Speech: Against Capital Punishment

1171 Words3 Pages

Speech: Against Capital Punishment

MOTION: " We believe that capital punishment is not needed in a

civilised community."

Imagine yourself in a small, isolated cabin waiting to be led to your

execution. A small, scrawny man comes to collect you. Your whole life

rushes past you as you take your few, final footsteps to the execution

chamber.

This is the thought 7,000 people have experienced in the last 18

months. These people were executed cruelly by capital punishment in

countries all over the globe. 970 of these people were women and

children. The countries allowing this barbaric method of punishment to

happen have probably never thought about whether this scheme of

punishment is actually successful in the deterring of crime. I have

many reasons for arguing against capital punishment. Firstly, I

believe that it is a failure as a deterrent of crime, which can be

seen by comparing the criminal statistics of those countries where the

punishment is in use, with those countries where it has been

abolished.

Capital punishment violates the right to live, a right everyone has

even if they are mass murderers. Crimes punishable by death include

rape, murder, adultery and kidnapping, all which should be punishable

in a more civilized way and not by the death sentence. All in all,

there are thirty-five crimes punishable by death, ranging from

assassinations to shoplifting. As a community, we should attempt to

help these people by giving them counselling, for example, instead of

execution. No person should be killed for a crime, no matter what the

crime is, because two wrongs do not make a right. No problems would be

solved, but w...

... middle of paper ...

...here is no such thing as a humane way of putting someone to death.

Every type of execution causes the prisoner physical suffering, some

methods perhaps cause less than others, but be in no doubt that being

executed is a terrifying and gruesome ordeal for everyone What is

often also overlooked upon is the extreme mental torture that the

person suffers leading up to the execution, especially if they are

innocent. How would you feel if you knew you were going to die

tomorrow morning at 8 a.m?

Barbarians, that is what we have become, barbarians. We kill each

other and instead of mourning the tragedy, we want to satisfy our

bloodlust by killing the murderer. We must learn to deal with these

people while we have control over them. Yes, we should punish them,

but do not become them. Otherwise we are not much better, are we?

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