Moral Misconduct of Capital Punishment
Moral Misconduct of Capital Punishment
Each year, 250 people are added to death row and 35 are executed. Capital punishment is the harshest form or condemnation. It is a highly controversial issue and is therefore not practiced in all parts of the world. Putting and end to someone’s life is a cruel and unusual form of punishment. One can clearly see the barbaric ritual as a violation of human dignity. The fear of death has proven not to deter criminals from committing crimes. When executing the alleged, there is always a slight chance that he/she is innocent. That alone should be reason enough to discontinue with the practice. Capital punishment is morally wrong and allows humans to play God. This Barbaric ritual should be banned in all parts of the world.
Capital punishment is a relic of barbarism. The act is morally wrong. The methods though which executions are made involve physical, emotional and mental torture. Who was it that gave humans the authority to play God? If the state in which the punishment is being condemned claims that taking a life is wrong, how can the state in effect do the same thing? To punish the taking of a life, should the state not also be punished for the same thing? Capital punishment does something almost worse than lowering the government to the moral level of the criminal. The government should have better sense of morality than the criminal. For the believers of Lex Talionis (a life for a life), - one question. If you take a criminal’s life for taking someone else’s life, should your life not be taken away also because you have taken the life of someone? We as a society should attempt to set examples for the criminals, not battle them. Can society place an unequal weight on the tragically lost lives of murder victims and the criminal? Where do we go off giving ourselves the authority of God?
Contrary to popular belief, Capital Punishment does not act as a deterrent to crime. A study performed on the effect of capital punishment by Isaac Ehrlich shows that in the United States in 1957, there were 8,060 murders committed and 65 executions. In 1982, there were 2,520 murders committed and only 1 execution. The absence of deterrence is clearly shown. Countries such as Sweden, Denmark, and Switzerland do not practice Capital Punishment but they...