Jose Julian Avila Arias

1.3

English B

The capital punishment in Colombia

Nowadays in Colombia, the murders and violations to children and women have
increased due to the mild punishment that applies to those citizens who break
the law. For this reason, the criminals do not receive exemplary jail sentence or
their actions and continue to commit crimes. Moreover, the government and
the religion are against applying stronger punishments like the capital
punishment and the life imprisonment. In most developed countries these
penalties have been applied to reduce hugely the crimes against children and
women. If in Colombia the crimes and violations meant to be punished fairly,
they should have death penalty.
From the moment that Luis Alfredo Garavito was arrested, it began a discussion
about how are punished criminals that hurt women and children in Colombia. A
minority of politicians agree with applying capital punishment to men and
women that kill innocent children, they should be punished with the maximum
penalty with their lives, so, perhaps future criminals will think better, before
committing a crime.
In many states in the USA the capital punishment has been applied to reduce
the crimes that involve children and women, since the laws allow to apply
capital punishment, although there is some opposition to the penalty. A couple
of samples about this is Jan Michael Brawner, 34, was pronounced dead at 6:18
p.m. after receiving a chemical injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at
Parchman, for fatally shooting his 3-year-old daughter, his ex-wife and her
parents in a crime in which authorities say he also stole his slain mother-inlaw's wedding ring and used it to propose marriage to his girlfriend. Next case
is a man convicted of killing his wife with help from his mistress' relative to
collect insurance money was put to death by lethal injection on March 3, 2012.
And the last case is Matthew "Eric" Wrinkles who was a convicted multiple
murderer, sentenced to death. He served 14 years at Indiana State Prison

located in Michigan City, Indiana, where he was also executed on December 11,
2009.
On July 21, 1994, Wrinkles murdered his wife, Debra Jean Wrinkles, his brotherin-law Tony Fulkerson, and Fulkerson's wife, Natalie Fulkerson, at their residence
in Evansville.
Timothy Shaun Stemple's execution in Oklahoma was carried out at the state
prison in McAlester after Gov Mary Fallin denied a request by the condemned
man's family to stay the capital punishment.
The Colombian judicial system is not prepared to adopt this penalty, perhaps
because there are not proper laws and it is very difficult to change them in a
time where corruption do not allow progress. The corruption is one of the main
troubles that Colombia faces in nowadays; the drug trafficking, the laundering
of money and white slave traffic are some examples that have not allowed to
change laws, because the government, police and army are more interested to
combat these problems that involve much more money that the problems of
murders and violations. The money plays an important role when the politicians
make laws, because they want to earn a lot easy money, and this is another
significant problem that Colombia must improve, if wishes to adopt stronger
penalties.
With hope that future governments begin thinking more about children and less
in how to become richer, everybody should be aware that protecting life is
everyone's problem, perhaps the maximum penalty like capital punishment is
not a solution but it could be a good option to reduce the index of homicides in
the country.