The Death Penalty

The death penalty is also known as capital punishment. It is the killing of a person in order to justify or make right a severe crime they have committed, like murder. It is basically a sentence of punishment by some form of execution. I believe the death penalty is wrong and that no person should get to decide weather a person lives or dies because of the actions he or she has committed. According to Catholic Social Teaching Pope John Paul II’s Evangelium Vitae, The Gospel of Life defends life from the “very beginning until its end” (Krier Mich, 226). The church believes a life is important for the whole life. Deciding who gets to live and who gets to die is almost like playing the part of God, deciding who lives and who dies. There are several countries that still have the death penalty. Some of these countries are USA, Sudan, China, Egypt, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan. There are several methods that are used when engaging in capital punishment. Sometimes victims of the death penalty are stabbed, stoned, hanged, lethally injected, electrocuted, shot, and beheaded. None of these methods sound humane. About 91 percent of all the executions in 2007 happened in the following six countries: USA, Sudan, China, Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan. There were 53 executions in the USA in twelve of the states the death penalty is legal in. The current number for those condemned to death or awaiting execution in 2006 was between 19, 185 and 24, 646. Two thirds of the countries in the world have abolished the death penalty. Since 1999 the number of people on trial in the USA for the death penalty has been cut in half. Over 45 countries have abolished the death penalty for crimes since 1990. This is a perfect example of how the world is on its way, at least in one area, to becoming more peaceful. Many of these countries have the death penalty to deter criminals from committing murder. There are many pros, believe it or not to the death penalty. The death

Bibliography: Krier Mich, Marvin L. Catholic Social Teaching and Movements. Mystic, CT: Twenty-Third Publications, 2006. Logan, Wayne A. "Declaring Life at the Crossroads of Death: Victims ' Anti-Death Penalty Views and Prosecutors ' Charging Decisions." Criminal Justice Ethics 18.2 (Summer/Fall99 1999): 41. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Dominican University, River Forest, IL. 7 December 2007. <http://ezproxy.dom.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=2873146&site=ehost-live&scope=site>. “Death Penalty Statistics 2006.” Amnesty International USA. 11 Apr. 2007. Amnesty International. 9 Dec. 2007 http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=EHGACT500122007 <=e. Auchter, Ellen. Anti-Death Penalty Information Homepage. Anti-Death Penalty. 7 December 2007 <http://www.antideathpenatly.org>.