Capital punishment has for more than a century been a controversial issue for discussion. The idea of taking a criminals' life for their sins stretches back to the dawn of civilisation and, because the rules for it has been written down in holy scripts and commandments, it has rarely been questioned.
However, in the 20th century up to our early 21st century, the issue of whether it really is right to take somebody's life if they have committed a crime, has been subject to debate time and time again. Here are my personal views and opinions on this difficult topic.No matter what the circumstances are, no matter what has been done, do I believe it is right to take a life from this world. Every single life is valuable.
Murder is wrong. In my opinion the question of whether or not death penalty should be enforced should only be discussed if there is talk of the murder of somebody and not anything else such as stealing. Still, it does not matter who has committed the crime and is the victim. The executer is just as wrongdoing in taking lives as the one that has been to die.It is very difficult for many people to undertsand this concept.
In most societies the concept of justice is engraved into the people's mind but it must be understood that death penlty is wrong, like the crime committed. Who has any right to judge the value of life? Who has the right to say who shall die and who shall not? These are questions that must be asked. In fact nobody has any right over a life and it only brings more death and does certainly not solve the horror of a murder. It does not contribute in any way to the betterment of society.Still, there are people striving for decades just to put one person in the 'chair', rather than spend time mourning those who have been lost.
This desire derives from feelings such as hatred and revenge. Many want to see somebody dead only because it gives them a sense of justice. But what it really is, is just the craving for petty revenge and such judgments should under any circumstances not be included in a court. We must use our reason to judge, not our emotions, for then the justice is only an illusion and disappears into twisted moral concepts of what is right and wrong.These things blur our reason and view of real justice. When a court case becomes subject to this it is very easy to judge wrong and come to a conclusion that is neither based on reason nor justice.
For example, what would one do if it was discovered that the persecuted and now dead person was actually not really guilty? How could that ever be excused, that an innocent life has been taken for somebody else's crime? It is an 'accident' from where there are no repair or justification or reason. It is also clear that in this world the law is far from righteous.If a black man poor man had happened to be at a sceen of a murder comitted by a rich white man, and if they both were in court as suspects, it cannot be denied who would have the upperhand. Poverty and racism plays a role in the justice system all over the world. Whoever has the right amount of money and the 'right' colour of skin is more likely to escape, guilty or not. If capital punishment continues we will encounter such horrific incidents.
In fact that is the most terrible side to the so-called 'justice' system where corruption and bribery easily find their way.Another part of the death penalty that has been debated is the question of what state of mind the person has to be in to be executed. However I do not see the difficulties in this issue. If a person that had committed a murder was mentally disadvantaged, skizophrenic or under influence of drugs, there cannot be any talk of capital punishment.
Whoever has been born or got a mental disease can surely not be set into our normal justice system. Their rights and our rights cannot be compared. The people affect by drugs of course is another matter, though I still stand firmly against capital punishment, also in this case.When a person has killed when on drugs, then of course the person was wrong taking these illegal things. However, since they were not sane when the murder was committed it would not be justifiable to execute them because they had no intentions to do whatever they did. What I propose as a substitute for the death penlty, espically in the countries that simply put their murderes in a cell and expects them to improve in the rough enviroment when in fact it makes them worse, is to make centres, or homes, for wrongdoing people also including thiefs.
Nothing has been achieved when a criminal has been executed. What we have to do is to is help these people, for everybody has been shaped by their enviroment. Nobody kills for no reason. We must reach into these people via psychological means and teach them what they have done wrong.
If they do not improve, of course society will have to be protected from them forever but most people who are not insane can change for the better. Many would argue that criminals cannot improve, but I believe everybody can do that.After all, it's not natural to kill somebody. Something must have driven these people to do what they did. Capital punishment does not enhance society, but rather degrades it. Teaching people to make them understand whatever they have done wrong will certainly improve our community, producing people that have turned away from crime, determined to make a better life and contribute to society.
The reason that this is not happening is because of the simply fact that many do not care the slightest for rightousness.Many even belonging to a religion, and most religious teachings including the Bible and the Koran speaks against killing no matter what, seems to forget this. Many say that it will not accomplish anything to try teach criminals because in general people are just bad and cannot change. I say, maybe the governments around the world might think about more spending money on their justice systems instead of useless affairs such as going into war in countries they hardly know where lies on the global map. If we actually spend some work on the 'evil-doers', aiding them, then surely they will see their faults.
When ever somebody is about to turn on the 'switch' or inject the poison, then people should ask themselves, how did this help? How did this help us to remember the ones who have been killed? Since nobody wants killings and it says clearly in the law as well as religious scriptures that killing is an act of wrongdoing, execution should not be enforced, because we cannot simply make exceptions in our justice system, otherwise it does not work on its founding principles. I hope that more people will eventually come to see the uselessness in taking a life that might have been turned into something better.
