Capital Punishment, more commonly known as the death penalty, is the decision by a jury, in the second phase of a capital case, that the convicted defendant should be put to death. Laws were passed as far back as 1730 B.C. to allow legal executions. Historically the death penalty was widely accepted. Thousands of people would come to see an execution as a form of entertainment. As a result of the turnout from the crowd on execution day, thousands were killed for such crimes that today would consider a simple misdemeanor. Even the church in England was allowed to burn people at the stake. The eighteenth century was the main time frame in which these mass executions took place. Today, society would consider past executions unethical and corrupt, but what will people think hundreds of years from now when they look back on present day and see how we still have the same standards of killing?
Since colonial times about 13,000 people have been legally executed in the United States alone; 1,100 since 1976. Texas alone has executed 405 felons since 1976, and currently has 390 on death row. California has only executed 13 since 1976 but currently has 655 on death row. Almost three and a half thousand inmates are currently facing the death penalty in the United States today. There are currently 37 states that still have the death penalty implemented including Virginia, who happens to have the second highest execution rate. The United States stands as the fifth highest country to use the death penalty.
I believe this is a huge problem not only in America, but all over the world. Executions in Singapore are the highest compared to their population. People are executed for simple drug crimes and misdemeanors. Almost every single killing in Singapore is done by hanging. Afghanistan still has stoning as a legal way of implementing the death penalty. China is the leader in executions per year, which is ten times the number of executions of the country that is in second, Iran. It is said that as many as 6,000 executions could have been carried out in 2007. Most of these executions were done by firing squad.
There are five legal methods of executing an individual: electrocution, firing squad (shooting in the back of the head), gas chamber, hanging, and lethal injection. It is not up to the state to decide who will die and who will live. It is wrong on so many levels, but these acts of injustice are happening every day.
I believe capital punishment goes against the constitution. Our eighth amendment outlaws cruel and unusual punishment. I believe killing another man for something bad that he has done fails to abide by this amendment. An activist named Holly Near once said, “Why do we kill people who are killing people to show that killing people is wrong?” Killing an individual as a form of payback is morally and ethically wrong. Not only this, but how can you say that it is right to take someone's life as some sort of lesson to society and how can that give the victims family peace? How can a child grow up with their parents telling them over and over that two wrongs don't make it right and yet killing a man for killing another man is just?
Another reason I believe capital punishment should be outlawed is because of the costliness of this act. Some people will argue that keeping a man in prison for the rest of their life is wasting our tax dollars, and killing them would be a much more logical plan. If they had actually done their research though, they would see that the United States primarily uses lethal injection, a process that is extremely costly. The price of keeping a felon in prison for the rest of their life is nearly 4 times less then the cost of lethal injection, which is usually around $2 million dollars to carry out every time. Anyways, if a man spends life in prison, this also guarantees no future crimes to humanity.
There are also many mistakes in the legal process of executing an individual. There have been at least 39 people wrongfully executed in the United States alone with physical evidence that the crime they were said to have committed was falsely analyzed. There have also been hundreds of people on death row that were wrongfully accused and are now acquitted after years of imprisonment. These are awful circumstances and the measures being taken to decide who dies and who lives is unclear and sketchy. Innocent people are dying and there is no justice for them.
People may also argue that the Bible says (in the Old Testament) “an eye for an eye,” and in Leviticus 24:17 it says, "And he who kills any man shall surely be put to death.” They may be right about this, but these were the laws of Moses and are contrasted by the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament, in which Matthew 5:38-40 says, “You have heard that it was said, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." But I tell you not to resist an evil doer. On the contrary, whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other to him also." We as a whole should learn to forgive. Killing another man as punishment is no justification for what has been done. If we all spread love instead of hatred, we all might learn something and there will be fewer crimes in the first place. Jesus teaches us to love on people no matter what the circumstances are. He wouldn't want us to kill anyone ever, yet it happens every single day.
I don't see how anyone could live with killing a man even if he has done a horrid thing. It's not a logical or ethical decision to take life away. We should be promoting life not taking away. The death penalty and abortion are two subjects that can be intertwined with opposing viewpoints. I believe that neither is just, even when the circumstances are severe. I think that capital punishment should be banned throughout the world. Places such as Latin America, New Zealand, Europe, and Canada have already outlawed this act of inhumanity, and I believe they share many of the same viewpoints as me. I just hope that more people can see my point of view and act on it. Capital punishment is a big issue to touch on and there are many different viewpoints, but I believe it is a wrong and atrocious way of punishing a person and is just an easy way out. "Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders." (Albert Camus)
