Capital Punishment is Not the Answer

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Capital Punishment is Not the Answer

Capital punishment is a difficult issue and there are as many different opinions as many people. Public support for the death penalty has decreased only a little in the last years. Meanwhile, many countries have outlawed the practice - capital punishment doesn't exist in the European Union countries - and strict laws about who may be executed are becoming more common. Despite of all this capital punishment is racially, socially and economically biased and allows the possibility of the execution of innocent persons, too. Furthermore, there is no benefit to society that would make it necessary to continue it. For these reasons, the death penalty doesn't support what the ideal criminal justice system tries to achieve and therefore must be abolished.

Capital punishment cannot be a collective act of revenge. It must never be allowed to become a release for collective anger. Bud Welch lost his twenty-three year old daughter, Julie, in the Oklahoma bombing in 1995. "I'm opposed to the death penalty.

It's vengeance that doesn't do my heart any good..."-said Mr. Welch.

Capital punishment is no answer to the major challenges we face as a society. Moreover, it has not proven to be a deterrent to violent crime, and it has mainly occurred to the poor, and more to minority poor. This is not surprising, since a well-paid, high-powered defense team can make all the difference.

In the United States there lives a conception of justice: a figure of a blindfolded woman holding scales in one hand and a sword in the other. The scales symbolize the careful investigation of evidence, the sword represents the speed with which justice is dealt with, and the blindfold symbolizes the unprejudiced reach of decision. This has the message that the poor, uneducated defendant has the same opportunity for a quality defense, and has the same chance for justice as the wealthy one. Yet, this could be questioned. Wealthy defendants are able to pay for false witnesses and expensive tests that are not available to poor defendants. The ill-paid Counsel of Defense may not really pay attention at the trial missing important evidence, so they result in their client being sentenced to death.

Capital punishment is biased not only this way but also racially. The color of the skin of the accused and victim alike decides whether the death penalty wi...

... middle of paper ...

...n for no reason must also be handled equivalently.

There is a problem with a society that allows such a corrupt institution. In the year of 2000, 3058 people were sentenced to death in 65 countries from which 88% took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and in the USA. These numbers are terrifying! No longer should it be believed that executing a person is the only way to ensure that they do not get released from prison and kill again. It would be more necessary to increase the prison sentences of murderers. Imprisonment without the possibility of parole could be the sentence of those who would be sentenced to death under the current system. Such a move would help to calm down the fears of recidivism and would send a strong message to lawbreakers. The abolition of the death penalty would mean the end of executions and that the government wouldn't put any more prisoners to death.

It should be recognized that murder is wrong in and of itself. Beyond that, it is wrong even as a secret plan within the heart. It is as old a human problem as Abel's death by his own brother, Cain.

We should really keep ourselves away from the spiral of violence because violence begets violence.

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