Socyberty > Crime

Death Penalty: Cruelest Form of Punishment

This is about how the death penalty is the worst criminal punishment out there.

Here in the United States of America, almost everything is extremely diverse. Whether it is the different foods we eat, or the wide variety of people we have that live here, it is all diverse just like what our country was made to be like. But sadly, there is a diverse amount of punishments to keep our diverse society in check. For some younger people of our country, punishments would include getting grounded or receiving a time-out as small form of correction for a small action of wrong doing committed by children. Of course, these puny punishments do not exist in the real world where the police watch your every move, just waiting to penalize you for a small crime you mistakenly commit. In America, you can receive many forms of punishment such as a loud conversation with the neighborhood police officer for playing your stereo to loud or a small fine for accidentally dropping a wrapper for small Hershey bar in front of a police officer you now wish you had not bought.

A punishment for rape, drug dealing, robbery, extreme property damage etc. can result in jail time from less than a year to many decades. But the most controversial form of capital punishment is the death penalty which could happen to an adult human if he or she committed an act of murder. The death penalty is the absolute most unethical, inhumane, cruel and unusual punishment because it destroys the life of a human. Humans should be allowed to live, no matter what they might have done to other people. The Death Penalty is currently being used as a punishment for capital crimes in a majority of our nation's states. From early 1976 to the middle of June 2004, the death penalty has been practiced 914 times killing some accidentally. The different ways that the death penalty can be carried out include the following, lethal injection, electrocution, gas chamber, hanging, and shooting. Take your pick between life, and death.

At least going to jail for life would allow you to stay alive and have all the necessary items to do so. Just imagine yourself, minutes away from losing your life. As you brace for the lethal injection it slowly pierces your thin layer of skin and strike a major nerve that leaves you screaming in pain just like you did when you were child and got your first shot. As you helplessly wait directly after the injection, you think of what you could have done with your life which is now impossible because you clearly know that you are going to die in the next few minutes. A few seconds later, you are gasping for small bits of oxygen that you can barely take in due to the major collapse of your lungs and diaphragm. As you go through the last few seconds of your life, you try to receive a small gasp of air then suddenly you heart stops and everything goes dark. If you were in that position, you would probably choose to be put in prison than killed. I believe that the death penalty violates the 8th amendment which is the right no cruel and unusual punishment because it is a severely brutal and degrading punishment that does not allow the criminal to reform which a punishment is suppose to do. There are other ways that we can punish criminals such as years or maybe life in prison.

At least you can stay alive in prison, have some food, and maybe even a life is a terrible thing to waste no matter what that person did. If you believe in the conservative point of view on this major issue, you would want to put the criminal to death for an act of murder. I disagree with your opinion about this issue if you believe that statement because all the death penalty does is cause more madness in our world with not just the victim of the criminal dying, but the victim of our nation's law system dying also. Two times the death because the government believes that we should kill more than 1 person when a murder has been committed. All the death penalty does is kill and nothing is gained out of it but an extra tally mark in the book of people getting killed by or country by the dreaded death penalty.

5
Liked It
I Like It!
Related Articles
Abolishing the Death Penalty  |  Capital Punishment 1
More Articles by John Heller
Martin Luther King Jr
Latest Articles in Crime
Please Remove the Fence, It is Hindering to Thieves  |  An Unspeakable Deed
Comments (4)
#1 by Dr. Michael Blankenship, Mar 15, 2008
A society that kills its own citizens cannot claim to be civilized. You would think that the we would look around and see that a majority of the world has abandoned capital punishment. I am outraged that we criticize the human rights records of other countries when our own record of abuse is so abysmal.

justicegambit.blogspot.com
#2 by Dudley Sharp, May 12, 2008
Dr. Blankenship writes:

"A society that kills its own citizens cannot claim to be civilized. You would think that the we would look around and see that a majority of the world has abandoned capital punishment."

The majority of the world's countries still have the death penalty.

Sadly, Dr. Blankenship doesn't find his own country, the USA, civilized.

He likely doesn't think anyone who supports capital punishment is civilized, either - a common bit of false superiority that many anti death penalty folks have.

Even in many countries that don't have the death penalty, many of their citizens support capital punishment. See below.

People support the death penalty because they find it just for some crimes. For the most part, as with all people, they are thoughtful and civilized folks.

This, from the French daily Le Monde, December 2006 (1):

Percentage of respondents in favor of executing Saddam Hussein:
Great Britain: 69%
France: 58%
Germany: 53%
Spain: 51%
Italy: 46%
USA: 82%

We are led to believe there isn't death penalty support in England or Europe. European governments won't allow executions when their populations support it: they're anti democratic.(2)

97%+ of Guatemalans support the death penalty. 2.6% oppose
(telephone survey, newspaper Prensa Libre, 2/14/08)
www(dot)latinamericapress.org/ article.asp?lanCode=1&artC ode=5545

79% support the resumption of hanging in Jamaica. 16% oppose. (Bill Johnson Polling for The Gleaner (Jamaica) Newspaper, 1/12-13/08

(1) The recent results of a poll conducted by Novatris/Harris for the French daily Le Monde on the death penalty shocked the editors and writers at Germany's left-leaning SPIEGEL ONLINE (Dec. 22, 2006). When asked whether they favored the death penalty for Saddam Hussein, a majority of respondents in Germany, France and Spain responded in the affirmative.

(2)An excellent article,“Death in Venice: Europe’s Death-penalty Elitism", details this anti democratic position (The New Republic, by Joshua Micah Marshall, 7/31/2000). Another situation reflects this same mentality."(Pres. Mandela says'no' to reinstating the death penalty in South Africa - Nelson Mandela against death penalty public favors it, according to poll. "(JET, 10/14/96). Pres. Mandela explained that"... it was necessary to inform the people about other strategies the government was using to combat crime." As if the people didn't understand. South Africa has had some of the highest crime rates in the world in the ten years, since Mandela's comments."The number of murders committed each year in the country is as high as 47,000, according to Interpol statistics." As of 2006, 72% of South Africans want the death penalty back.("South Africans Support Death Penalty", 5/14/2006, Angus Reid Global Monitor : Polls & Research).
#3 by Ashlee Pittington, Aug 27, 2008
I really like the article, very well spoken. But i do have a question if anyone can answer, approximately how much does it cost to keep someone in prison for 1 year?
#4 by hahaha, Oct 3, 2008
Your Weak!!!
Post Your Comment:
Name:  
Copy the code into this box:  
Inside Socyberty

Activism

 /

Advice

 /

Crime

 /

Death

 /

Disabled

 /

Economics

 /

Education

 /

Ethnicity

 /

Folklore

 /

Future

 /

Gay & Lesbians

 /

Government

 /

History

 /

Holidays

 /

Issues

 /

Languages

 /

Law

 /

Lifestyle Choices

 /

Men

 /

Military

 /

Organizations

 /

Paranormal

 /

People

 /

Philanthropy

 /

Philosophy

 /

Politics

 /

Psychology

 /

Relationships

 /

Religion

 /

Sexuality

 /

Social Sciences

 /

Society

 /

Sociology

 /

Spirituality

 /

Subcultures

 /

Support Groups

 /

Work


Popular Tags
Popular Writers
Socyberty
About Us
Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
Services
Submit an Article
Advertise with Us
Contact

© 2007 Copyright Stanza Ltd. All Rights Reserved.