The Death Penalty Should Not Be Used
With the development of society and the spreading of freethinking, people now have an increased prospect for the dignity and right of life. It is becoming apparent that people are putting the right of life on the highest plane. They spend millions upon millions of money to improve medicine; they are against abortion and try hard to stop it. But the truth is they don’t see the core of the problem. They provide expensive medical technology to make rich people live longer while the poor can’t afford the simplest medical care; they think abortion is evil without considering the health and rights of women. The same problem also happen with the most controversial problem nowadays: many people disagree with ending the death penalty without considering the right of criminals and the social problem it can cause. In this author’s opinion, the death penalty should not be used according to the following reasons: death penalty is immoral, it is not efficiently a deterrent, and it can lead to unchangeable tragic consequences.
To begin with, the death penalty is immoral and unfair. The death penalty definitely violates the most basic human right. In every culture and religion, people believe human’s life is the most precious thing. Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states that "no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life"(International Covenant). Life is so short and we can only have is once. Nobody deserves to die, and nobody has the right to kill another person. Even criminals have a right to life. People who support the death penalty think that criminals who don’t respect other’s right of life should not have the right to life. But if we kill the criminals, we are doing exactly the same things they have done: take away other’s rights to life. Not only that, the death penalty gives people too much pain than they deserve. For example, people who have mental disease should get treatment but many of them get death penalty. According to the famous non-profit organization Death Penalty Focus, which devotes on abolish the death penalty, 5-10% of criminals who are under sentence of death have severe mental disease (Mental Illness). The Death Penalty is an unfair treatment for them. Not only the criminals suffer because of the death penalty, other people who are involved in it suffer as well. No matter what the method of execution is, there must be a person who directly kills the criminal. And there will be people who directly see it. We can never underestimate the influence of killing a person to the executioner. The research of National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty shows that many people who involved in executions are suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, such as nightmares and other forms of distress (Harm). The second reason to oppose the death penalty cannot reduce crime efficiently. Different from people’s common understanding, the death penalty is not more deterrent than other punishments, such as life imprisonment. According to the research of Death Penalty Information Centre, the murder rate in states that don’t have death penalty is lower than the rates in states that have the death penalty in America, and since 1990 the difference is becoming more obvious. In 2010, murder rate in death penalty states is 5.00%. Comparing with 4.01% murder rate in non-death penalty states, the percent difference is 25%( Deterrence). The death penalty also makes confession and amending impossible. It just simply concentrates on revenge for the victim, but does not have any contributions to the whole society. I think in modern society, enlightenment is more important than punishment. But the only effect the death penalty has is punishment, it deprives the opportunity of prisoners to confess and become a better person essentially. One thing we have to admit is that the death penalty is about justice because it gives the criminal