The death penalty is a situation whereby death is given to someone having committed crime. It is also termed as capital punishment. In the past centuries capital punishment was familiar, but recently it has reduced. Due to its argumentation, it has brought many controversies thus the need to shut down. Some countries have passed laws legalizing the act. Japan is one a third states that have legalized it. Contrary to third Canada stands to be amongst those who have resisted passing laws obeying the norm. Terrorism, murdering and rape stand up among other serious crimes to have one served with the death penalty. This act is unconstitutional and against the human life thus it should be consistent nationwide (Cochran et al, 2017).
Before execution, proper time line is put into consideration to avoid infringing the rules set in place. A person committing the crime before attaining the age of eighteen years may not be given the death penalty. This is according to the rules that were agreed internationally. The death penalty is a decision that some are seeing as good while others defy this odd. And each of them has a strong feeling towards it. To those who comply with the rules, they say that when an offender is got and punished, it makes others abstain from related crimes thus forced to employ good morals. This is contrary since it is against the right to life and the errands hardly learn through this form of execution. To those who rebuke the act argue that an innocent victim may be potentially executed thus the scales of justice may not be applicable in that sense.
Forms of execution
When executing someone, various ways are used as discussed below:
• Lethal injection. This is a method whereby a prisoner is subjected to an intense body poisoning. Mixed chemicals are injected into the body. These chemicals weaken the body working and eventually result in death.
• Electric chair. This form of execution is executed by attaching electricity to the head and legs of the prisoner. The shock kills the cells of the boy and death result.
• Hanging. This is a situation by which a prisoner is dropped from a tall height after the neck has been tied round with a rope. A rope can break, or asphyxiation may occur in which both can result in the death. This method is mostly applied in Japan, India, and colonies initially belonging to the British.
• Firing squad. This is a method of killing a prisoner using a rifle. Soldiers mostly use it. This is a traditional way of practicing execution.
• Stoning. This method is implemented through throwing of heavy stones to the prisoner to a situation where one loses the life. In Middle Eastern countries, this method is still in use.
• Strangulation. It is the use of a hand or strangles. It was mainly used in Spain many years. This method was later advanced to a loop of rope. The rope was tied around on the neck and a wooden stick before its rotation mainly to tighten it (Williams, 2017). The process will eventually result in strangling to death of the convict.
• Decapitation. This is the use of a sharp blade to cut a victim on the head. A sword or a guillotine was used. This method was mainly used in central Europe traditionally and other places. This method is also called beheading. It is still actively used in Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East (Williams, 2017). Death penalty victims have continuously received their deaths through on this method discussed above. However, this has remained to be news which is not accepted harmoniously with the nations that do not practice or give an upper hand to it.
Objections to the death penalty
Despite 1976 supreme court ruling in the Gregg v. Georgia, et al., the American Civil Liberties Union have continued to condemn the capital punishment based on the moral grounds, constitution, and the practical basis. The group perceived the capital punishment as;
Cruel and unusual activity- It is quite cruel simply because it is a form of the relic of the past forms of penology when the slavery, brandings and the forms of the corporal punishments still existed. Like those of the doomed practices, the executions can’t be tolerated in the modern society. It is quite unusual since the practice is only undertaken in the United States but not in the rest of the western industrialized nations. It is also quite unusual because it is only some of the randomly selected individuals receive this form of punishment (Steiker " Steiker, 2016)..
It denies the due process of the law. The imposition of this penalty is always arbitrary, and it is often irrevocable. It deprived the individual of the chance to benefits from the new evidence obtained that might reduce the sentence. It infringes the constitutional assurance of the equal form of treatment. The death penalty is issued randomly and in a discriminatory manner (Steiker " Steiker, 2016). It is given based on the color, economic status, education background and the geographical regions. This implies that there is no fairness in deciding the death penalty.
It is not considered as the viable type of the crime control. When the police chief inspectors were interviewed on the factors that minimize the crimes rates, they vividly mentioned the issue of curbing the drug utilization and deploying more officers on the road, forms of gun control and longer sentencing. The officers asserted that the death penalty is the least effective way of reducing the crime. The politicians who spread the necessity of the executions as a mechanism of the crime control general deceive the masses and cover their weakness to confront and to identify the actual causes of the crime (Steiker " Steiker, 2016). The capital punishment leads to a waste of the resources available. It takes the time, energy of the courts, the defense counsel, courtroom, juries and the prosecuting attorneys. It overburdens the criminal justice structure, and by so doing, it affects the functionality of the judicial system to control the crimes. The limited capital that could have utilized in preventing and solving the crimes are utilized in capital punishment.
The community that respect and adore life, doesn’t at any case convict the human beings. The execution is considered a form of the public homicide and an endorsed killing to solve the social problems in the society. This is the worst instance to set for the masses and mostly the kids. The significance of the capital punishments is quite illusory but just a form of the bloodshed and a way of destroying the community form of decency. The changes in the capital punishment have been depicted to be largely cosmetics. The defects in the capital punishment laws, passed by the Supreme Court in early 1970 have not been changed by the move from the unrestrained form of discretion to a type of the guided discretion (Steiker " Steiker, 2016. The reforms which had been put in place have not changed anything concerning this type of punishment.
The death penalty can’t be used as a deterrent to the capital crimes
The fear of the execution affects the criminal behavior so much as compared to the imprisonment. As credible as it may sound, in the real sense, the capital punishment does not qualify as a deterrent for several reasons (Steiker " Steiker, 2016). A form of punishment can be considered to be the effective deterrent if it is promptly and quite consistently employed. The death penalty can’t be employed to meet this condition.
The number of the first –degree murderers who are sentenced to death is quite smaller, and of this category, an even small number of the individuals are executed. The death penalty in the mid-1990s rose to over 300 yearly; this is just one percent of the total homicides which are known by the police. Of all the criminals charged with criminal homicide, only 3% are sentenced to death. Between the year 2001 and the year 2009, the number of the capital sentenced reduced 137, decreasing the percentage even more (Steiker " Steiker, 2016).
. The mandatory death penalty is entirely unconstitutional. The probability of increasing the proportion of the convicted murderers detained to death and executed by implementing the mandatory form of death penalty laws was ruled unconstitutionally in 197 (Woodson v. North Carolina, 428 U.S. 280). The individuals who commit murder and other forms of personal crimes always don’t premeditate their criminal act. Most of the crimes are done in the heat of a moment or under emotional influences. Most of the crimes are committed during the stressful situation, emotional or during the control of the drugs. This is a period when the logical form of thinking is suspended. Most of the capital offenses are committed by the emotionally influenced or mentally ill individual (Steiker " Steiker, 2016).
If the acute punishments can deters the crime, then the permanent sentence is extreme enough to discourage any rational being from undertaking a violent act. The series of evidence indicates that the death penalty is not sufficient as compared to imprisonment in a deterring murder and as a result, it might incite the criminal forms of violence. In the states that undertake the death penalty doesn’t often depict the lower percentage of the criminal homicide (Williams, 2017). For instance, between the year 1990 and 1994 the portion of homicide in Wisconsin and Iowa( state with no death penalty) were half the percentage of their neighboring state Illinois(state which implemented the death penalty in the year 1973 and by the year 1994, it had sentenced 223 individuals to death and undertook 2 executions. Between the year 2000 and 2001, the percentage if the criminal offense committed in the state with the death penalty was 26%-46% higher than the nations without the death penalty (Williams, 2017).
The death penalty should not be consistent nationwide since the research indicates that its implementation can’t bring any significant effects on deterring the crime. The case of violence crime has risen in those states with death penalty as compared to those with no death penalties. The cat therefore should be stopped since it is against the rights and freedoms of human beings. The death penalty is issued randomly and in a discriminatory manner. It is given based on the color, economic status, education background and the geographical regions. This implies that there is no fairness in deciding the death penalty.
Reference
Williams, K. (2017). Why and How the Supreme Court Should End the Death Penalty. USFL Rev., 51, 271.
Steiker, C. S., " Steiker, J. M. (2016). Abolishing the American Death Penalty: The Court of Public Opinion Versus the US Supreme Court. Val. UL Rev., 51, 579.
Cochran, J. K., Brown, W., Camacho, J., Jennings, W. G., Smith, M. D., Bjerregaard, B., " Fogel, S. J. (2017). Overkill? An Examination of Comparatively Excessive Death Sentences in North Carolina, 1990–2010. Justice quarterly, 34(2), 297-323.
