Essay on Death Penalty

Submitted By udemanu
Words: 792
Pages: 4

Two wrongs do not make a right. One of the basic values learnt in life is that, violence is not the answer to any problem and murder is a sin for those who are either religious or not. The death penalty goes against this value. Committing murder is generally unacceptable and is a crime, so the death penalty shouldn't be any different. There is no clear evidence to support the absolute effectiveness of the death penalty in deterring crime in a society. The death penalty should not be used to punish criminals because it neither discourages crime nor reduces the crime rate, it does not accomplish anything at the end, and conviction of the innocent may occur and can't be undone. First of all, there is no proven support to show the effectiveness in the death penalty serving as a deterrent for would-be criminals to stop committing crimes. In the past, most of the death penalties that have been carried out were always highly publicised. The publicity and fame that surrounds the process of carrying out a death penalty sentence may send the wrong message to psychopaths that are witnessing the sentence being carried out. The perception of feelings people would have towards the criminal might become that of compassion rather than that of disgust due to the emotions that are felt when witnessing another person suffer the pain of death. The criminal who is being sentenced to death for a crime might be seen by the people as being martyred thereby forgetting the crimes for which the criminal is being punished for. People might act on those emotions and wilfully commit crime. For example, according to a research done by Grant McClellan (1961), Grant claims that in 1958, among the ten states that had the fewest murders (fewer than two murders a year per a hundred thousand population), Four of these states had abolished the death penalty. On the other hand, the ten states with the most murders (from eight to fourteen killings per a hundred thousand population) were all states that enforced the death penalty. The fact is that the fear of death penalty has never severed to reduce crime rate. Another reason why the death penalty should not be used to punish convicted criminals is that the death penalty does not accomplish any goal. People often confuse retribution with revenge. The desire for revenge clouds the judgement of a person often with a theory that "a criminal deserves to be punished in proportion to the gravity of the crime committed". Perhaps it is sometimes fathomable, but not really a rational response to a critical situation like the death penalty. Since the victim of murder is already lost and nothing can be done to resurrect that person, to what do we owe the pleasure of killing somebody else? Death of a person is very disturbing to anyone who values human lives. For example if a person is sentenced for committing murder, that scenario simply continues the circle of violence which at the end achieves no positive goal. The same legal system that convicts a criminal for