Supporting a Position against Capital Punishment
Should criminals that commit such violent crimes that are so inhumane to a society be terminated, giving up their right to life because of their behavior? Simply put eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, and life for a life. I believe there are two problems with this; it is morally wrong and irresponsible. We as a society has taken for granted and assuming that every individual we put on death row and execute is guilty.
Another point that needs to be mentioned, as a society do we have the right to execute another human based on the fact that an individual was proven guilty in a less than perfect court of law? History has shown we as a society have executed people who were convicted and later found to be innocent through DNA and other resources. I will maintain there is a time for justifiable killing; when we need to protect ourselves or society from perpetrators who by their very action are going to cause bodily injury or death, at such a time killing the perpetrator is the only way to prevent such actions. Execution is not justifiable!
“On June 29, 1972 the United States Supreme Court ruled in Furman v. Georgia that death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment and ruled unconstitutional. This ruling was over turned by the Supreme Court on July 2, 1976 Gregg v. Georgia stating that it was constitutional and could be re-establish by any state that wanted to adopt it. A Gallup public opinion poll shows a gradual increase in the percentage of people in favor of the death penalty. In 1969, 51 percent supported capital punishment; in 2002 that number raised to 72 percent.”
(Hoekema, 2003)
The argument that we are protecting society from murders by executing them is fallacy! “This argument, based not strictly on deterrence but on incapacitation of know offenders, is inconclusive, since there are other effective means of protecting the innocent against convicted murders- for example, imprisonment...