Right or Wrong? Free Essay Example

Even though almost all the countries have abolished capital punishment, over the 60% of the world´s population live in countries where the death penalty is still used. Do you agree or do you disagree with this method of penalty? This topic is still a debate nowadays. Many people agree that this is inhumane and horrible, but in other hand there’re people who are supportive and encouraging. If you want to know more about where this practice came from the different point of views that exist and my personal opinion, keep reading!

The first established death penalty date as far as the eighteenth-century B.

C in the code of king Hammurabi of Babylon. This king made a legal document called “The Code of Hammurabi”. The different laws were carved in a black stone in which were written twenty-five crimes that were punishable by death, they include adultery and helping slaves escape. Some of the punishments were the removal of hands, tongues and breasts until the person died.

In the middle age, during the reign of Henry VII of England almost 72,000 were estimated to have been executed, including two of his wives and many of his friends. Oh, and if you had any claim in your bloodline to the throne of England, he´d also execute you. Some of the methods he used were Hanging and boiling you alive. We can say that King Henry VII had serious anger issues. In the 20th century when the Nazi Germany emerged, there were three types of capital punishment: hanging, decapitation and shooting.

Cowardice, absence without leave, desertion, insubordination, shirking under enemy fire and disobeying orders were often considered punishable by the Nazis. Last but not least the contemporary era, or better said, the present day. Nowadays, capital punishment has been eradicated in a lot of countries, but there still countries that believe in this type of punishment like China, India and the United States. They use methods like the electric chair and the lethal injection.

Why capital punishment has been eradicated in some countries, and in others it hasn’t? Because, there´s still people nowadays that fully support it these people are called retributivists. They believe in the argument that “all guilty people deserve to be punished” This quote means that it is required that people suffer for their wrong doing. Each criminal should get what their crime deserves, and in the case of a murderer, what he or she deserves, is death. Why do they deserve it? Perhaps, because it’s not fair for the lives of wrongdoers to go well when the lives of innocent have gone poorly. Even if punishing murderers and thieves had no effect on reducing the overall crime rate, retributivists tend to think it’s still the right thing to do.

In other hand, there a group of people that believe death penalty is barbarous. They say death penalty is irreversible and absolute judgments may lead to people paying for crimes they didn’t commit. For example, the case of Cameron Tod Willingham. He was executed in Texas in 2004 for allegedly setting a fire that killed his daughters. Following his execution, further evidence proved that Willingham didn’t set the fire…but it was too late. Also, they said that that the death penalty does not reduce murder rates. For example, since Canada ended capital punishment, their murder rate has dropped 44%, so it means that death penalty doesn’t “scare” people to not commit crimes. Finally, death penalty costs more than life in prison. This may be a shocking fact but in order to carry out the death penalty, a state must have a substantial amount of money on hand. It is stimulated that it costs $137 million per year for death penalty, which is an insane amount.

In conclusion, capital punishment is a topic that you may agree as you may disagree, it all depends in your point of view. Capital punishment have always been existing since the ancient times, it is even used nowadays but less. Some people agree that this practice needs to be used nowadays since they believe in the argument that says “all guilty people deserves to be punished. In other hand, there exists a group of people which think this is a horrible practice that needs to be banned. In my personal opinion, people who commit serious crimes need to pay for their actions. But, somehow, I don’t trust the system, since I believe they would use it for their own benefits. We have to admit that the justice system isn’t a “justice” system, since corruption and racism is something that reigns nowadays. I truly believe corruption is the true enemy of development.

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