Death penalty

Hardly a week goes by without an other report of executed inmates in some countries like the States, China, Iran and Philippines, appearing in the news. However, I am convinced that nobody has the right to claim a life, even if the convicted has committed the most ultimate offense, thus I am inclined to believe that the death penalty should be abolished.

The protesters against the penalty of capital punishment claim that if murder is wrong, because it violates a person’s right to life, then it must be wrong for the state to take a person’s life. As the famous motto goes, ‘two wrongs do not make a right’. Obviously, the only difference between an individual murderer and the authorities who execute the condemned to death inmate , is that the state kills with the permission of the court, even though that doesn’t mean that sentencing someone to death is the right thing.

On the other hand, the supporters of the legal execution concede that without capital punishment as a deterrent, more lives would be lost since the homicide rate will go up. Nevertheless, the murder rate in the U.S is nearly three times higher than the U.K which has not established this kind of penalty, so it is obvious that if a person reaches the point of becoming a murderer, he doesn’t  bear in mind the consequences of his actions and the death penalty does not function as an obstacle. Besides the moral issues and the effectiveness of killing criminals, judicial systems are fallible and errors are made quite often. Consequently, with capital punishment it is inevitable that sooner or later innocent people will be executed. This is clearly illustrated by the case of Troy Antony Davis, who stayed in death row for years and was executed in 2011, albeit there was little evidence against him and nothing could be done in order to bring him back to life. 

To sum up, capital punishment is a really thorny issue. Countries like China and Iran should take all issues into consideration and think of alternative punishments in order to finally achieve the abolition of the death penalty.