The Death Penalty – Neil Moran and Emily Walker

Once you die, that’s it. Game Over. You don’t get another chance. People don’t usually want to die; most are scared of old age and especially – Murderers

Death Penalty

Amnesty International describes the death penalty as the ‘ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment’.

This makes total sense. The death penalty is nothing more then the premeditated, and cold – blooded killing of another human being. And how can this method of punishment be justified? There is no statistical evidence to support the claim that the death penalty acts as an effective deterrent – in fairness gang members and drug dealers live under the daily threat of getting ‘whacked’ by the opposition. The death penalty is ‘legal murder’ – if such a concept can possibly exist.

There are so many problems with the death penalty that it is hard to contain them to one blog post. However, I have highlighted some of the biggest problems below.

1. What if an innocent person is executed? The death penalty is, by its very nature, final. There is no coming back, no issuing of an apology. Miscarriages of justice happen all the time, and at least if a person is found innocent whilst in prison they can be released to try and reclaim their life. No such option exists if the accused is simply killed.

2. What about rehabilitation? The criminal justice system, especially in developed countries, is based on three principles. Retribution, deterrence, and rehabilitation. It is well established that social factors have a huge influence on the likelihood that an individual will offend. By executing those who do commit crimes the state is ignoring this third principle.

3. What about the right to life? Article 3 of the Declaration of Human Rights states that: ‘Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person’. Surely a practise of judicially sanctioned execution violates this most basic right?

4. Humane execution? This phrase seems like a bad joke. All known methods of execution cause pain, and problems have even been reported with lethal injections. This is supposedly the most humane form of execution there is.

In Indiana in the United States of America, in 1996, Tommy J. Smith took an hour and nine minutes to the be pronounced dead. Because the prisoner had very small veins he writhed in agony for over an hour before the state managed to finally kill him. .

The death penalty appears to be an unnecessary and unethical punishment. It goes against basic Humans Rights and in my opinion it should be abolished worldwide.

At the start of the 20^th century, only 3 countries had abolished the death sentence.

Today, ten years into the 21^st century, over half the countries in the world have abolished it in law or in practice. Over the past decade an average of 3 countries have abolished the death sentence per year, and it is seldom reintroduced. As mentioned above the death penalty is simply not an effective way to achieve the stated aims of its supporters, leading me to wonder why these people support it in the first place?