Capital Punishment Should be Abolished

Capital Punishment Should be Abolished

Up to date there isn’t a clear reason as to why a killer or a murderer should be killed in the name of justice. This has always been an issue that has had people divided as to whether death penalty or capital punishment should be practiced. In ancient times it was considered right to instill capital punishment to those deemed deserving by the rulers, the state then. As time passed by the punishment is facing challenges from activists and people who feel it is not right. Truly states all over the globe should abolish capital punishment.

Those who support capital punishment present various arguments to support their stand. They say that by offering such a punishment, it ensures that the offender can never harm any other innocent person in the society. They consider it a means of protecting the innocent. That is true considering that a dead person cannot harm anyone but they also forget that there are also other murderers locked up in cells for life and they will never harm any other innocent life. To add on this, some people convert to being better people after their heinous acts to an extent that they cannot be considered a threat anymore.

Some supporters of capital punishment say that the offenders earn the penalty from killing innocent citizens. By saying this, first of all they deny the offender his/her right to live. Everyone has a right to life, including such criminals. Taking another’s life is unacceptable a fact supported by almost all religions and pagans too. Citing the Holy Bible, it instructs us not to judge others but to leave the decision to the most high. Furthermore, arguing against capital punishment, we would all agree that the state is made up of fellow human beings with no special super powers to command if a life should or should not be taken away.  The supporters also argue that there is no point in feeding such a criminal for life. They consider it to be a waste of funds. On the other hand death penalty does the exact opposite since it wastes a lot of funds in the numerous appeals and the process involved to the point of offering the penalty. A wise move proposed by those that oppose the punishment is to spend the funds on the families of the murder victims to help them recover quickly from the trauma and horrific experience undergone.

Proponents of this idea also defend the act by saying that it is written in the Holy Scriptures, an eye for an eye. So they justify taking the offenders life. True that there are some few cases that can be solved in such a manner but this is not one of them. Two wrongs do not make a right. This rule was applied in the Old Testament but God brought the new commandment after the rule of Moses was being applied and instructed people to follow the new commandments and among them, it is clearly indicated that killing is a sin. We humans should not practice killing fellow humans. Jesus himself was sentenced to death legally. He looked up and told God to forgive them for they did not know what they were doing. Also He had encountered a group of people ready to stone a woman to death because she had committed adultery. Jesus told them to throw the stones if they had never sinned. They didn’t. Christ further insists that we love even those who wrong us.             

Those who agree with capital punishment also see it as a closure to the family’s victim. “Closure” a term they use to refer to vengeance for the family of the murder victim. They offer the punishment to comfort the victim’s families that justice has been served. However, their loss can never be repaid since they can never get back their lost family member. Secondly vengeance has never solved anything. It has been known to worsen situations in many cases. As a society we have the responsibility to care for each other as well as guide each other. By killing such murder offenders we eliminate them from the society while instead they should have been made to understand their actions were wrong and assist them accordingly to conform to becoming better people.

From the arguments above, it is not clear as to which message killing a person that has committed another killing sends. That killing is wrong so we kill some more? We all know the line between right and wrong. Whatever the offender did was wrong but we should not justify it by making another wrong, killing in the name of justice. Some of the people executed are no longer a threat to the society as they have changed or conformed. Some might even have not committed the crime they are accused of. Death penalty denies one their right to live and the state should not decide who lives and who doesn’t. This said, the state should seek other alternatives to capital punishment and abolish it.