CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

Capital punishment is one of the most controversial issues nowadays. It appears that everybody fiercely claims what they feel are strong, let alone “righteous” arguments about such an issue: “ an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth! ” some might say. But are we being serious about how we are judging this situation? I am posing this question with a view to raise readers’ awareness on the seriousness of this thorny subject, hoping that those who view such punishment in a good light may change their views.

Those in favour of death penalty wholeheartedly believe that it is the right thing to do seeing that putting the actual criminal to sleep will definitely act as a deterrent to possible, subsequent murders. In fact, as most people agree, this will for sure prevent the assassin from taking the lives of more victims – but then, aren’t we deterring murder by actually committing the same crime? That would turn US into murderers and, is this the sort of example we want to set to criminals? Even though both killings are carried out for different reasons, I hold that murdering someone is never right whatever the reason. No one is “entitled” to do such a thing. Besides, what if we end up murdering a completely innocent person?

On the other hand, I feel that we should analize the different reasons that may have led a criminal to take someone else’s life before we arrive at such a verdict. There are plenty of psychological variances that come into play which could lead us not to necessarily kill the assassin, but to punish them in other ways. Other sorts of punishment may eventually help criminals to recover from possible mental disorders which might have prompted the killing. For instance, it could be the case that a pyromaniac sets fire to a building, murdering lots of people due to their mental illness. In the light of this, the crime should, to my way of thinking, be judged from a different perspective.

All in all, personally, I reckon capital punishment is an issue we should give a second thought.