Death Penalty Essay, Research Paper

death penalty

By: reenie

E-mail: [email protected]

Death Penalty: Target for Aggression ?An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind.” – Mahatma Gandhi In modern civilization, there exists the concept of punishment for committing a crime. This concept began with the earliest forms of civilization and has grown into a very organized system. Under the well-known pretense of “an eye for an eye” methods used today include electrocution, lethal injection, and the gas chamber. These methods and the principles show the inhumanity of the death penalty. Upon examination, human beings must abolish the death penalty because it is ethically wrong, kills innocent people, and does not deter murder. Christianity and other religions provided the background for the lying down of laws in this country. A direct correlation exists between the Ten Commandments found in the bible and the Constitution of the United States. God?s words in the bible, “Thou shall not kill,” transcended into modern society making it illegal to commit murder. The death penalty simply sends the wrong message to all. The practice contradicts its own ethics by trying to justify the taking of a human life, after already condemning murder. The mindset of those in favor of it is that killing a convicted murderer will in some way cancel out the crime and heal the wounds of the living victims. The government in this manner confuses the word “justice” with the word “revenge.” By using this method of punishment, the government actually promotes revenge, which in turn condones the hateful crime of murder in the minds of its people. Any innocent being easily sympathizes with another innocent being, and when the government convicts one, the other feels that they suffer the injustice as well. Everyone agrees that the death penalty holds the title for the ultimate punishment. Therefore, when the courts send an innocent human being to die, it should be known as the greatest injustice done to a fellow human being. This would not occur as a problem if courts demonstrated rational behavior, but evidence shows that they make fatal mistakes. The government can free innocent men from prison, but they cannot restore the life of an innocent man. The death penalty remains a fixed practice. Such a practice has no place in a nation whose critical system makes such flaws. Excusing the execution of an innocent human by a ruling differs in no way from excusing the murder of a citizen by a citizen. Any such hopeless punishment after proof of one’s innocence should stay abolished. Those in favor of capital punishment argue that the death penalty provides the strongest deterrent to crime, because they regard death as the ultimate punishment. Research has failed to provide that executions have a bigger control effect on homicide rates than life imprisonment, in the States. At the same time, Canada, which has abolished the death penalty, find no increase in their crime rate. The death penalty deters crime in no way. Human beings must abolish the death penalty because it is ethically wrong, kills innocent people, and does not deter murder. The Bible clearly states ?Thou shall not kill,? as part of the Ten Commandments. It is inhumane to take revenge, people must learn to forgive one another, and pray for one another. The death penalty cannot be reversed, once done it cannot be taken back. In addition to that statement, everyone deserves a second chance. Therefore, the death penalty should stay abolished.