EVERY COUNTRY OF THE WORLD SHOULD CARRY OUT CAPITAL PUNISHMENT (DEATH PENALTY)
INTRODUCTION
“I don’t think you should support the death penalty to seek revenge. I don’t think that’s right. I think the reason to support the death penalty is because it saves other people’s lives.” (http://www.giga-usa.com/quotes/topics/capital_punishment_t001.htm)
Capital punishment, also known as death penalty, is defined as the execution of a convicted criminal by the state for crimes such as murder, robbery with violence, attempted robbery with violence, rape or treason (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/capital_punishment)
Currently 89 countries have abolished capital punishment for all offences, 10 for all offences except under special circumstances, and 29 others have not used it for at least 10 years. A total of 69 countries retain it. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/capital_punishment).
Kenya still upholds the death penalty. In practice, suspects on capital offences like murder, violent robbery and treason risk being condemned to hang if found guilty of committing the offences. The human rights body in Kenya i.e. the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), is urging the government to commute all death sentences to life sentences (Daily Nation, 2007:11).
Death penalty is a contentious issue and people hold different views on its practice.
DISCUSSION
Whereas opponents of death penalty argue that it violates basic human rights. I disagree with them because in my opinion, death penalty is a punishment for human rights violation. In fact, death penalty protects life, in the sense that, the criminal is eliminated and foreseeable murders are deterred.
Critics of the death penalty also hold the view that it does not deter crime, in addition to the argument that it violates basic human rights. This might be true to some extent, bearing in mind the fact that death row convicts are hardly ever executed (for example, the last execution in Kenya was...