Capital Punishment as Necessary

Capital Punishment as Necessary

She was not asleep, as her roommates had thought when they approached

the bed of Joni Lenz that afternoon. Instead they found her drenched

in a pool of blood that was still oozing from her body. She was

immediately rushed to the hospital as she lay in a coma. Although she

survived she was permanently brain damaged. Joni was one of the few

victims to survive an attack by Ted Bundy, a serial rapist and

murderer who had victimised women as young as twelve. Investigations

revealed that he assaulted thirty-six women, but nobody will ever know

the exact number that fell victim to Bundy. It is a number he carried

to his grave.

Capital punishment is defined as the imposition of death upon a person

convicted in a court of law. It is a legal infliction and it has been

used to punish a wide variety of offences but nowadays, restricted to

murder or treason. Today, methods such as stoning and beheading are

considered barbaric. At present, criminals are electrocuted, executed

by firing squad and lethal injection or sent to gas chambers, so death

would be virtually painless. It is instantaneous.

A capital criminal should be dealt with in a manner that would make it

impossible for him to repeat his offence. Execution is the only

definite means of preventing a murderer from being on the loose and

committing further murders. If a criminal is imprisoned, not only are

prison staff exposed to violent murderers, people in the entire

community may be at risk too, if these criminals do escape. Such was

the case of Ted Bundy. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1976

after he was charged for the murder and rap...

... middle of paper ...

...enough for the criminal

to warrant death penalty. This reinforces the earlier point of

imposing a punishment that is fit for the crime. Not every prisoner

deserves the death penalty. A person who is charged for manslaughter

should not be treated as one who kills just for the sake of killing.

He should be given a second chance, as the killing was not

premeditated. There would be a high possibility that this person would

be able to be rehabilitated and returned to society a reformed person.

Although modern society considers death as punishment inhumane, there

are circumstances where all other methods such as rehabilitation are

futile. In these cases, capital punishment is the embodiment for

justice. After having considered this issue from different aspects,

capital punishment is, at times, a necessary course of action.