Death penalty

DEATH PENALTY Your Name: School Name: Death penalty is it ethical? Introduction A great number of countries worldwide have so far abolished the death penalty whereas a commendable number of them still maintaining as well as retaining it in their laws or even practicing it. Examples of the countries that have continued to retain this kind of punishment include the United States. For instance, 1,136 people have been executed in the United States from the year 1977 through 2008, all of whom were primarily executed by lethal injection process (Bedau, 2004). However, a majority of these cases of death penalty involved executing people convicted of committing murder (Yorke, 2008). Moreover, in the recent past the has been a heated debate as to whether death penalty should be abolished or continued in countries that are still retaining it in their law or practice (Dow and Dow, 2002). The death penalty has always been the ultimate human rights denial. This is because it is the cold-blooded and premeditated killing of people in the name of justice and it is not ethical or morally right. This leads to total violation of everyone’s right to life which has been proclaimed in the article three of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Death penalty also serves as the ultimate degrading, cruel as well as inhuman punishment whichever form it takes be it; hanging, electrocution, gassing, beheading, shooting, lethal injection or stoning. However, there is no justification for any cruel treatment or torture of criminal offenders (Dow and Dow, 2002). Like torture, execution also leads to extreme physical as well as mental assault of the involved person. The physical pain which is caused by the act executing a human being is unquantifiable, as well as the psychological torment resulting from foreknowledge of execution by the state. Capital punishments such death penalty is irrevocable. Therefore, as long as every judicial system has a chance to make mistakes, and with persistence of death penalty, there are high chances that innocent people will continue to be executed as a result of mistakes which may occur in the judicial systems (Amlie and Mitschow, 2004). Evidently, with human justice remaining fallible, then the risk associated with executing innocent people can’t be eliminated. The death penalty happens to be discriminatory since it is frequently utilized disproportionately against the powerless, the poor as well as the marginalized or minorities (Dow and Dow, 2002). This is evident from the fact no super rich person has ever been executed and majority of those who are executed are the poor who can’t afford the best lawyers to defend them. The other reason why death penalty should be abolished is due to in punishing crimes committed by juveniles something which is prohibited under human rights law internationally, yet some states in the United States continue to execute juvenile offenders. Shockingly, the executions of juveniles are fewer in comparison to all number of executions carried out in the United States. For instance, in 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999 and 1998 the number of juveniles that were executed in United States alone were 1, 3, 1, 4, 1 and 3 respectively (Bedau, 2004). Therefore the significance of these statistics goes beyond numbers and calls f...