Question:
Describe about the Capital Punishment?
The Qur’an says, “We ordained therein for them: ‘Life for life, eye for eye, nose or nose, ear for ear, tooth for tooth, and wounds equal for equal.’ But if any one remits the retaliation by way of charity, it is an act of atonement for himself. And if any fail to judge by the light of what God has revealed, they are no better than wrong-doers” (Qur’an 5:45).people need a law to safeguard them and protect their rights. Though, God had already told the people how will they be secured by the government if they followed the rules of justice in Tawrah Bible ,and Quran. One of the main Law of justice is capital punishment, which save people lives from getting wasted for nothing if they got murdered or raped the murder must be execution, unless the family of victims forgive in case of killing only which is preferable. Yet, many people think killing criminals is cruel, so they should put life sentence instead. Humanity life is so precious, and capital punishment is a way to save people rights.
Overcrowding in prisons and jails is one major problem nowadays. Some individuals believes that this is a problem but having more jails built will solve this problem. Having more prisons or jails built may help solve the problem but the death penalty effectively stops draining more money from the taxpayers to house murderers. These murderers get three warm meals a day; they do nothing all day, and have a place to sleep just because the taxpayers fund these facilities. Murderers on death row do not deserve to get a place to stay. They deserve to get their life taken away from them because of the terrible crimes that these criminals have done .According to “Will the Supreme Court Keep Prisons Overcrowded?” the supreme court is reconsidering capital punishment for overcrowded jails in life sentenced criminals ( cholhen).
Everyone thinks human life is valuable. Some of those against capital punishment believe that human life is so valuable that even the worst murderers should not be deprived of the value of their lives. They believe that the value of the offender’s life cannot be destroyed by the offender’s bad conduct – even if they have killed someone.Opponents who are against death penalty are valuing the life of murder in a way that looks like they are killing the victim two times (Koch 136). Many opponents might argue that life sentence is much harder on criminals’ rather just killing them. Yet if the murder who is sentenced to life in prison find it really difficult to live the rest of his live in jails that he may try to subside, which is the opposite cause people and even criminals find it really difficult to imagine themselves dead.
According to opponents of death penalty “Fact on Death penalty,” there is no proof that capital punishment deters law-breaking. That mean the criminals not find it discouraging to have penalty death or execution. Ernest van den Haag, a Professor of Jurisprudence at Fordham University who has studied the question of deterrence closely, wrote: “Even though statistical demonstrations are not conclusive, and perhaps cannot be, capital punishment is likely to deter more than other punishments because people fear death more than anything else. They fear most death deliberately inflicted by law and scheduled by the courts. Whatever people fear most is likely to deter most.” Human nature is to fear from death, so execution is one good way to lower crime and protect people lives.
“In the Law of Equality there is saving of Life to you, o ye men of understanding; that ye may restrain yourselves”(Albgrah 1:179).That mean that killing the murder is efficient tool to save the life of others, because people will think twice before committing a crime :in other word, harsh punishment such as death penalty is very useful to prevent crimes and to precut. God knows about what works best for people, so when Allah told the people about execution, they should know it is the best tool to save their lives and for equal rights.
Throughout times immemorial punishment has been used as a weapon to discourage the criminals as well as the would-be-criminals to commit any unlawful action. It is the society that has the most significant interest in the prevention of murder (Connors). Hence for the society the strongest punishment that can be given in order to deter murder is to render death punishment or capital punishment to the convict. Once the murderers are sentenced to death and they are forced to go through execution in such case any other possible murderers would generally think before committing any further murders as a result of the fear of losing their own lives.
It needs to be observed that the death penalty usually does discourage the murderer who is executed. This punishment acts similar to the form of incapacitation. For instance, just like the robber is put in prison in order to prevent him from committing any other robbery on the streets. Similarly, the dangerous murders must also be killed so as to prevent any other person from committing any murders again (HOOD). Hence it can be said that the death punishment is one kind of punishment that can act as both a deterrent and also as a permanent incapacitation. This kind of penalty also assists in preventing the happening of future crimes.
There are a number of reasons why capital punishment should be favored. Firstly this kind of a penalty helps in incapacitating the criminal. This is because capital punishment intends to remove the worst possible criminals from the contemporary society and hence makes the society much safer for the others than any other lengthy imprisonment process (Melusky and Pesto). Since it is known fact that criminals who are dead cannot commit any further crimes either by staying inside the prisons or by escaping from the prisons or once they are released. Hence the fears from the criminals end with the death of the criminal.
The second most essential factor in favor of death penalty is cost involved. Money is the most essential criteria in today’s life. Hence it is more advisable if the government spends more money in maintaining the health and safety of the old, young and the sick rather than spending the money on the long term imprisonments for the dangerous murderers and the rapists.
In most countries the campaigners against the rendering of the capital punishment consider that there is a high cost in the execution of the prisoners as compared to the keeping of the prisoners in the prison for a lifetime. In some countries this fact is however true since in countries such as United States under the US legal system there are a number of delays and appeals while carrying out the death sentences that is permitted in the country (Garland). As a result of these delays the average time that generally is spent over a death sentence is approximately twelve years. Contrastingly, in the country of Great Britain during the 20th century the average time for carrying out a death penalty was 3 to 8 weeks and during this period only one appeal was permitted.
Thirdly, it can be observed that execution is one actual form of punishment when compared to any other rehabilitative form of punishment. This is one form where the criminal can be made to suffer in proportion to the crimes committed by him (Melusky and Pesto). However, the existence of the traditional principle of “lex talens” (an eye for an eye) still remains a matter to be judged by individuals personally. In accordance to most research it has been observed that the process of retribution can be observed by most as an appropriate reason for death penalty.
The next obvious question that arises is the deterrent effect of the death penalty. This is comparatively difficult to prove since in most of the countries where retention is practiced the number of people generally executed is very less. Further it has been observed in most countries that practice death penalty seriously, the rate of crimes is seen to be less than the other countries. These statistics show that generally death penalty acts as a deterrent however it is true only in those cases where execution is certain and absolute. Death penalty acts as more deterrent in those cases where the criminal has time to plan out the crime and he or she has the time to think over the probable outcomes that the supposed crime may lead to (Melusky and Pesto). But in such circumstances where the crime is committed as a result of provocation or any instigation at the heat of the moment it is likely that under such case no form of punishment would affect as deterrence. With regard to this issue there exists a strong argument that the murders that is committed under these circumstances should not be punished with death penalty or there should exist degrees of murder as there exists in the United States (Garland).
In most cases the campaigners for the anti-death penalty argued that death penalty does not always act as a deterrent and many American studies are sited to favor this point. However this view is also flawed since it leads to deliberate misleading concepts. In order to establish the importance of death penalty three relevant evidences can be given. Firstly, when life without parole is compared to the concept of death penalty it can be observed that most of the campaigners of anti death penalty consider the life in prison without any parole is one practical alternative as compared to the execution of the offenders and research conducted in America depicts that many people who had previously supported death penalty presently shows there support for life without parole instead (Melusky and Pesto). They argue that this concept of life without parole is comparatively crueler than capital punishment. Philosopher John Stuart Mill during the 19th century had brought up a debate in the parliament of United Kingdom. Here he had stated that life without parole meant that the prisoners are given death penalty each and every day. A statistical record showed that in the country of Italy around 311 prisoners who were serving life sentences petitioned to their government to give them death sentence (Melusky and Pesto). They consider that life without parole will act as a living death for the prisoners. In the United States execution of minor is not permitted. Hence here around 50,000 people served death life sentences in the year 2009 among which above two thousand were minors (Garland). In this regard one question arises as to what is the reason for locking up a person until they die and whether it is actually a worse punishment than death. The argument with regard to this issue would be that death is the only mean that incapacitates any individual from committing any kind of offense (Richardson). Life without parole cannot prevent the criminal from committing offense against any jail staff or any fellow inmate or take hostage in order to escape prison. This can also be supported with the view that these prisoners have nothing to lose can gain by escaping prison. Such incidents have been happening in a number of countries. Even in the most secured prisons attempt to escape will not end and once in a while some of the prisoners will be successful in their attempt (HOOD). Especially in the prisons the prisoners have endless time to plan their escape from the prisons. Further, with every new government policies keep changing and it might be so that in future governments may release the prisoners who again will come into the society to commit any offense.
Conclusion
As concluding remarks, it can be stated that capital punishment is the only punishment that can be the ultimate warning for any kinds of crimes. When the criminal knows that even after the most heinous crimes he will always have the chance to escape he will be more incline to commit crimes. One more thing can be mentioned in this regard (Melusky and Pesto). Death penalties are given by hanging the person where the neck is snapped around the second vertebrae. Even for the most brutal and heinous murders the death caused are by this method. Hence, it can be said that the murderer is generally given a better death than the victim.
References
Connors, Paul G. Capital Punishment. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2007. Print.
Garland, D. ‘Capital Punishment And American Culture’. Punishment & Society 7.4 (2005): 347-376. Web.
HOOD, R. ‘Capital Punishment: A Global Perspective’. Punishment & Society 3.3 (2001): 331-354. Web.
Melusky, Joseph Anthony, and Keith A Pesto. Capital Punishment. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood, 2011. Print.
Richardson, Steffanie. Capital Punishment. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2006. Print.
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