Capital
Punishment in the Light of Global Justice
Choose the way you like… or not
Today we are going to touch an important topic that is rather controversial in our society. As you can see in the pictures above, today we are going to speak about the capital punishment.
Death Penalty in the World
u A majority of countries in the world
have now abandoned the use of the death penalty. But the world has not yet
formed a consensus against its use. China executes thousands of people every
year and the United States uses it regularly.
Death Penalty in the USA
The US is one of the states
which still uses the death penalty. According to the current statistics, there
are only 21 states which do not have the death penalty statute. According to
the current data from the Death Penalty Information Center, on December 2014
there were 11 sentences, still 8 of them were delayed. In the light of the European
Practice it could be defined as torture.
Prohibition of torture
In Europe on 10th of December 1984 was signed the
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment. For the purposes of this
Convention, the term "torture" was defined.
From
my point of view it is a controversial topic. On the one hand, I think that
capital punishment is a proper punishment for mass murderers, serial killers,
dirty politicians (yes, they are on the same line with those guys) and other
human trash that is not able to live in the society without making everyone’s
life a total hell. On the other hand, I try not to forget that the legal system
is pretty lame in every society and even in the most objective and democratic society
mistakes could be made during the decision-making process and someone who was
not guilty could go right to the death
row. Well anyway, the capital punishment is impossible in Europe due to the
Human Rights Act, but it works in the US, so… what do you think, guys? Should
death penalty exist or it is a relic of the past?
Some
history of the death penalty you will find at:
Sources
- http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=001-57619#{"itemid":["001-57619"]}
- http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/death_penalty
- http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/Oxfordpaper.pdf
- http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/upcoming-executions
- http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000988
Comments
Currently there are different forms of punishment. Death sentence is a form of punishment. We also have isolation in a form of prison. It's a form of protection from bad guys. Sometimes it is sufficient just to pay a fine or do some obligatory work. I understand it. We are trying to make this world balanced by adjusting the form of punishment to the size of the crime.
Depending on the size of the crime we select appropriate size of the punishment. I do think this is logical in terms of death sentence too. If someone murdered with premeditation then he should be treated accordingly.
There is also a case of accidental crime. What should be the size of the punishment for accidentally breaking the law?
First we should analyze who's fault was that. If you accidentally kill someone but it's his fault then you are innocent. But what should be the size of the punishment if you are found guilty? Of course, depending on the circumstances it should be different. There are many factors to be taken into account, though I believe our current law of justice have never been as good as it is now. There are many professionals who analyse each case independently and to it together to obtain the best possible decision about the form of punishment.
So, to anwer your question in one sentence, I think death sentence is the last possible and biggest form of punishment, though it some cases it is equivalent to the crime so I agree that it should be legal to use it.
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/05/raymond_towler_freed_after_29.html
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/death-row-executions-go-wrong-3908378
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/causes-wrongful-convictions
http://time.com/79572/more-innocent-people-on-death-row-than-estimated-study/
http://camerontoddwillingham.com
Secondly in my opinion death penalty isn't that "harsh". Of course nobody wants to die but life in prison to the end of your days is often much worse. When you die, your consciousness dies so you can't feel "punished". You just don't exist. I don't believe in after life (which is pretty obvious) and wasting your whole life in prison is a worse concept for me that getting an injection an dying.
As far as my opinion is concerned I think that capital punishment should exist. I do believe some people will never change and reclamation will never be possible. But before we plead someone guilty and sentence them to death, we have to be one million percent sure and have a definite link he or she is responsible for the charges. There is one life and this kind of decision cannot be changed. Also I think that the prison system in Poland should be reformed.
I know that my opinion will be criticized but this topic is really controversial and it is hard to just pick one side.
I agree with Paulina Stanek. Spending your whole life in prison is worse than dying.
1) There must be a murder
2) Murderers must be caught red handed or evidences of the crime must be completely clear e.g. Anders Breivik or muslims who decapitated soldier in London.
3) Murderers should be eliminated by headshot. I’ve seen videos from different kind of executions (by beheading, hanging, stoning, shooting, …) and in my opinion the most humanitarian death is by headshot. It’s instant and of course the bigger caliber the better.
I don’t believe in any kind of resocialization when it comes to people who killed someone intentionally.
Death penalty has many aspects: financial, deterring, resocialising... and all of them have to be taken into account. To be honest, I don't think "normal", uninvolved people's ethical views are the most important factor, and that's what people tend to overrate - their longing for justice.
Meanwhile, scientific research shows that death penalty isn't a bigger threat to potential murderers than life sentence. We must remember that mass murderers' minds aren't alike ours; therefore I think psychiatrists' and criminologist's opinion should be more valued.
To be honest, I don't have a strong opinion for or against death penalty; I tend to be careful when talking about such matters.
However, there are many things you have to consider before taking a persons life.
The legal system is not very efficient and it can be very difficult to find out if a person is guilty or not - it should never be used if there is any doubt.
Another very important thing which is not always mentioned during discussions on this topic is that death penalty leaves a person without any way of redemption.
Dead people can never redeem themselves by doing good deeds. They sometimes don't have enough time to consider what they have done and to really regret it.
Capital punishment has been also often overused by the government/rulers in the history to get rid of inconvenient people.
I think that a very uncomfortable prison with hard labour for life without any way of release unless found innocent in further investigation is a better alternative. Also, I think that any profit from that labour should be used to pay for prisoners food and accommodation and the rest should be given to the victim or victims family, depending on the crime.
The 'unconfortable prison' part is not the way of vengeance, it's to scare off people who in modern world are not that afraid of going to prison because of not-so-bad living conditions in some prisons.
One can't compensate the capital punishment. When it's done, it's done, one can't ease the damage. Another con is that "The Capital Punishment" is just
fancy phrase for murder, that's all.
The death penalty should be convicted only people who deliberately murdered someone. Of course, the evidence in a particular case should clearly indicate guilty of a crime.
The introduction of the death penalty would help to reduce the number of serious crimes and certainly such actions will reduce the cost of running prisons.
Ray's Story: A Death Penalty Mistake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVGcpOkYXfc
these days. Maybe when we have the death penalty it will decrease because of decreasing number of madmen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aroAPNeTyJY
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_scope_of_European_Convention_on_Human_Rights
I am sure that there have been dozens of movies on this subject, but this one particularly got on my memory. It is called "The Life of David Gale" ("Życie za życie") and was released in 2003. It's about two activists working on abolition of death penaltyin the USA, Kevin Spacey and Laura Linney. One day Laura is found brutally murdered and all evidence is against Kevin. Kevin waits for his death penalty and is interviewed by Kate Winslet about his life. One day Kate finds a mysterous tape that brings doubts about Kevin's guilt and she starts her own investigation. The closer the date of the execution gets, the more tapes Kate gets and the less guilty Kevin appears to be. The question is: will Kate discover the truth in time to save Kevin's life? I found this movie very good, it had an interesting approach on this subject.
Here's a link to it's IMDB page, if you want it: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289992/
I think that people should be punishment by being forced to work for example as miners. I think that in some comunistic countries it works like this but that's really good idea - punished people are earning money so they are able to buy food in prison and some chunk of their salary is going to the prison guards as part of their salary.
That would reduce costs of prisons and make people really scared of such places. Now some of the prisoners are in better situation than before being sentenced - they have home and food... for free.
I agree with you Robert, they should totally work. Once I even herd that prisoners in UK work in the factory of this brand called Primakk, that's why it's so cheap...but I'm not sure if it was fact..
On one hand Capital Punishment may in fact be more economically viable, as the society doesn't have to pay for those sentenced prisoners.
Also, there are many prisoners who just can't be resocialized, or who have life sentences because of their crimes, which usually are horrific.
On the other hand, we cannot be sure 100% every time, whether the accused criminal was sentenced rightfully.
As someone previously mentioned there were many cases in which people were wrongfully sentenced to die.
Another thing is how exactly the execution should be held? So that the prisoner could pass away with dignity.
Personally, I think Capital Punishment should be introduced for those most brutal criminals like serial killers and such.
But I also don't agree with the approach, "he killed him so now he should suffer".
Capital Punishment should be the last resort for the most brutal criminals.