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).
The Term Paper on The Death Penalty 3
The death penalty is a capital punishment that is put into effect for major crimes. The death penalty is a very controversial topic in the United States and throughout the world. There was a time period were the death penalty was banned for about four years in 1972-1976. Many feel that the death penalty is justice because it is retribution toward criminals who have committed heinous crimes. ...
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.
The Essay on The Death Penalty Capital Punishment
... I feel that the death penalty does deter people from committing capital crimes. Using the death penalty as a source of punishment can result in criminal ... but who would be liable to a life term if arrested should get the death penalty instead. Prisoners are escaping from highly secured ... for a human to die, and even worse if he / she is innocent. I never really thought about the death penalty before, ...
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 organs or the central nervous system during shooting, which one may have to face when sentenced to death (Death Penalty Facts, 2000).
Under no circumstances in the Declaration of Human Rights does it say that the government has the right to take the “right of life” away from anyone, but yet they are making that decision quit often. No one should have to live their last few minutes of life being tortured and put to death; we are not animals where you can take a life away just because it did wrong. You teach that animal and train it to where it is suitable to live in the world and imprisoning a person for life will teach them that lesson. The United Nations Economic and Social Council adopted the “Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of Those Facing the Death Penalty” in 1984 (Death Penalty Facts, 2000 ).
The Term Paper on The Death Penalty People States Crime
... in many cases it ended in death. In America, before the Revolution, the death penalty was used for a variety of different crimes such as ... the people of Florida were asked whether they favor the death penalty or life without parole, the figure dropped to 70%, and then ... are a few of the methods of executing a person sentenced to death; crucifixion, boiling in oil, drawing and quartering (cut into ...
The safeguards application of the death penalty pertain to certain categories of the accused, such as being under the age of 18 years when the crime was committed, which will allow that person sentenced to death to appeal to a higher court and to petition for pardon or commutation of the sentence. The Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty because they believe that it is inflicted upon the most vulnerable in society, such as the poor, minorities, and the mentally ill or retarded persons. They even track down death penalty cases and write letters to clemency boards and governors asking the executions to be halted for the cases in which the person was a minor at the time of the crime, mentally impaired or foreign nations because they oppose the death penalty under law whenever and wherever carried out, irrespective of the crime and the legal process leading to their implementation (The Death Penalty, 2000).
Human rights are not given or granted by the government, so why should they have the right to take a life away? Human rights belongs to everyone from the time of birth. As long as the death penalty still exist, there is not a hundred percent security that an innocent will not be executed. There are several reasons why an innocent person may be executed for a crime they did not commit, such as their ethnic background, legal errors, poor defense or investigation which can all contribute to false imprisonment and death.
In the United States, there has been over four hundred wrongful convicted cases for capital offenses between the years 1900- 1991. The majority of these cases were found innocent after years of spending time in prison, but in twenty three cases, their innocence was not proven until it was too late (Death Penalty Facts, 2000).
Though, the study proves that there were twenty three cases, there are probably more because authors of the report claim that this number does not represent the total of all innocent victims. This is because once a victim is ex ….
