Opposing Views On Capital Punishment

There are almost limitless differences in the way people view capital punishment throughout the world. Capital punishment, better known as the death penalty, is defined as the practice of executing an individual as the punishment for a specific crime after conviction by a court of law. In the United States, (in 2016) capital punishment is legal in 32 states, with Texas receiving the highest rates for death-sentencing. Across the world, however, since July of 2015, 140 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. Some people believe that it is simply unethical to determine when a human being should die, and others believe that the crime a person commits should match the consequence they’re presented with. Though capital punishment

Bryan Stevenson, a professor of law at the University of New York, states, "Ultimately, the moral question surrounding capital punishment in America has less to do with whether those convicted of violent crime deserve to die than with whether state and federal governments deserve to kill those whom it has imprisoned.” I agree with this statement because the death penalty itself is known to be other humans possessing the decision whether another human being should live or die. Although the person who committed the crime may be considered guilty, I strongly believe that it’s not up to us to make that call because every human has the right to live or die, no matter the crime. Capital punishment, to put it simply, undermines human dignity which is, needless to say, essential to every human being. I also argue that capital punishment itself violates the right to be subjected to torture and inhumane punishment, which I consider immoral. Ever since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, 124 people who were sentenced to capital punishment have been proven innocent. In other words, innocent human lives will be put to death due to transparent mistakes in the judicial

For instance, many believe that capital punishment deters violent crime. While it is difficult to produce sufficient evidence to support this claim, common sense, more or less, tells us that if people know they’ll die performing a certain act, they will NOT do it. Manuel Valasquez of the New York Times, claims that “If the threat of death has, in fact, stayed the hand of many a would be murderer, and we abolish the death penalty, we will sacrifice the lives of many innocent victims whose murders could have been deterred. But if, in fact, the death penalty does not deter, and we continue to impose it, we have only sacrificed the lives of convicted murderers.” To translate, if the death penalty is ridden of, the people who committed the crimes will continue to perform the crimes, but if the death penalty is still imposed, the lives of convicted murderers will be put to rest. In a larger sense, capital punishment is the ultimate warning against all crimes. If the criminal understands that the justice system will not stop at putting them to death, then the system appears more severe to him. Hence, he is less inclined to break and enter. He may have no intention of killing anyone in the process of robbing them, but is much more apprehensive about the possibility if he knows he will be executed. Thus, there is a better chance that he will not break and enter in the first