Tyler Deans
English 12, bell 3
Argumentative Research
12 March 2015
Death Penalty
You cannot solve a problem by ignoring it. that just leads to more problems. The thought of putting someone to death is terrible. Think of someone important to you or someone you love having their life taken away from them. This would cause great damage to you mentally, physically, emotionally and it will put a large hole in your pockets. No country should allow such harshening things to be done. Who would want to live in a country where murder is legal? Who would feel safe? The United States Government should abolish this, the death penalty. One of the worst ways to die is the death penalty. Capital punishment this is the most severe form of corporal punishment as it is requires law enforcement officers to kill the offender. It has been banned in many countries, in the United States, an earlier move to eliminate capital punishment has now been reversed and more and more states are resorting to capital punishment for serious offenses such as murder. In this essay, I will elaborate a bit on capital punishment. The death penalty or capital punishment is an issue that has sparked controversy and anxiety in today’s society. Capital punishment refers to “a sentence of death by execution”, for the crimes committed. In order to receive the death penalty an individual needs to commit certain types of crimes known as “capital crimes” or “capital offences”. Capital crimes include treason, perjury, kidnapping, rape, terrorism and murder.
Today, executions are carried out by either a lethal injection or electrocution. Countries like the United States can allow the convict to have a degree of “amnesty” by letting the convict choose other methods such as a gas chamber, hanging or even a firing squad. “Although a vast majority are against the death penalty , people who are in favor of the death penalty are in disagreement with solutions to stop the death penalty and many, might even ignore and evade solutions that are in front of them such as using life imprisonment or even a parole.” (Amnesty International) “It is a brutal and unjust technique of destroying the life individuals without knowing the truth about their problems, their past, or their suffering.” This is the 21st century and countries still perform these inhumane acts of executions. The power to execute people is not in the hands of nobody but, for supporters of the death penalty, it is a method of making sure that the criminal doesn’t make the same mistake twice or ever again. Death penalty is just wrong, it brings pain with suffering and without doubt, it should be abolished. The death penalty is also extremely racist. There have been significantly more executions of minorities than white Americans. Capital punishment also goes against the Constitution of the United States. Amendments eight and fourteen state that no cruel and unusual punishment can be inflicted and no state can deprive any person of life liberty or property. The death penalty clearly takes these privileges away from American citizens. "More than 2000 people are on death row today. Virtually all are poor, a significant number are mentally retarded or otherwise mentally disabled. More than forty percent are African American and disproportionate numbers are Native American, Latino, and Asian." (American Civil Liberties Union) It does not seem fair that only these people are dying. The Constitution states that everyone should be given a fair trial. These statistics do not prove to me that these people had a fair trial.
Religion is yet another big part when it comes to the death penalty. Many people who believe in it mustn’t know what the Bible says about death and killing. This is murder and the Bible says no to ANY slaughter. In the Bible, the 5th Commandment states that, “Thou shall not kill.” (Exodus 20:13) As a Christian I believe in the 5th Commandment and see that killing doesn’t make better, yet worse. If one kills