Capital Punishment

The death penalty has been an issue of debate for decade. It has been an issue of morality and justice. The main basis of the debate is the question of whether it is ethical to punish someone with death and who should decide if they are guilty. Many countries have abolished capital punishment, but it is still legal in the United states.

Many who are against the death penalty do not believe in the justice system. No one will ever have enough information to determine which convicts deserve to die, and which will deserve to live (“Covenant With Death”). But this is true about any crime and that is why you are innocent until proven guilty. Everyone has the right to a fair trial by their peers. Fortunately, if you commit a murder you are still entitled to his right. Capital punishment opponents believe that the U.S. is alone in its belief in capital punishment, which is globally considered to be unjust, barbaric and “against the inherent dignity of all human beings” (“covenant With Death”). They believe that even if you have taken someone’s life and have been proven guilty in a court of law, that you are still entitled to your to life life. Opponents do not think that even a government should decide if a person who has voluntarily taken away someone’s personal right to live should be allowed to take away theirs. They also strongly and truly believe that LWOP (Life Without Parole) is far worse and more severe than the death penalty(Sharp). This is probably a true statement. Living in a cell that allows you access, although it may be short, to television, family, educational resources and some of the best health care in most states is far better than being dead. This is not true, however, for people in solitary confinement.

Believing in the death penalty myself, it is easy to say that if you commit such a crime where the punishment is your life the you should give up your life. It is easy to say because you or the murderer decided to kill someone and they knew the punishment. This is seen as an extreme position though, if we all pay with equal punishment then then punishment for rape would be to get raped, the only fair to pay for grand theft auto would to have your car stolen etc. etc. The truth us that murder is a specific crime that deserves a specific punishment. Someone can get their car back, someone is still alive after they are raped but after you are killed you don't com back. Executing a murder won’t bring someone back but it will give justice where it is due. That is why murder has been punished by death for many years. Maybe not in every country, but here in America it has.

Murders may be avoided if people who commit such crimes were certain that the punishment for it would be them dying. This may not be true in all cases, but in most sane people it would prove true. This has proven effective in Houston Texas(Harris County) when the it had the highest murder rate in 1981 with 701 murders. One year later, Texas resumed executions. Since then, Houston has executed more murderers than any other city or state. They have also seen the greatest decline of murders. This decline being a 63 percent drop; 701 murders in 1981 to 261 in 1996 which represents a 207 percent differential (Sharp). Opponents would argue that the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment, but the framers of the U.S. constitution, mindful of bizarre and torturous methods of execution used in preceding ages, such as boiling a prisoner alive in oil or burning or her at the stake, added to the constitution the eighth amendment, which forbids “cruel and unusual” punishment. In itself, however, death was not considered by the framers to be an excessive penalty for serious crimes, as long as the judicial process that allots punishment is fair(“Issues and Controversy: Death Penalty”). The fact that our fore fathers deemed capital punishment not excessive should make some think what has happened to justice in our country. Do we want freedom, even for those who take it form others?

Many may not agree with me or our fore fathers but I sleep better at night knowing that if i were to get murdered in my sleep that the person who would commit that murder would have to pay for the crime with their life., or at least have to face the probability of being executed. Why is that some people have more sympathy for the murderer than the murdered? According to death penalty opponents there is never enough evidence to convict someone, so i will assume that my question will left unanswered.