Should The Death Penalty Be Abolished Essay

Capital punishment is the Permissible authorisation of executing someone who has committed an atrocious, unforgiveable and inhumane crime. The death penalty was removed from Great Britain in 1964-1965, however some countries, for example; China, Iran, North Korea and some states in the USA, still practice the use of the death penalty. Acts such as; genocide and general murders commonly result in the criminal offender being placed on death row. Some legal execution methods would be: Lethal injection or electric chair. In my opinion I believe the death penalty is an illogical, unreasonable and an absurd punishing system, and shouldn’t be re introduced into the UK. I am going to explain why below.

I think the death penalty shouldn’t be re-introduced for many reasons; my first reason is about criminal justice. For example if the person being placed on death row had tortured a human being or committed genocide/homicide, I fail to see how an execution is proper
justification, it is just the easy way out. Since the criminal killed a person (people) deliberately, in return to face an execution/immediate death would only end their life and ease them from any upcoming stress, without that person being able to re-think and reform their old ways, and become a better person. But if they were to be executed, they would die believing what they committed what right, therefore it would be more effective to place the offender in prison so they have a lifetime to rethink their actions and improve from their old ways. Also as well as prison-sentence being more effectual, it would also be less expensive. It was proven in 2011 that the death penalty is 20 times pricier than a lifetimes prison sentence, and also there is no scientific evidence that death sentences lower crime rates any more than life imprisonment. So what is the point of throwing away money on a useless, ineffective and impractical execution when there are cheaper and more effective options available? Furthermore, in many religions taking someone’s life is known as noneless than an unforgiveable deed. Christians (for example) believe in peace and non-violence, and are against killing unless all other routes unless it’s the only option left. Therefore executing someone in a community with Christians could create an uprising and leave the rest of the community shattered or in pieces. Consequently the Christians would suggest/approve of a more improved method of justification for example reformation, so the criminal offender changes and progresses from their mistakes, or a punishment, which would also help reform the criminal. These methods could also issue a positive impact on the community and correspondingly more religions would agree with these methods, rather than harsher approaches such as retribution or deterrence.

In addition, everyone makes mistakes and some may be worse than others but we are all human so it’s in our nature. Even if the offender has committed a horrible crime, their choices do not make them any less human than you or I, and they still have hearts and can feel pain, love and loss also. Just because they made a regrettable mistake, it doesn’t mean they have lost the ability to repent and rethink their errors. After all every human deserves a second chance.

Moreover if criminals can make mistakes by killing someone, so can any other human. There have been many situations where an innocent life has been taken due to case-errors or pieces of evidence, which may have been overlooked. An example of this would be a case study of a man named Timothy Evans. Timothy Evans was a Welsh man who was accused of murdering his wife, and infant daughter in Notting-hill, London. In January 1950, Evans was convicted of the murder and was sentenced to death by hanging. During his trial he had consistently argued of his innocence however the judge established him guilty and carried out the execution nonetheless. Three years after his death, a man by the name of Christie had confessed that he had in fact had murdered Evans wife and daughter, right before he himself was about to be executed. This case study proves that humans can easily convict the wrong person for a crime and unknowingly take an innocent life.

In conclusion, I simply can’t understand how anyone in his or her right mind would want to re-enforce something as cruel, malicious and futile as the death penalty.
It is a waste of money, time and space. The death penalty simply confuses the community and blurs the line between right and wrong, since you are hypocritically punishing someone for killing another human, by in return killing them also. The death penalty isn’t decreasing the murders so why re-instate it? Imagine the affect on young children when they find out what happens to hazardous criminals, it would ruin the child’s innocence. They death penalty bring nothing but suffering to the family of the criminal, and a negative atmosphere throughout the community. If it were your child on death row wouldn’t you want them to have a second chance? Once again, I state with utmost important, the death penalty should remain as a figure of the past and we should remain civilised and keep our-self and community away from this inhumane act as long as
possible.