cite my essay

A total of 28 inmates were executed in the United States in the states of Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia. The number of the inmates on death row was estimated to be over 3,000. The leading state in these executions is Alabama with the latest case being in 2011. The other states have however a considerable frequency of the executions. The death penalty is nowadays prevalent only in the USA. All countries in the world have abolished these laws.

The first case of capital punishment was the execution of a Spanish spy Captain George Kendall by the British in North America in the year 1968. He was executed by the firing squad at the Jamestown colony. The next was the hanging of the British Major Andre by the then continental army. This took place during the American Revolution war at Tappan in New York. The event took place on October 2, 1780. He had been convicted of espionage. There are also various documented cases of capital punishment throughout the US. In one of the files by a writer M. Watt Espy and John Ortiz Smykla, a total of 15,269 people were executed between 1608 and the year 1991. The US also executed 135 soldiers between 1916 and 1955. It is evident that executions were very common in the 19th century in the US.

The history of capital punishment cannot go without the mention of the execution of the 38 American Indians who were accused of rape and murder in the Dakota war of 1862. The executions were simultaneous and were carried out on Dec 26th 1862 in Mankato, Minnesota. They were killed by a four-sided platform that had being released by cutting a rope that held it. Only one of them survived because his rope had broken without the executioner’s knowledge but he was later hanged. The second largest case was the execution by hanging 13 African-American Soldiers who took part in a riot in Houston in the year 1917. A non- military execution also took place in 1723 where 26 pirates who had been convicted were hanged in the Rhode Island which was one of the original thirteen colonies.

Capital punishment is to date still a very controversial topic in most of the communities in the world today. Different people have different reasons for supporting or opposing the practice. The major reasons for any kind of bias to the topic were emotional opposition, morality, law and order among the student community in the US. The other significant reasons were the fear of crime, religion and other methods of punishment to the convicts. This indicates that there is a need to pay a greater level of attention and indulge in deeper research concerning the topic. Politics also play a major role in the support or opposition of capital punishment. Research has shown that Republicans are generally for it while Democrats do not support it. Most religions also do not advocate for capital punishment.

There are reasons why I would support capital punishment although I still would advocate for a better solution if it was my call. The major reason is deterrence. This means that the penalty holds criminals back by the mere mentality that the severity of the punishment is way too harsh compared to the benefits. In some cases this is exercised by dealing with the offender in a way that the other prospective offenders learn a lesson and stay away from crime. This has worked well for the crimes of murder and hence should be adopted even by other countries in the world. Other sects of politicians argue that deterrence is not actually effective by capital punishment as it tends to promote more crime (brutalization effect). The deterrence theory is however of the position that violence is minimized through capital punishment.

Another major reason for my support for death penalty is that it helps create an attitude in the public about capital crimes. This is the attribution theory, which advocates for an equal punishment for an evil activity/crime committed. This helps scare away criminals and promotes morality in the society. This can even be supported by the bible in the book of Leviticus where the punishment exercised on a person was equal to the crime he had committed. If a person commits murder, he is supposed to be killed. It is however limited to murder. It is important that people do not take reattribution as a revenge method and that the families of the affected people should not take it an emotional punishment to them as it has been the case in the past. It should instead be taken that the society has been helped in getting rid of a person who was a social misfit. In my opinion the authorities and the government should enforce this method.

Incapacitation is another reason why I would advocate for capital punishment. This is the total confinement of criminal offenders in state facilities to deter them from indulging crime. One of the methods of doing this is by death. This makes sure that he does not victimize inmates and also eradicates the possibility of escape from the prison and possible harm to the general public. This is also a reason for abolishing the life sentence which in actual sense does not mean a criminal gets to spend the rest of his life in prison. Somehow, the criminals tend to get released somewhere down the line and they go back and continue terrorizing the innocent people. Execution of such criminals guarantees safety in the future.

The other rational reason why I would support capital punishment is the mere intolerance to insecurity that continues to wreak havoc in the community. The authorities need to tighten the security apparatus so as to guarantee safety to the innocent Kenyans. If this means death penalty for offenders, then let it be. It is also cheaper to execute the criminals and rid the government of unnecessary expenses of taking care of criminals.

However, there are other reasons that win against capital punishment. The core one is morality. However much a human person commits crime, it is still immoral for him or her to be executed. This is regarded as against civilization. There is a saying that states that an eye for an eye leaves the world blind. This is quite a good reason for the state authorities to drop the punitive punishment methods like death penalties. There is also the risk of executing the wrong people in states and countries where justice is highly compromised. The passing of these judgments is sometimes motivated and guided by emotions of the judges. This is very unfair and should be used as a valid reason for the abolition of the sentence. Rehabilitation of the criminals should instead be encouraged. This will make sure that the offenders return to the right path and they become useful in the society. This is also referred to as treatment. It has been supported and opposed in equal measure especially in the western countries. Religiously, it is illogical to argue that capital punishment equals the odds for the crimes committed. So whilst, rehabilitation is a valid reason to oppose capital punishment, the other three punishment ideologies clearly provide reasons for supporting the death penalty.

My take on capital punishment is that, though it may seem to serve justice to the families of those afflicted, it is important that there is respect for human rights in the execution process. Some of the methods used to execute the criminals are very inhuman and do not respect human dignity. The execution of criminals does not guarantee making the community of crime as new criminals continue to be born each day. The government and the international community need to adopt other means of dealing with hardcore criminals. This has already been adopted by majority of countries in the world and it is only fair that the US follows suit. This will save the families of the criminals the mental torture of bearing with the fact that their loved one is about to be taken away from them in the most inhuman manner. It will also give a chance to the criminals to rehabilitate and pursue constructive activities in their life. Biblically, it is a sin to take the life of a person regardless of the crime he has committed. It is also stated that revenge should be left to God. Basing my argument on this, I would recommend an alternative method of punishment to capital punishment.

The abolition of capital punishment in two thirds of the countries in the world is a positive move and should be applauded. The US needs to follow suit and end the vice. It is evident that executions have been based on racial prejudices with most victims being the blacks. Some of them are innocently executed due to faulty investigations and judgments. The legal process towards execution is also very expensive and consumes unnecessary resources. This practice has also been biased when it comes to foreigners. It has been documented that 28 foreign nationals have been executed without being informed of their offences and this has strained international relations between the US and their native countries. This obviously something that needs to be discouraged. It is also against the international laws on human rights passed in the year 1948 which discourages capital punishment. It is a shame that the US still upholds such inhuman laws. The use of voluntary confession can also not be used to validate executions as in most cases, the victims were tortured into admitting the crimes (As was the case in the Madison Hobley and Anderson Peterson in Illinois) other cases involved the judges being corruptly compromised hence leading to very wrongful executions. Some of the other factors that have contributed to wrongful convictions include: Inadequate presentation, Jailhouse testimony, misinterpretation of evidence and political or communal influence. These factors lead to disregard of human rights during the passing of the judgment.

It is also against the medical practice law to kill a person. The execution of criminals by lethal injections puts the medical practitioners at cross roads as they have sworn an oath to protect lives. This makes the professional ethics of these doctors compromised and hence should be discourage. The state needs to acknowledge that times have passed when the punitive laws were practiced. We need to adopt judicial systems that regard human life and give second chances to offenders and criminals irrespective of their magnitudes. This will open doors for the adoption of better methods of punishment and rehabilitation. No one needs to loose life because of a crime. If we execute criminals, we lose more than we gain.

Work cited

Kenneth Jost. Death penalty debates: is the capital system working? November 19, 2010