Monday 16 June 2014

Death Penalty – Is It Justified

When it comes to arguments on the death penalty, some people are in favor of it while the rest are against. Those who think capital punishment should not be abolished want eye for an eye. They believe if a person commits a heinous crime like killing someone, the only punishment for the perpetrator of the crime is to take his life. Such kind of punishment is often demanded by those who are close to the victim though not always. Others have moral and religious obligations in respect of death punishment as according to them, taking the life of anyone, no matter how gruesome crime he has committed, cannot be justified.



Death Penalty – Is It Justified

Arguments against Capital Punishment

The problem with most of the people is they fail to understand that death penalty often costs a wrongdoer more than his life. Almost a line of appeals, legal procedures etc drag the case and that make many prisoners who are sentenced to death suffer for 10-15 years or more in jail. They also argue that by awarding death to an at-fault person, a court can never send that message that killing someone is a crime because it is doing the same wrong thing. Another ground of argument they offer is capital punishment is the easiest one to serve for a prisoner. Many are of the view that life in prison is worse as suffering lingers for a long time rather than having it ended immediately.


Last but not the least, there is horrifying possibility that an innocent may be put to death. It cannot be expected that the courts will always be right and after the person is hanged till death, there is no chance to bring him back to life.


Arguments in Favor of Capital Punishment

People who want death penalty to be sustained often argue that every system of justice is based on a fundamental principle that punishment must fit the nature of crime and also the extent of its cruelty. So capital punishment is defensible if someone has perpetrated a crime or is involved in such an activity that has caused grave damages to the victim and that must not be confused with the kind of revenge that justifies killing someone is return. If these culprits are imprisoned, someday they may escape or may be released on parole and there is a chance that they will kill again. Even they may kill another prisoner who is serving sentence for a less atrocious crime. So the best is to remove them in order to ensure safety for the society.


It is only the justice system that can reduce the chance that they will kill again by handing death penalty to them.

The Verdict

There is no doubt that death penalty has its own set of pros and cons. And most surprisingly, most of the pros can be argued as cons and vice versa. Furthermore, technology has improved so much over the years that some of the strongest arguments against death punishment have become less important. For example, the argument of mistakes and an innocent being punished are not longer strongly valid as there is less chance of errors nowadays with advanced DNA processing.

Fear is a psychological phenomenon inherent in everyone and it is true for even those who take life of someone. So allowing them to live in the mainstream society leaves others’ life at risk. Death penalty is the most effective sentence that can deter them from committing further crime.


Also Read: Advantages And Disadvantages Of The Death Penalty

  1. Of the three people being executed today, I don't believe any actually denied committing the crime, so the "got the wrong man" argument doesn't really work.

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