The Torture - Research Paper Example

The paper "The Torture" is a worthy example of a law research paper. Torture is the deliberate infliction of brutal physical pain on some defenseless or helpless person with the aim of breaking their will. Torture has never been morally justifiable, but there have been putative examples where torture has been justified. This is especially in some cases whereby the U.S government justifies it in both policing and terrorism issues for the purpose of reducing crime. For instance, police use torture in order to find the truth when interrogating criminals.

Torture is most commonly used in U.S prisons, but it has never been fully morally justifiable. The moral rationalization for standardized and legalized torture has been a political dispute. From a legal perspective, there is no circumstance under which torture has been legally acceptable because it will bleach the agreement and one will be subjected to trial. However, from a moral perspective, in case one uses torture and the truth is revealed about terrorism or any other crime issues, then it is morally justifiable.

Although torture is under a statute in policing and terrorism, it has never been morally and legally justifiable. Torture is viewed as an immoral and illegal act; thus, it has never been justifiable. This is because there are laws that prohibit torture such as the act of human rights. Although these laws can be changed, Congress should pass legislation that should state clear under which circumstances should torture be morally and legally justifiable. Torture is wrong, and it is illegal, but there is a necessity for Congress to implement effective laws that can help to combat crimes issues (Wallach 2010).

Although, torture can help in revealing the truth, sometimes it is a wrong means for interrogating or investing crimes. This is because one may feel the pain and decide to appreciate that he or she committed the crime. However, in the real sense, he or she is not guilty but appreciates being guilty with the aim of trying to evade torture. The U.S Department of Justice has tried to re-interpret the torture statute because of the way this statute has been misinterpreted. Some of the interrogation techniques employed by the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) are cruel, inhumane and unconstitutional; hence, they led to re-interpretation of the statue.

For instance, the Zelikow memo that was written by Philip Zelikow, the director of 9/11 terrorism issues has been the center of debating the issue for effective and legal justification techniques for combating terrorism (Wallach 2010). Zelikow memo indicated that the legal justification techniques employed in combating terrorism should be amended. The amendment should include the least restrictive measures for determining the cruel and inhumane actions; thus enhance effective interrogation techniques.

Zelikow’s memo contributed to the conclusion that some of the techniques employed in combating terrorism should be considered as inhumane, cruel and dignifying the punishment offered to criminals. Therefore, there is a need to employ actionable intelligence as a way of improving the techniques of interrogating criminals. However, the actionable intelligence was viewed worth the penalty for breaching the torture enactment. This is because there are some things that are illegal when using actionable intelligence because some actions may not provide benefiting results.

Therefore, the torture statute led to knew changes including the law regarding the protected person. This law requires that neither an individual should revenge nor punish but rather offer protective custody, as the only way to prevent prisoners of war and other crimes (Wallach 2010). The debate over the torture statute also led to the loss of other techniques used in interrogation technique process. These include the use of harsher and other depriving methods that deny the prisoner or criminals the freedom of exercising his or her rights.