Teică Anamaria-Diana

Death Penalty/Capital Punishment in America

Capital Punishment or Death Penalty and it’s beginnings... let’s make a brief
introduction. We need to understand where it started, so, I made a research and that’s what
I found out.
The first established Death Penalty laws date as far back as the Eighteenth
Century B.C. in the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon, which codified the death
penalty for 25 different crimes. The Death Penalty was also part of the Fourteenth Century
B.C.'s Hittite Code; in the Seventh Century B.C.'s Draconian Code of Athens, which made
death the only punishment for all crimes; and in the Fifth Century B.C.'s Roman Law of
the Twelve Tablets. Death sentences were carried out by such means as crucifixion,
drowning, beating to death, burning alive, and impalement. Britain influenced America's
use of the death penalty more than any other country. When European settlers came to the
new world, they brought the practice of capital punishment. The first recorded execution in
the new colonies was that of Captain George Kendall in the Jamestown colony of Virginia
in 1608. Kendall was executed for being a spy for Spain. In 1612, Virginia Governor Sir
Thomas Dale enacted the Divine, Moral and Martial Laws, which provided the Death
Penalty for even minor offenses such as stealing grapes, killing chickens, and trading with
Indians. Laws regarding the death penalty varied from colony to colony. The
Massachusetts Bay Colony held its first execution in 1630, even though the Capital Laws
of New England did not go into effect until years later. The New York Colony instituted
the Duke's Laws of 1665. Under these laws, offenses such as striking one's mother or
father, or denying the "true God," were punishable by death. Above all, I taught it was
necessary to make a small historical summary.
But wait... why people were so cruel to each other in those times?! Perhaps from the
desire of power, or in the light of Divine Laws, then being very harsh and devious. By the
way, thinking about the Divine Laws, I would like to make a reference to the Bible and the
Old Testament. I found some verses from the Old Testament that caught my attention,
"Surely I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it. And from every
man, from every man's brother I will require the life of man.” (Genesis 9:5) or "You shall
not allow a sorceress to live.” (Exodus 22:18), "He who curses his father or his mother
shall surely be put to death.” (Exodus 21:17). Ouch, that was very cruel...
 In other words, I declare myself against the Capital Punishment! Why did I said that?
There are countless reasons why I declare this, one of them would be the love and respect
for Humanity. I truly agree with the quote by Gandhi who says that ’’An eye for an eye
makes the whole world blind.” If every person would be careful only to his needs and
feelings, where do we get? We need to be more empathic to each other. I mean, in the
present times it is supposed that we have raised our level of consciousness and we are able
to direct our attention to the suffering of people. Who are we to establish the guilt of a
man? Are we above him?...
The case of a boy caught my attention. His name is Dylann Storm Roof, is an
American white supremacist and mass murderer convicted for perpetrating the Charleston
church shooting on June 17, 2015. During a prayer service at Emanuel African Methodist
Episcopal Church, Roof killed nine people, all African Americans, including senior
pastor and state senator Clementa C. Pinckney, and injured one other person. After several
people identified Roof as the main suspect, he became the center of a manhunt that ended
the morning after the shooting with his arrest in Shelby, North Carolina. He later confessed
that he committed the shooting in hopes of igniting a race war. Yeah... we can’t allow such
things to happen, but was anyone interested in the story of his life until he judged this
young man so harshly? Well, I wanted to find out something about him. Roof was born
in Columbia, South Carolina, to Franklin Bennett Roof, a carpenter and a construction
contractor, and Amelia "Amy" Cowles, a bartender. His parents had divorced but were
temporarily reconciled at the time of his birth. When Roof was five, his father married
Paige Mann in November 1999; they divorced after ten years of marriage. This seems a
little bit shocking for a child who needs the peace and love of his parents. We’re still
wondering where the aggressive behavior develops? Another unpleasant aspect...
According to a 2009 statement filed for Mann's divorce, Roof exhibited "obsessive
compulsive behavior" as he grew up, obsessing over germs and insisting on having his hair
cut in a certain style. When he was in middle school, he exhibited an interest in
smoking marijuana, having once been caught spending money on it. So, there’s no wonder
he later bacame a killer... It is a shattering case that requires attention, but attention to child
develompent!
In my opinion, we have no right to take someone’s life, no matter how much it would
be wrong. We all make mistakes, it’s part of human nature. But who are we to judge and
condemn another person to death?
I found the case of an innocent man, unjustly punished. His name is Kirk Noble
Bloodsworth and he made the following statement: ”I am the first person in the United
States to be exonerated from a capital conviction through DNA testing. When I was
exonerated in 1993, I had spent 8 years, 11 months, and 19 days (including two years on
death row) for a crime I did not commit. I am living proof that America’s system of capital
punishment is broken beyond repair.” Is that normal? I can’t imagine how much rage has
accumulated this man against the system.
I would also like to make a classification of states that use Lethal Injection as a way
of killing a murder. These are some of them: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California,
Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Missouri, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota,
Tennessee, Texas, Utah and so on. In some of these states, there are another horrible
methods like Electrocutation, Lethal Gas, Hanging and Firing Squad. Delaware and
Washington have declare their capital sentencing procedures unconstitutional and have
resentenced all death-row prisoners to life without parole.
In other words, knowing some details about Death Penalty or Capital Punishment, I
support my point of view, the fact that we are not able to take someone’s life. In fact, it’s
completely unconstitutional. With the risk of being idealistic, I want peace and
understanding between people.
In conclusion, the wise man, Gandhi was right to say that ”An eye for an eye makes
the whole world blind.” We don’t need to take revenge or to respond to the same currency,
but to choose to be a model for those who are wrong and to have patience with them,
because everything has a good solution. Hoping we can make the planet a better place
through our good thoughts and actions!