Ethical Reasoning, Essay Example

Death penalty also known as capital punishment is defined as the pre- meditated and planned taking of human life by the government because the legally convicted individual committed a crime against humanity that requires such a punishment. Death penalty is a topic which often raises ethical issues and many people have stood to oppose the judgment basing their facts on human values and the dignity of human life. Others have also risen to support the practice also basing their arguments of social norms, certain believe and the weight of the crime committed. Death penalty is indeed a hot topic and people have varied views concerning the practice weather it should be stopped or should continue even to the future.

Cons for death penalty

Amnesty international which is a strong opposser of the death penalty argues that, the death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights. This practice is premeditated and is killing in cold-blood human beings by the state as away of exercising justice. They further urge that it is a violation of human right; the right to life, it is cruel, inhuman and humiliating penalty. Justification can never exist in a cruel treatment or torture. Ideally the death penalty diminished every body, increases disrespect to human life and offers a serious irony whereby the society is taught that killing is wrong by killing.

Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty provides that Death penalty has no credible evidence that it will deter crime more effectively as compared with life imprisonment. States which have death penalty as a way of punishment as well have crime rates or murder cases as those states without the death penalty punishment. Additionally, there is no significant change in crime or murder in States that have abolished capital punishment. This implies that death penalty has no deterrent effect and Science has thoroughly discredited the claims that execution deters a given number of murderers.

Opposeres greatly discredit Revenge or retribution. They argue that the desire for revenge is not the rational response to a crime although it is mostly understood by some people as the lowest human emotion one can express. Killing a person who ha skilled somebody very close to you is just a way of continuing the cycle of violence which finally destroys the offended and the avenger. The death penalty portrays revenge and in fact it solidifies social solidarity against the lawbreakers and forms an alternative for private revenge for the harmed.

Capital punishment is not cost effective as compared with other forms of punishments. Although executing a person is less expensive than life imprisoning him/ her, the costs incurred in the courts of law for appeals are equally very high and amounts to a net expense to the state and taxpayers. Or we can argue it in a different way that death penalty is clearly more expensive than an alternative method of handling the same crime with a lesser punishment. It is lengthy, has complicated trials, and everything needed for a ordinary trial l is as well needed for a death penalty trial but only twice as much is needed for the death penalty. So it is not cost effective form of punishment as many try t urge.

United States department of justice produced a report that showed that between 2001 and 2006 48 % of the defendants in court whose penalty could be death penalty were African Americans. This is an indication that death penalty is a biased punishment that is targeting the minority over racial grounds. It is completely un acceptable because there is n no justice in killing some criminals and leaving others who have committed the same crimes on racial basing(Jamie Fellner & Sarah Toft, 2006).

Capital punishment brings more sorrow to a larger family society. The family of the executed is innocent but also sufferer the pain as the family of the innocent who was murdered. This perpetrates more hatred and harm among the families involved. Instead of bringing protection it creates more violence.

Reasons for capital punishment

Clark County, an Indiana prosecuting attorney general supports death penalty by arguing that those who commit murder with aggravating circumstances must meet the ultimate punishment that the society has to give. Life is sacred and it needs to be protected and respected at all costs. The life of an innocent murder is made cheap if the victim is not stopped by the society from ever killing again. So the society sentencing the murderer to the ultimate death penalty they are protecting themselves or are portraying the act of self defense so as to protect the innocent.

Prison is meant for three purposes first, it separates the criminals from the r general public, second, serves as a form of punishment, and third, the punishment is intended to rehabilitate the prisoners so that when they are released from jail they will not again commit similar crimes the imprisoned then and risk being sentenced to prison again. Capital punishment is logically base don the fact that prisons are meant for rehabilitating the convicts who will finally be released from prison at some time and not for life imprisoned criminals. They should be eliminated by execution.

Crime rate increases because the justice system doe not work well. Millions of people has been killed and many will continue to be killed. Time magazine recorded that 2000000 people are beaten in the United States of America whereby some are knifed, shot or assaulted. Crime growth has been rising and is expected to raise more because there is leniency going together with the rising number of victims of crime (Jamie Fellner & Sarah Toft, 2006). Many loop holes created for offenders has increased the crime rate drastically. Capital punishment is the only one which will scare people and help decline the crimes.

Constitutionality: execution method of punishment may result in pain either as a punishment or as an unavoidable effect death. However, this does not establish the kind of objectively intolerable risk of harm. Courts argue that execution is not cruel and the society has adopted a more humane way of carrying it out (Jamie Fellner & Sarah Toft, 2006).

Capital punishment acts as a deterrent of crime and this worked for 27 states. In America, states which abolished death penalty had a 7% rise of murder cases as compared to those states which were keen on capital punishment (Jamie Fellner & Sarah Toft, 2006). People fear death and as a result they will avoid committing serious crimes which will make them be judged over murder hence death penalty. Death penalty acts as a treat to the criminal even though it is not excessive, unnecessary penalty for those who commit murder intentionally in premeditation.

Capital punishment is an eye for an eye. People may argue that death penalty tries to disregard and brutalize the society while others may argue that the penalty is legal for it is like an “eye for an eye”. Punishment differs from crime in this wise, punishment is legal while crime is not. People don’t get brutal because of punishments but because of failure to seriously punch crime. Putting a criminal in prison for life doest not sound brutal enough to deter the society from doing the crime again as death penalty could do. Death penalty is irrevocable and that is why many people fear it (Jamie Fellner & Sarah Toft, 2006).

Reasons for and against

Religions have different views concerning the punishment especially death penalty. There are contradictory belies individual religions have for example the bible commends death penalty and at the same time it states that murder is not allowed and that salvation must be offered. Due to varied believes and nor all people are Christian the role of religion in capital punishment is unclear. This is the reason the church and state must be separated.

Each person has a subjective view on the morality of killing a person. Over ones life, morals and believes can change either for the better or for worse. Executing a person denies him a chance to change for the better and also keeping him life may give him a chance of even being more violent and killing many innocent people.

References

Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/deathpenalty/index.shtml

Jamie Fellner and Sarah Tofte (April 2006), “So Long as They Die: Lethal Injections in the United States,”Human Rights Watch, <http://hrw.org/reports/2006/us0406/us0406sumandrecs.pdf>