The death penalty

The death penalty

The death penalty, also known as Capital punishment is a practice that sanctioned by the government and involved the process of killing an individual as a form of punishment for committing a particular crime in society. The process involved is mainly known as execution (Goldberg and Alan1773-1819). Capital offenses or capital crimes are the chief crimes that are punishable via this practice. Some examples of these crimes include mass murder, murder, treason, murder, offenses against the state, terrorism, espionage, drug trafficking, piracy, war crimes, genocide, and various crimes against humanity. The latter may vary depending on the specific constitution of a country (Bedau 2-12; Engle para 1-4). The earliest form of the death penalty alluded to death in beheading. Many countries across the world have stopped the death sentence, but about 56 countries have retained the practice. However, about eight countries still conform to the death sentence in cases that entail crimes such as treason, murder, and war crimes. About twenty-eight countries still practice the death sentence when targeting the enemies.

The death sentence is an active controversy because of political differences across different countries. For instance, in Europe, “Right to life section indicates that Everyone has the right to life, and no one shall be condemned to the death penalty, or executed.” (Europarl.europa.eu article 2) The United Kingdom altogether banned the issue of the death sentence, yet some of the nations still practice it. Today, the death sentence has changed, and it is entailing various practices such as shooting and hanging. As seen above the death sentence is a controversial topic. It is clear that the latter should be abolished because of issues that are related to human rights, wrongful execution or revenge, ethnic, social class bias and ethnic issues, psychological effects on the people who are left behind, government brutality and religion among others (Garrett). The report here will try to prove why the death sentence should be banned in the United States of America.

Firstly, it is important to note that the death sentence should be banned in all societies by all costs. It is important for everyone to ask themselves what is the importance of killing a criminal as he or she did to the victim. There is also the need for the possibility that the person who has been executed was successful and what should be done because the death sentence is an irreversible act. Killing or denial o,f life is against the rights of people. The United Nations is a body that has severally tried to ensure that every one lives his or her life to the latter. For a case like crimes against the state, the person is supposed to be given another form of punishment rather than death sentences. It is clear that nations that are developed in Europe do not practice the death sentence, and there is no need for the United States government to continue executing criminals. They need to stay alive, and they are supposed to learn and receive correction and rehabilitation lessons. According to Fabdp.org (2019, 1), “An execution is not simply death. It is just as different from the privation of life as a concentration camp is from prison. For there to be an equivalency, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date at which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not encountered in private life”. It is therefore clear that death sentences are predetermined types of murders that cannot be compared to the nature and the structure of human rights. It is, therefore, imperative to stop forfeiting the right to live in any society today.

Secondly, there is the issue of mistaken identities and wrongful execution. Innocent people are sometimes executed, and that leads to the miscarriage of justice in society. In the world today, there are numerous people who have been executed, yet they were innocent. Legal justice systems should, therefore, not choose execution as a means of administering punishments to people. In the united states alone, there are claims that there more than 39 executions that have been carried out on innocent people from 1992 to 2004.

Additionally, DNA samples in the nation have prevented the execution of more than 15 people. However, it is not in all cases where the innocent person will be lucky to escape the executioner. In the United Kingdom, the death penalty was banned after the wrongful execution of Timothy Evans in 1950 (Carradice par 1-6). Timothy had been convicted of killing two people, but after he was killed, it was confirmed that his neighbor was responsible for the murders. In other cases, there improper procedures that lead to wrongful executions. Like in Singapore, there is the misuse of drugs act that carries numerous presumptions that shift the burdens of evidence to the accused from the accused people. Such actions can make a certain individual become executed; the person wasn’t responsible for committing a certain crime.

Ethnic, racial, and social class biases also top up to the discussion that the death penalty should be scrapped off from the face of the earth. In the United States, there is always the notion that if a criminal is non-white, the odds are that the individual could face execution. The topics of racial discrimination have been widely discussed since the 1930s (Kastellec p. 10-55). There are numerous cases where the race of an individual widely influenced the court of law to conclude that the death sentence was the best option. In the United States, most of the states that promote and encourage death sentence penalties are found in the South. This is an area that has numerous people who are not whites. The Hispanics and African Americans are mostly found in this area (Baldus et al. 1649). Also, poor people tend to face the executioner compared to the high-earning citizens in the US and other nations. Justice systems prefer to put more weight on cases that are committed by the low earning class and corruption, and bribes make them overlook the crimes committed by the wealthy class people. This makes the issue of the death sentence a controversy, and that calls for a revolution in these laws and acts that support the death sentence. In the United States, there was also a case where a male was sentenced to death and was denied an imam and was rather given a Christian chaplain. This was an act that went against the neutrality of denominations. Many people feel that this was not right as his religion was widely undermined (Matthew Para 1). It was a clear indication that the principles of religion were undermined and that proves to be a major reason why the death sentence punishment should be scrapped off in the constitution.

Just like any other social problem, punishment by execution can be as a result of revenge or retribution. There are some cases where the death sentence is given to an individual who has not committed a crime of such significant magnitude. There is a case where an individual crosses paths with someone who has higher ranks in the government. That individual proceeds and ensures that the criminal is executed because of the wrongful act committed to him or her. It was an issue that was widely seen in the early years of the 2oth century. Elements of competition would also provoke the death sentence, especially when a politician in power found out that another individual was becoming stronger and had capabilities of winning in an election or winning the citizen’s favor.

Different religions have differing notions on the ideas of execution and the death sentence. Islam and some forms of Baha’i faith seem to support the death sentence, but Catholicism widely refuses to support all forms of execution. In other religions, such as Judaism, numerous limitations make it impossible for them to support the practice. Some theologians in the Christian circles have widely refuted the claims that it is biblical to execute people and have gone ahead argued that it is God who has the power to create or kill. So even if an individual kills another, there is no need to execute the criminal. It is imperative that Christians should only conform to the fact that if it is Gods will for that individual to die, the person will die in another form rather than hanging or shooting.

In other discussions that oppose the death sentence in America and globally, there are talks about the psychological effects that are left behind in their relatives, families, and communities. If a person dies or loses his or her life via incentives of the death penalty, those who are left behind become psychologically stressed and tend to live in fear, the people left behind may sometimes live in agony especially if their relative was executed mistakenly. The government may be required to employ several individuals to comfort the deceased. This will be costly, and it turns imperative for the government to get rid of the death sentence in the long run for all the parties to benefit fully.

To sum it all, this essay has given explicit details on why the death sentence should be avoided in the United States. It used various types of evidence to prove various points on why the latter should be banned not only in the US but also globally. It has looked at the possibilities of wrongful execution, how the death sentence is against human rights, how it is not supported by many religions, how it affects the relatives psychologically, its relationship to racism and society discrimination, and how it can be done out of revenge. The basic argument of this essay is that justice and not people should be executed. The United States should follow the example of the United Kingdom and avoid all forms of the death sentence.