Capital Punishment Should Not Be Legal and Should Be Abolished - Essay Example

Capital Punishment Should Not Be Legal and Should Be Abolished Capital punishment still remains a controversial issue all over the world and it is hardly possible to formulate a final opinion on this topic. Despite the fact that it was abolished in most countries, there are still the states like Japan, Singapore or the United States that use this way of punishment, and the debates regarding morality and practicability of such method do not stop in these countries. There are numerous ways of performing a capital punishment but lethal injection remains the most used method in America. Those who support capital punishment most often claim that it is justified in case when the criminal had committed a grave violent crime since it will help to protect the society against antisocial individuals who are likely to commit the crime again. Most offenders involved into criminal life usually return to their previous way of life after being released from prison so capital punishment is also the method of protecting the relatives of the victims or other subjects on which the criminal might want to take revenge of. There is also an argument for capital punishment connected with financial grounding: since most criminals who are executed might otherwise be convicted to life imprisonment which is expensive and is paid from taxes so tax payers have the right to demand capital punishment of the criminals who had committed grave violent crimes. Some countries accept this argumentation while others reject death penalty as the type of retribution completely. Generally, the world tendencies show that capital punishment as the way of retribution is getting less and less popular all over the world. Though in some cases capital punishment seems to be a justified verdict, especially when children and women become victims, there are still strong counterarguments. Among the most persuasive arguments against death penalty it is necessary to mention conviction of innocent which is quite common because of inability of judicial system to prove someone`s guilt in all the cases. Moreover, wrongfulness and immorality of retribution with the help of death as the way of punishment is also criticized because it makes judicial system use the same methods. And finally inability of capital punishment to deter other criminals from murdering makes this method of punishment unjustified. The combination of these arguments makes death penalty a rather archaic and irrelevant in our times. Wrongful execution which means conviction of the innocent to death is always regarded as the most obvious and the most serious reason against capital punishment. Since death penalty is the only verdict that cannot be appealed later, the court has no other choice than to be absolutely confident about the guilt of the criminal. However, there is some evidence that at least 4% of those convicted to death are not guilty. Since there is a possibility that new evidence and facts will appear after several years or a real criminal will be caught there is always a doubt that the person convicted to capital punishment deserves death. Almost 36% of people in the United States waiting for the execution on a death row were taken off it when there appeared some additional information regarding crimes which created some doubts. According to the research conducted by a group of experts, more than 8000 people sentenced to death were executed since 1970 in the United States however there were likely to be falsely convicted(Pilkington 1). There are chances when the advances of chemistry and medicine (DNA tests for example) allow to revise old crimes and to make more reliable verdict. Moreover, modern psychological tests appear which can prove that certain people were and are unable of committing a violent crime due to metal disorders. Thus, capital punishment is a risky method of punishment because there is a great chance to convict a completely innocent person. It is never possible to be absolutely sure of the person`s guilt unless he pleads himself guilty though the chances of the plea are not very common especially in case of grave crimes. However, those criminals who plead guilty can be executed because in this case there will not be chances when the convicted would turn out to be an innocent person. But it is a little chance that the person who committed a violent murder for example will voluntarily admit his guilt. Therefore, death penalty must not be used as the way of punishment unless the criminal admits his guilt, and that is why it is definitely not possible to apply this method of punishment to all the criminals. The other reason why capital punishment is not an acceptable way of punishment is because this retribution as well as vengeance are not moral because it is used only in case of murders. The main logical dissonance of death penalty is that punishing murders in the same way and manner they committed the crime is wrong and immoral. It is considered to be mostly a legal form of vengeance than real justice and it makes judicial system “criminalized” because of utilization of the very same methods. The very punishment brings up a serious philosophical question- how it is possible to punish a person for murder with a murder. That is when retribution with death penalty is in most cases a form of vengeance. Vengeance thus is not an acceptable form of behavior in society despite its popularity throughout the history. For centuries people attended public executions or followed criminals being led to court and this type of behavior was motivated by the search of vengeance. Price underlines the fact that vengeance consists more of a moral aspect of pleasure from seeing a perpetrator suffering than of performing real justice. Vengeance is supposed to relieve the relatives of victims and the society who knew about the crime from grievance and fear. According to Price, people who want to take revenge on someone are motivated by protecting their social image and by the ability to impose authority which they possess (34). Vengeance is more likely a psychological term and does not have to be included in criminal system. However, for some reason vengeance in case of murder is acceptable despite the fact that is the only type of punishment that mimics the crime itself while in cases of other grave crimes criminals are not punished accordingly. So presumably capital punishment should not be allowed as it is resembles more a form of vengeance that real justice unless this why of punishment releases a perpetrator from suffering (Ethics Guide 1). This type of punishment can be accepted only in case all the criminals are punished in the same way the crime was committed, however this is absolutely unimaginable and absurd. Death penalty is also supposed to have some “educational” effect on the criminals. Some people consider that if all criminals who committed violent crimes are punished with capital punishment the chances that someone would like to repeat grave crimes decrease. The possibility of being executed must have warning effect on criminals because it is the highest and the most serious form of punishment. However, according to the research that compared the level of homicide and the “popularity” of capital punishment it turned out that capital punishment does not deter criminals from committing a murder because they are more afraid of investigation and the possibility of being caught and imprisoned (Pilkington 2). That is why capital punishment will not probably serve as the way to deter criminals from committing serious violent crimes and unless it will influence the methods of investigation and imprisonment. There are also other arguments which opponents of capital punishment usually suggest. For example, inequality of suffering of a victim and a perpetrator can be regarded as a persuasive proof that capital punishment is not moral. Since the victim does not know that he /she will be murdered, he/she does not suffer waiting for death. While for the criminal`s anticipation for execution can last up to 10 years which brings him/her incomparable pain and finally results in death as well. Psychological and emotional pain connected with waiting makes capital punishment excessively violent and inhumane. Therefore, capital punishment is not justified and acceptable way of retribution because it has a number of logical and moral obstacles. First, there are high chances to execute an innocent person and thus only those criminals who plead guilty can be convicted to this type of retribution. Judicial system cannot be absolutely confident that in every case of death penalty verdict the criminal is guilty and there will not appear any additional evidences. Second, capital punishment is not justified from moral perspective because it punishes the murderer with the same method he used towards his victims so unless mimicking of punishment will be utilized for crimes it is not possible to apply death penalty to murders. And thirdly, death penalty does not deter criminal from committing more crimes that is why its “teaching” effect is limited. Moreover, capital punishment exposes a criminal to a serious moral suffering of death anticipation making the crime and the punishment unequal and turning judicial system into inhumane machine. Works Cited Ethics Guide. Arguments against Death Penalty. BBC. Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/capitalpunishment/against_1.shtml Pilkington, E. “US death row study: 4% of defendants sentenced to die are innocent”. The Guardian. 2014 Price, M. “Revenge and the people who seek it”. APA Publishing. 2009 Printed version 40 (6), 34. Read More