Capital Punishment Is Wrong Essay Research Paper

Capital Punishment Is Wrong Essay, Research Paper

To this date, Seven hundred and seventy two criminals in the U.S. alone have been

subject to Capital Punishment. (Executions USA 2002). Using specific examples such as

the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Timothy McVeigh execution, capital

punishment is seen as inhumane, wrong and an unusual punishment.

The death penalty is greatly rejected and discouraged by many countries and states.

There are more than one hundred countries who have abolished the death penalty in law or

practice, while the United States has increased the rate of executions and the number of

crimes that are punishable by death (The Death Penalty…2000). Many politicians claim

that they are tough on crimes, but they should spend ninety four percent of criminal justice

money on preventing crimes instead of after the crime was committed (Get the

Facts…2000). Protocol No.6 to the European Convention on Human Rights to Abolish is

an agreement to abolish the death penalty in peacetime. The other two protocols, the

Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and

Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty,

provide for the total abolition of the death penalty but allows states wishing to do so to

retain the death penalty in wartime as an exception (Facts and Figures…2000). There are

several different procedures that are used to execute such as hanging, the electric chair,

gas chamber, lethal injection and the fire squad, which is still used in Idaho and Utah (The

Death Penalty, 2000). The death penalty is abolished for all crimes under the Human

Rights because it is believed to be inhumane, cruel and degrading, but it is still enforced

today. The death penalty should also be abolished because the failure to prevent the

execution of the innocent and the cost for executions are outrageous.

In the eyes of those who are for the death penalty, they believe that the criminal

should lose all rights once they commit a heinous crime and they also believe that the cost

of imprisoning someone for life without parole is extremely higher than just putting them

to death. They also take into consideration that the death penalty is okay by their religion.

They believe that God was for the death penalty and they claim that He once killed men

who crossed Him. Some people believe that there is no proof that an innocent person was

sentenced to death. There has been proof that there are twenty three cases, since the

1900’s, that were proven to be innocent, but it was too late (Death Penalty Facts, 2000).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “Punishment has the primary aim of

redressing the disorder introduced by the offense.” If I commit a serious offense against

society, I bring about a disorder, and the point of punishment is to reestablish the lost

order. If I willingly accept my punishment, “it assumes the value of expiation.” And it can

protect you from future crimes I might commit. The Catechism thus gives three purposes

of punishment: defending public order, protecting people, and moral change in the

criminal. Paragraph 2267 reminds us that “the traditional teaching of the church does not

exclude recourse to the death penalty” but then adds, “if this is the only possible way of

effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.” This appears to make a

secondary purpose of punishment override the primary. That appearance has led to some

fuzzy thinking. The correct meaning must be that the primary aim of punishment can be

achieved short of exacting the death penalty. A single means-say, life imprisonment

restores the order lost by the crime, protects society against future crimes of the

incarcerated, and gives the prisoner a chance to repent.(The Catechism of the Catholic

Church).

One human right is the right to life and by taking a life away by execution is cruel,

inhumane and degrading. The United Nations pledged to promote fundamental rights of

freedom, justice, and peace in the world which was adopted in 1948, the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights. (Death Penalty Facts, 2000). There are two rights stated in

the Declaration: 1. A person has the right to protection from deprivation of life and 2. No

one shall be subjected to cruel or degrading punishment. The death penalty clearly violates

both these rights because it is taking a life in cold-blooded, cruel and in an inhumane way.

The techniques used to kill a prisoner are profoundly brutal, humiliating and against the

Declaration. The physical pain caused by electrocution, gassing, hanging, poisoning, or

shooting are all barbarian methods. Prisoners have their flesh burned and their organs stop

during electrocution. Asphyxiation during gassing, tearing of the spinal cord or

asphyxiation during hanging, respiratory paralysis during poisoning, and destruction of

vital o

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