Many of the accused, which are sentenced to death, are hanged. This method often does not kill the criminal straight away, but lets them dangle on the rope tied around their neck, until they die of strangulation, slowly and painfully. Some criminals are stoned by the public. This is when the criminal is tied to a wooden post, in the centre of the town, and is stoned by people living in the town. In some countries the size of the stones used is regulated so that pain is maximised and the person does not die quickly. This shows just how savage we have become. There are not many other things in this world as inhumane as this punishment- capital punishment. There are alternative punishments, though. These can be from life imprisonment for major crimes such as murder, to community service and education programs for minor crimes such as shoplifting.
There may be a brutalizing effect upon society by the carrying out of executions. The killings are organised as a public event where even children attend and are even sometimes encouraged to take part in the murder of the criminal. It is no surprise that these children grow up to become violent and savage-like. Their minds are fed with evilness from these executions and sooner or later they end up thinking that there is nothing wrong with violence and that there is nothing wrong with brutally murdering each other for crimes, which should not be punished by death. Crime rates are increasing, even in this country and, the crimes themselves, are becoming more and more heinous. Society’s killers are becoming more and more younger and countries, which once outlawed capital punishment, have reintroduced it. How have these countries suddenly decided to restore the laws allowing the most brutal and vicious punishment procedure on this planet? Young people are killing each other and this 'way of life' is rapidly becoming more and more common and less unusual. Governments feel that the only way to stop this continuously rapid increase in crime is to bring back capital punishment, the worst choice they could have made. There are suitable alternative punishments, such as community service and fines.
Punishment is meant to be for the protection of society, and for the reformation of the offender. It claims to protect society by preventing the same criminals from repeating their crimes, and by acting as a deterrent to other potential criminals. Capital punishment is a notorious failure in these respects. It does indeed remove the particular culprit from the possibility of the repeating of his crime, but this is of very small account in the view of the fact that murder is hardly ever a continuous row of repeated acts, but consists of single acts committed by different individuals. The person who we remove from the scene is not the man who, if suffered to live, would have been likely to endanger our safety.
It is within the powers of the existing government to provide means where murderers, as well as other criminals, can be isolated in institutions where they can be humanely treated as patients or people of unsound mind. Individuals, which are a danger to society, must be removed from the area. If rehabilitation is not possible, then the removal must be made permanent, but permanent removal must NOT take the form of the death penalty. This way, the person cannot cause any threat to the community and the criminals right to live is not violated, another suitable alternative.
Even at a time like this were the world is bursting with terrorists, there is no need for the reintroduction of capital punishment. The terrorists caught, must be stopped, certainly not by death, but should be punished by jail sentences or other civilized options. Wouldn’t jail be a more punishing sentence? Jail, an isolated site, away from the outside world. A place where prisoners often become insane and hope for death rather than to carry on their sentence. Wouldn’t this be more punishing?
A further reason for the ban of capital punishment is that the innocent are also killed. Last year, 110 prisoners were executed, in just the USA, a so-called place of freedom and equality. These people had originally been wrongly accused and were then slaughtered by this cruel, inhumane, degrading act of punishment. Even though this statistic is a third less than the previous year, it is still a significant amount, which could be brought down to 0 if a world ban was passed for capital punishment. No innocent, person would be torturously killed in front of a savage audience. Violent behaviour among children would decrease in the long run as they would not be exposed to as many aggressive activities.
Capital punishment goes against the morals and standards that our country is based upon. A punishment, which inflicts harm on a person, can hardly be good, or moral, if it is purposeless. A punishment may be given to a wrongdoer for one or a combination of the following:
- The safety of the community from the criminal;
- To rehabilitate the offender; and
- To restore the moral order breached by the violation.
Capital punishment is not required to accomplish any of these purposes. Other alternatives work better.
Another reason is something that is often overlooked, is the hell the innocent family and friends of criminals must go through in the time leading up to, and during, the execution. This execution will often cause them serious trauma for years afterwards. It is often very difficult for people to come to terms with the fact that their loved one could be guilty of a serious crime, and no doubt even more difficult to come to terms with, is the death, in this horrific form. An alternative, such as a jail sentence, would mean that the family and friends of the offender would still have contact with their loved and there would be not trauma caused by death. This is yet another side effect of capital punishment.
It must be remembered that criminals are real people too, which have life and with it, the feeling of pain, fear and the loss of their loved ones and all the other emotions that the rest of us feel.
There 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?
