Capital punishment, or the death sentence, has resulted in the deaths of 1392 offenders in the United States between 1976 and 2015 (Amnesty International).In its definition, the death sentence refers to the execution of a person as punishment for a specific crime after a proper and legal trial. The death may be carried out by any means such as electrocution, incapacitation by poison injection, hanging etc. In this regard, it is important to consider that it is used by the state and cannot be carried out by any other organization in which the latter case may be referred to as murder. Furthermore, the punishment is used on crimes that can be described as heinous but some countries fraud, treason may call for the same. One famous person who went through the death sentence was Ted Bundy and was executed using an electric chair. He had murdered several women.
Though some people may argue that some crimes deserve no less than capital punishment, other people such as the pope have come up against this type of punishment. According to the pope, the death penalty disregards the human life and wounds human dignity. Furthermore, the pope insisted that capital punishment is against the gospel considering that it is a voluntary action to suppress the human life which in itself is sacred to God (Wooden).
Analysis of the death penalty
Many countries around the world continue practicing capital punishment and only 141 countries, as per may 2012, had abolished the punishment (Drehle). Furthermore, considering countries that have withheld the punishment in the sense that they do not put it into practice,25 out of 59 countries carried out executions in the year 2008.A comparison of executions carried out country by country indicates that China had the highest number of executions in the year 2008 with approximately 1718 people executed while those sentenced to death about 7003 (Drehle).As a matter of fact the figures are expected to be higher considering that this country is so secretive and did reveal the real figures. All this is because the death penalty in China has been a very secretive activity with the Chinese authorities working very hard to ensure that the real figures do not surface. Other notable countries that had a significant number of executions within the year 2008 include USA, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. In that order, the number of people executed was 111, 346, 36 and 102 (Amnesty International)
Considering that the ban on the death penalty had been conceived in 1969, the United Nations adopted resolution 63/168 back in December 2008.The resolution was as a result of the creation of the world coalition against the death penalty back in 2002 and the subsequent first world day against the death penalty in 2006. Resolution 63/168 was just a reminder of the act 62/169 which had been passed on in December 2007 calling for the ban of the death penalty. In this, the United Nations requested all countries to freeze the death sentence with the goal of abolition.
On this note, the era of capital punishment has been described to be ending particularly because of the failure of the justice system.Some people describe capital punishment not to be solely dependent on the severity of the crime but also dependent on other factors such as the poor quality of the defense lawyers, the race and religion of the accused person and the country or the state that the crime was carried out. As in America, the south has witnessed the most number of executions than any other state (Drehle). Furthermore, some interesting facts about the American capital punishment system indicate that: 148 innocent people who were on death row were released between 1973 and 2015; 2% of the counties in America produce the highest number of people on death row and the highest number of executions; a race factor indicates that 76% of the executions from 1976 was because of killing at least one white victim (Amnesty International).
Pros and cons of the Death Penalty
Some people have come up against the death penalty while others believe that some crimes deserve no less. The major pro of the death penalty particularly describes the punishment as a filter for the worst of the worst. In this, life imprison does not do justice to the bereaved such as the families, victims etc.
The major con is that the death penalty does not reduce the rate of homicide in the country. Comparison of different countries and states indicate that there is no detectable effect of capital punishment. Ether abolishing the death penalty or using it, there is no detectable difference.
The death penalty has been practiced for a very long time mainly to do justice to crimes that life imprisonment may be seen as more lenient. Though the punishment meets the expectation of people, it has been described to be a violation of human rights of which various organizations have called for abolition. The pope has even described the punishment to be against the principles of God considering that the offender is not given a second chance and it can be described as murder. On this note, the punishment is on a downfall and will soon be abolished worldwide.
Amnesty International. Death penalty Trends. AIUSA DEATH PENALTY ABOLITION CAMPAIGN. pennysylvania, 2012.
Drehle, David Von. The death of the death penalty. 8 june 2015. time.com/deathpenalty/. 17 OCt 2017.
Wooden, Cindy. ‘Death penalty is contrary to the gospel’pope says. 16 Oct 2017. www.ncronline.org/news/’Death penalty is contrary to the gospel’pope says. 17 October 2017.