Capital Punishment - Essay Example

? Capital Punishment Capital Punishment Capital punishment or death penalty is known as the legitimate way of taking life by the as a punishment for capital crimes, like rape or murder. Electric chair, hanging and lethal injections are some of the methods that are currently being used by countries practicing capital punishments. According to Amnesty International about 140 countries have abolished capital punishment (The Death Penalty WorldWide). Capital punishment has always been a controversial issue and throughout time people have argued against it, labeling is at cruel and an inhumane way of punishing people. Although on the opposite side death penalty is viewed as a deserving punishment for criminals and also as a way of deterrence. The question that often comes up is ‘Death-penalty which is a cruel way of punishment is it effective against crime or is it just an indicative response?’ The violation of human rights, the high costs of execution and the failure to create deterrence are the main points which outweigh the arguments in favor of capital punishment. Fundamental rights or better known as basic human rights are the set of rights all humans inherit when they are born. Capital punishment violates the right of life as stated in the human rights declaration. It is referred to as the “cruel and unusual punishment” and is prohibited by the 8th amendment of the US constitution (White). ‘In 1972, the Furman v. Georgia case was found to be a violation of the Eight Amendment which bans cruel and unusual punishment. The death penalty was reinstated in 1976 after 10 years of being abolished’ (Montaldo). Methods used to deliver death are often very painful and cruel, In the execution process of Rickey Ray Rector it took the doctors almost fifty minutes to find the vein in the inmate’s arm and the witnesses behind the curtain reported to hear eight very loud moans of Rector and finally he himself helped the doctors find a vein on his arm to inject the drugs (Radelet, 2010). It is very clear from the arguments mentioned above regarding the violation of human rights that capital punishment is in fact a cruel way to punish a criminal. Deterrence is one of the most common arguments which are used to justify capital punishment. The question that lies in this argument is whether capital punishment has been successful in creating deterrence and has lowered the crime rate. According to these statistics five countries with highest criminal killing rate are Jamaica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Trinidad Tobago and Lesotho, these countries do have a legal system of capital punishment and even then the homicide rate in these countries is 46.6 murders per 100,000 people while on the other hand five countries that have abolished death-penalty and have highest average homicide rate of 41.3 murders per 100,00 people include Honduras, Venezuela, Columbia, South Africa and Ecuador (O'Leary, 2011). These statistics show that capital punishment has failed in its purpose of creating deterrence as countries with capital punishment have higher homicide rates. Further to prove the failure of capital punishment as a deterrent is what a lieutenant in Kansas had to say about this subject, “I have never heard a murderer say they thought about death penalty as consequence of their actions prior to committing their crime” (Ruff). When shed light on the topic of capital punishment and deterrence it can be seen very clearly that it has failed to create deterrence and lower crime rate. Looking at the increasing homicide rates one can wonder if death penalty is not a good solution then what else would provide justice to a person who’s closed one has been killed or justice for the person you cold bloodedly killed that person. Well to look closely at the whole process of punishment there are many other ways that would serve as a better punishment than capital punishment. Life in prison without parole will have to be a suitable punishment for capital crimes as it will make the criminal realize that he or she has taken life they have no future this way they may even repent for their crimes. Secondly life in prison per person proves to be far less cheap than the expensive process of executing someone. For instance Los Angeles Times reported in March 2009 about the high costs of execution in just one country, California. In California the legislatures are fighting over the costs of maintaining the nation’s biggest death row even though the state has executed 13 criminals since 1976 and the costs involved in these executions are very high and far greater than the costs of keeping the prisoners alive behind the bars. Officials are also debating over construction of a new $395 dollars death row prison while many lawmakers and legislatures argue that the state cannot afford to invest such a huge capital in the establishment of death row (Mills, 2009). Furthermore death penalty which is viewed as a loss of life, if abolished will lead to the protection of life and will also reduce the risk of innocent people losing their lives. As many times there is racial and economical discrimination in applictaion of death penalty. The article shed light of the discrimination in death penalty application, ‘Of the 1,058 prisoners on death row by Aug. 20, 1982, 42 percent were black, whereas about 12 percent of the United States population is black. Those who receive the death penalty still tend to be poor, poorly educated and represented by public defenders or court-appointed lawyers. They are not the wealthy murderers of Perry Mason or Agatha Christie fame’ (Mehan, 1982). The book Social and Cultural Anthropology: A Very Short Introduction by John Monaghan and Peter Just looks at what anthropologists do.  Drawing on examples from their own fieldwork in Indonesia and Mesoamerica, they examine specific ways in which social and cultural anthropology have advanced our understanding of human society and culture. Anthropology being the science of humanity has a lot of connections with the argument of death penalty. As capital punishment according to many people is against humanity as it violates the right of life and leads to loss of precious human life. This book explores many works done by anthropologists over many different fields of humanity. In the light of the above arguments it can be seen that capital punishment is not very effective against crime. It is infact a very cruel and unhumane punishment which also violates the Human rights Declaration, in specific to the right to live. It has also failed to act as a deterrent in the society and along with high costs of its procedure it proves to be an ineffective method and countries that still use capital punishment as a punishment for capital crimes should abolish it and switch to life imprisonment. References Mehan, M (1982, November 20). Ten Reasons To oppose Death Penalty, retrieved 16th June 2013 from America, the International Catholic Review: (http://americamagazine.org/issue/100/ten-reasons-oppose-death-penalty) Mills, S (2009, March 14) LA Times. Retrieved on 16th June 2013 from (http://articles.latimes.com/2009/mar/14/nation/na-death-penalty-costs14) White, D (n.d) Pros and Cons of Death Penalty. Retrieved on 15th June 2013 from US Liberal Politics: (http://usliberals.about.com/od/deathpenalty/i/DeathPenalty.htm) Ruff, G (n.d) Quotes. Retrieved on 15th June 2013 from Death Penalty. (http://www.antideathpenalty.org/quotes.html) O’Leary, J (2011, August 5). Do Countries with Death Penalty have Higher Homicidal Rates? Retrieved on 15th June 2013 from Full Fact: (http://fullfact.org/blog/death_penalty_homicide_rates-2905) Montaldo, C (n.d). Death Penalty- The only Justice for Killers. Retrieved on 15th June 2013 from Crime/Punishment: (http://crime.about.com/od/death/i/dpissue1.htm) The Death Penalty Worldwide, (n.d). Retrieved on 15th June 2013 from Info Please: (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777460.html) Just, P and Monaghan, J (2000). Social & Cultural Anthropology A Very Short Introduction Read More