Warranting a Death Warrant The death penalty as a punishment for inhumane crimes dates back as far as the 18th century B.C. in the Code of the Babylonian King Hammurabi. His methods and values towards social structure portray the etymological history of the phrase ‘an eye for an eye’. Society used to value this ideal. However, in modern times, debates over the death penalty question the morality and ethics of putting to death one who has committed the same act. Tensions have boiled over to point that many call for the eradication of the death penalty itself. While abolitionists of the death penalty make strong arguments in their favor, the death penalty offers an incentive for citizens to follow the law, gives the state the power to execute …show more content…
The government works to ensure the guilty receive adequate justice for their crime, and the act of pursuing justice granted to the state by the will of the governed ensures that “[executing] a lawfully condemned prisoner” defies the label of murder (Koch). The common misconception of characterizing the death penalty as murder rejects the rights of the state which supersede those of the individual. In the government’s efforts to ensure justice to criminals for crimes committed, they have a wide variety of options available to them, and it is the job of the judge and jury to confirm that the punishment meets the crime. If the average citizen executes those they believe culprits of heinous crimes, they willfully choose the path of manslaughter over specious justice because only the government has the power and ultimate responsibility to condemn the …show more content…
It offers a better alternative to everyone involved, including the victim, the prisoner, the families of both, and society as a whole. Any person who takes the life, security, or peace of mind of another human being deserves the same in return. Those who deny the death penalty’s effectiveness give criminals a green light to murder, rape, and burglarize innocent members of society. By sustaining the death penalty, we stand up to injustice and crime in our