The death penalty, sometimes called capital punishment was introduced in bible times, if somebody so much as stole a piece of bread they would be gave the death penalty.

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

Life is most precious to everyone and everything. Without life we would not have a proper civilisation, people would live forever or not even exist at all. What if I said to someone that I was going to take their life for something I presumed they had done?

The death penalty, sometimes called capital punishment was introduced in bible times, if somebody so much as stole a piece of bread they would be gave the death penalty. A painful and slow death was usually the outcome, where someone would be starved until they where malnourished and die from starvation. Jesus was crucified on the cross for saying that he was the king of the Jews. Nobody could prove this man to be guilty, so why was he crucified? Why was his life wasted?

In the twenty and twenty first century the use of the death penalty is much more infrequent due to many protests about its wide use in 1967 where the United Nations found that it was widely used. In some counties you can be handed the death penalty for things such as cheating on your husband. For instance in 2002 a women was took unwillingly into the street and stoned to death for cheating on her husband. She was the mother of three children and now she can’t fend or care for them. Some states in the U.S.A are still keeping the death penalty because they believe that it is the only rightful way to treat somebody who has committed serious crimes. Do you believe this? Most states only hand out the death penalty if the person had killed one or more people in a malicious attack. I think that people are innocent until proven guilty, and should not be handed the death penalty but should be imprisoned for life if later found guilty.

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In some poor countries in Africa they have poor prison systems and can’t cope with the numbers of people who commit crimes. They hand the death penalty for those who commit crimes such as theft to those who have killed time and time again. It is the only way they can punish people for the wrong they have done. Stealing a piece of bread to killing twenty people does not compare one way in the slightest.

A UN survey in 1990 revealed that forty-three countries had abolished the death penalty entirely, seventeen had retained it but only ...

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A UN survey in 1990 revealed that forty-three countries had abolished the death penalty entirely, seventeen had retained it but only for exceptional crimes such as treason, twenty-four had retained it but not used it for at least ten years, and ninety-seven were still using it. The abolitionist countries were widely scattered, including, for example, the Philippines and Namibia, but were mostly to be found in Europe and Latin America. Although the number of abolitionist states had doubled since the previous survey in 1967, the UN found unwavering official support for capital punishment in many countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Islamic law (the sharia) imposes capital punishment for certain offences, and capital punishment is enforced in those countries where the sharia forms the legal code, and in many countries where the sharia is drawn on as the basis for the legal code. Capital punishment has long been the subject of dispute. While proponents argue that it is a necessary deterrent to the most serious crime, more so than the alternative of life imprisonment, opponents argue either that it is in violation of the human right to life or that inevitable miscarriages of justice will lead to the execution of innocent people. Furthermore, a careful review of the research evidence suggests that capital punishment has no greater deterrent effect than life imprisonment.

It says in the bible, “thou shall not kill” so why go against your religion? Why kill? Why take a life? A life should not be taken and if you sentence someone to death you would be just as bad as him or her, a murderer. It also says in the bible, “do until others as they have done unto you” punish people for what they have done. Punishing people does not mean that you have to kill them using crude methods. In Africa they put people on public execution, people actually go to pay and watch people suffer for crimes that they are not sure they committed. Putting someone in prison unto they are proven innocent is a good idea. This way they will suffer more over the years and regret what they have done. If they are found innocent in later years they can walk away but you can’t walk away when you are dead.

Think of what is must be like to be on death row? Waiting around for that moment, to find out if you will live or die. At this moment 1.2% of the American population is on death row awaiting the outcome of a jury who doesn’t even no them? How would you feel if this was you? The death penalty should be abolished?

Other issues shroud the death penalty such as racism. For in the 60s if there was a African American on trial, there was usually a white jury. The white jury would convict the African American no matter what the evidence was. Also foreign nationals fit into

The death penalty can have good aspects also, in some states it is put in place for real serious crimes but rarely ever used. In these states people are scared to do wrong incase they face the death penalty.

I believe that the death penalty is wrong because if you hand someone the death penalty it is just as bad as the crime they have committed themselves. The death penalty should be abolished in those remaining states in America; due to it being a huge powerful country with good prisons. It doesn’t look good if the death penalty is still been imposed in a modern economical country. As for the counties, which don’t have a good law ,system they should start to imprison those suspected of committing violent crimes, too many people are being murdered because of things that they haven’t been proven guilty off. I think that the death penalty should be abolished, it was save lives, humiliation, if later found out that they didn’t do it and it would make people afraid of going to jail for the rest of their lives. Do you want to be killed knowing you didn’t commit the crime? Do you?