditated and planned taking of a human life by the state in response to a crime committed by that legally convicted person.” Personally, I’m not in favour of making death penalty the highest form of punishment. To support this many points are to be considered: (1) The value of life. Life cannot be measured thus death penalty cannot measure the worth of life that even the worst criminal should be deprived of his own life. Everyone has the right to live and by subjecting the individual to death penalty would destitute his right to life. (2) Retribution is morally flawed and a problematic concept; thus making it immoral for it is just a sanitised form of vengeance. Retribution in the case of death penalty is not fair because the expected suffering of the criminal before execution would probably outweigh the suffering of the victim, making it imbalance and unfair. Death penalty brings double punishment, for execution and proceeding would mismatch the crime done. Since death penalty is not operated retributively, it should not be use to justify capital punishment. Life imprisonment without parole possibility is much more suffering than death. (3) Death penalty doesn’t deter people from committing serious crime. Being caught and punished is the thing that deters them to do so. True deterrence is through increased detection, arrest and conviction for justice. (4)As morality is concern, Death penalty is cruel, inhumane and degrading. This is so because all ways of executing a person cause so much suffering to him that this amount to self torture which is wrong. It represent “brutal and unusual punishment”’ whatever means used by the state to kill are vindictive. (5) Death penalty is used disproportionally to the poor and weak, who cannot afford expensive legal means,
Capital punishment, as the highest form of punishment a state would uphold has been a long debated issue. Often dubbed as Death Penalty, Deborah White defined it as “the pre-meditated and planned taking of a human life by the state in response to a crime committed by that legally convicted person.” Personally, I’m not in favour of making death penalty the highest form of punishment. To support this many points are to be considered: (1) The value of life. Life cannot be measured thus death penalty cannot measure the worth of life that even the worst criminal should be deprived of his own life. Everyone has the right to live and by subjecting the individual to death penalty would destitute his right to life. (2) Retribution is morally flawed and a problematic concept; thus making it immoral for it is just a sanitised form of vengeance. Retribution in the case of death penalty is not fair because the expected suffering of the criminal before execution would probably outweigh the suffering of the victim, making it imbalance and unfair. Death penalty brings double punishment, for execution and proceeding would mismatch the crime done. Since death penalty is not operated retributively, it should not be use to justify capital punishment. Life imprisonment without parole possibility is much more suffering than death. (3) Death penalty doesn’t deter people from committing serious crime. Being caught and punished is the thing that deters them to do so. True deterrence is through increased detection, arrest and conviction for justice. (4)As morality is concern, Death penalty is cruel, inhumane and degrading. This is so because all ways of executing a person cause so much suffering to him that this amount to self torture which is wrong. It represent “brutal and unusual punishment”’ whatever means used by the state to kill are vindictive. (5) Death penalty is used disproportionally to the poor and weak, who cannot afford expensive legal means,
References: American Civil Liberties Union. The Case Against the Death Penalty.2012. accessed from http://www.aclu.org/capital-punishment/case-against-death-penalty White, Deborah. Pros & Cons of Death Penalty. Accessed from http://usliberals.about.com/od/deathpenalty/i/DeathPenalty.htm