Capital Punishment

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Life is sacred. This is an ideal that the majority of people can agree upon to a certain extent. For this reason taking the life of another person has always been considered the most deplorable of crimes, one worthy of the harshest available punishment. Taking the life of another person is immoral, and if you remove all outstanding circumstances capital punishment is nothing more than legalized murder. Even the term 'capital punishment' obscures the reality. The fact is that capital punishment is a fancy phrase for legally killing people. Our society uses high-tech murder weapons such as lethal injection, lethal gas, or electrocution because hanging, stoning, or burning at the stake disgusts people. It's quite silly that we invent more and more "humane" ways to kill our criminals because the end product is always the same. Capital punishment also goes against almost every religion, although isolated passages of the bible have been quoted in support of the death penalty, almost all religious groups in the U.S. regard executions as immoral. The main reason why the death penalty is immoral is because it creates a climate of violence. If a society punishes a murderer by murdering them what are we saying about violence? Our society teaches its children that violence does not solve anything, and yet our highest form of punishment is no different than the crime it punishes. Two wrongs do not make a right. By killing a murderer no lives are being saved, no lives will be returned and no one is learning a lesson from the execution. It is only revenge which does no good for anyone. Humans become inhumane when they take away another human life. The death penalty is immoral also for the fact that it is not fair for everybody. No civilian's job description should include killing another person (Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty [OADP]). Corrections personnel involved in executions, like nurses, should not have to go against their beliefs and should not have to conduct an execution. There is no reason to place the mental health of our corrections workers at risk simply to pursue vengeance (OADP). It can be said that the death penalty is the most overlooked form of government hypocrisy; we murder people who murder people to show that murder is wrong. Capital punishment does not accomplish anything and I believe that everybody makes mistakes, even if some are absolutely terrible, nobody deserves death.

Capital punishment is immoral and a violation of natural rights. It is wrong for everyone involved: the prosecuted innocent, criminals, victims’ families, and our nation. We need to replace the death penalty and capital punishment with life without parole, a safer and more inexpensive option. The death penalty does not guarantee safety for innocent victims, it does not follow the goals and promises of our nation, it does not effectively deter crime, and it does not give closure to victims’ families. Nothing good comes of hate, and nothing good can ever come from capital punishment. It cannot continue to be accepted by a nation that claims to have liberty and justice for all. The death penalty is murder on the sly and its dead wrong.

References

DNA Testing and the Death Penalty. (n.d.). Retrieved June 15, 2016, from https://www.aclu.org/dna-testing-and-death-penalty

Death Penalty and Race. (n.d.). Retrieved June 15, 2016, from http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/death-penalty/us-death-penalty-facts/death-penalty-and-race

Law Enforcement Views on Deterrence. (n.d.). Retrieved June 15, 2016, from http://deathpenaltyinfo.org/law-enforcement-views-deterrence

Sentencing for Life: Americans Embrace Alternatives to the Death Penalty. (n.d.). Retrieved June 15, 2016, from http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/sentencing-life-americans-embrace-alternatives-death-penalty

Deterrence: States Without the Death Penalty Have Had Consistently Lower Murder Rates. (n.d.). Retrieved June 15, 2016, from http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/deterrence-states-without-death-penalty-have-had-consistently-lower-murder-rates#stateswithvwithout

The Facts: 13 Reasons to Oppose the Death Penalty. (n.d.). Retrieved June 15, 2016, from http://oadp.org/facts/13-reasons