Death penalty......a very slippery topic. During the GP lesson in school today, Ms Nora and Ms Davina, representatives of Amnesty International, an organization that protects human rights came by to give a presentation on why death penalty should be abolished. Obviously, since they're from Amnesty International, they strongly disagree with the idea of death penalty. At the beginning of class, when asked whether death penalty should be abolished, I unequivocally answered 'no' and that they should remain in the legal system. I was very sure that we must have this sentence in our system. But. During their presentation, I started to doubt my decision.
They, especially Ms Nora was very convincing in her points. Here are a few points that she mentioned:
-Death sentence is very cruel. Death penalties such as hanging, electrocution, stoning, firing squad and injections are indeed very inhumane.
-It violates our rights as humans. According to Article 3 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, every humans have rights to live, so death penalty is actually violating this human right.
-There is also a chance that the person is innocent and is wrongly charged for a
crime that they did not commit. There have been cases where individuals were released after being given death sentence, because they were proved innocent.
-Death penalty is discriminatory. Poor people are more likely to be executed than rich people as they can't afford lawyers to defend themselves.
-Death penalty has no deterrent on the crime rate.
Ms Nora suggested that instead of the death penalty, the police department must be much more efficient in curbing crimes so that it will act as a deterrent. She is of the opinion that if potential criminals know that they'll be arrested, they would not commit it. Then, there will be no need to carry out death penalties.
Her points are true to an extent. At the end of her presentation, I still stick to my answer- there is a need of death penalty. I know it's cruel, that's why it's carried out on criminals who have committed the same act of cruelty in their crimes and NOT on petty crimes. People who have committed a serious offense should have an idea of what they are getting themselves into and if they knew then they shouldn't do it in first place. If people know they will only face life-imprisonment, they will take the legal system casually and commit all the crimes they want.
Life is a precious thing, so the punishment for taking somebody's life is paying the price with your own life. Thus, death penalty is nothing but just punishment for those who have taken another individual or individuals lives, just like the saying 'an eye for an eye'.
A murderer, for example Saddam Hussein, who has mercilessly killed lots of people once, may escape from prison and end up killing others. Life imprisonment means chances of parole, which gives the criminal a chance to get back at those who testified against him. He can also take revenge from the victim's family. This leaves the victim's family living a life of fear all the time. Death penalty ensures the murderer can commit no more crimes in the future.
Ask yourself this question- 'Why are we so concerned about the murderer, when we should pay more attention to the victim?'.The law seems too sympathetic towards the criminal than towards the victim and his or her family. This gives a chance for criminals to play on people's moral conscience and thus, escape their death sentence. The reason the convicted is charged for death penalty is because he or she has murdered somebody. Thus, there is no room for sympathy. The criminal is only facing the consequences of his or her actions. Everybody is responsible for their actions.
Of course, the death penalty law should not be too rigid. It depends on the type of case and should be allowed to be amended if needed. Not all cases are the same so law enforcers are responsible for investigating so that they will be no error of executing innocent people. I do agree with Ms Nora that the law enforcers should increase their efforts in arresting criminals as it can act as a good deterrent. But sometimes this is hard to achieve.
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