Our 1st argument / issue against death penalty is that Capital punishment

is cruel and inhumane

According to Amnesty International, the death penalty violates the

most fundamental human right – the right to life. It is the ultimate cruel,
inhuman and degrading punishment. ... An innocent person may be released
from prison for a crime they did not commit, but an execution can never be
reversed.

The death penalty is a denial of the most basic human rights; it violates
one of the most fundamental principles under widely accepted human rights
law—that states must recognize the right to life. The UN General Assembly,
the representative body of recognized States, has called for an end to the
death penalty and human rights organizations agree that its imposition
breaches fundamental enshrined human rights norms. Convention is quickly
moving towards a position in support of worldwide abolition.

Under Article 3 of the UDHR, life is a human right. Without life, you
cannot exercise all other rights. This makes the death penalty our most
fundamental human rights violation. As long as governments have the right
to extinguish lives, they maintain the power to deny access to every other
right enumerated in the Declaration.

In many parts of the world, the death penalty is now generally

understood to be a human rights violation. This understanding has led to
progress in the abolition of the death penalty worldwide.

According to amnesty international, today, over 140 nations have

abolished the death penalty either by law or in practice and, of the 56
countries that have retained the death penalty, only 21 carried out known
executions in 2011.

Now, what makes death penalty so cruel? There as many ways or

methods of execution. Some of these methods may be considered as barbaric.
In the US, for example, Prisoners are executed in the United States by any
one of five methods; in a few jurisdictions the prisoner is allowed to choose
which one he or she prefers.

The traditional mode of execution, hanging, is an option still available

in Delaware, New Hampshire and Washington. Death on the gallows is easily
bungled: If the drop is too short, there will be a slow and agonizing death by
strangulation. If the drop is too long, the head will be torn off. This too is oone
of the most common way of execution in Iran. I am sure some you have seen
imgaes of prisoners hanging from a construction crane, displayed to public
and left for several hours.

Two states in the US, Idaho and Utah, still authorize the firing squad.
In this method of execution, the prisoner is strapped into a chair and hooded.
A target is pinned to the chest. Five marksmen, one with blanks, take aim and
fire. China traditionally also uses the firing squad as its standard method of
execution. In our history, we know someone very close to our hearts that
suffered this kind of execution – our national hero, Jose Rizal.

Throughout the twentieth century, electrocution has been the most

widely used form of execution in this US, and is still utilized in eleven states,
although lethal injection is the primary method of execution. The condemned
prisoner is led – or dragged – into the death chamber, strapped into the chair,
and electrodes are fastened to head and legs. When the switch is thrown the
body strains, jolting as the voltage is raised and lowered. Often smoke rises
from the head. There is the awful odor of burning flesh. No one knows how
long electrocuted individuals retain consciousness. Have ypu seen the movie
“The Green Mile”, from that movie we can see how cruel electrocution is. How
painful it is to the prisoner and how simple mistake by the executioner can
cause so much more pain to the prisoner. One known case is the case of
William E. Vandiver. October 16, 1985. Indiana. According to witnesses of the
execution, After the first administration of 2,300 volts, Vandiver was still
breathing. The execution eventually took 17 minutes and five jolts of
electricity.[8] Vandiver’s attorney, Herbert Shaps, witnessed the execution
and observed smoke and the smell of burning. Imagine the torture of being
electrocuted for 17 mins.

The introduction of the gas chamber was an attempt to improve on

electrocution. In this method of execution the prisoner is strapped into a chair
with a container of sulfuric acid underneath. The chamber is sealed, and
cyanide is dropped into the acid to form a lethal gas. Execution by suffocation
in the lethal gas chamber has not been abolished but lethal injection serves
as the primary method in states which still authorize it. In 1996 a panel of
judges on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California (where the gas
chamber has been used since 1933) ruled that this method is a "cruel and
unusual punishment." According to the Report, the 1992 execution in Arizona
of Don Harding, “Don Harding took ten minutes and thirty one seconds to die."

The latest mode of inflicting the death penalty, enacted into law by more
than 30 states in the US and also here in the Philippines, is lethal injection,.
Lethal is considered as the most humane of these methods of execution. It is
even claimed that under this method, the prisoner will feel pain.
 However, it is easy to overstate the humaneness and efficacy of this
method; one cannot know whether lethal injection is really painless and there
is evidence that it is not. Also, this method of execution is also prone to error.
Even a slight error in dosage or administration can leave a prisoner conscious
but paralyzed while dying. There several recorded cases where observer noted
that lethal injection caused so much pain for the inmate.

Have guys seen the film law abiding citizen? In that film, there is a scene
where one of the convicted murderer is being executed. However, the
execution did not go as planned. Instead of dying peaceful and painless, the
inmate suffered immesurable pain. The reason – the main protagonist, Gerard
Butler, was able to swap the chemicals used in the execution.

That scene is not very far from reality. In fact, it was also observed
several executions through lethal injection in US. For example, in March 10,
1992 in Oklahoma during the execution Robyn Lee Parks using Lethal
Injection. Parks had a violent reaction to the drugs used in the lethal injection.
Two minutes after the drugs were dispensed, the muscles in his jaw, neck,
and abdomen began to react spasmodically for approximately 45 seconds.
Parks continued to gasp and violently gag until death came, some eleven
minutes after the drugs were first administered. A reported wrote that the
execution looked “painful,” “scary and ugly.” That’s not the only problem
encountered in lethal injections, for example, April 23, 1992 in Texas during
the execution of Billy Wayne White using Lethal Injection. White was
pronounced dead some 47 minutes after being strapped to the execution
gurney. The delay was caused by difficulty finding a vein because of White’s
long history of heroin abuse. During the execution, White attempted to assist
the authorities in finding a suitable vein.
 Based on these experiences, there is no denial that any form of
execution is cruel and in violation of the rights of a person under the universal
declaration of human rights.

Thus, in 1989, the General Assembly adopted the Second Optional

Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),
one of the UN’s primary human rights treaties.[36] Parties to the Protocol
must take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty and protect
their citizens’ right not to be executed, although signatories may reserve the
right to apply the death penalty for serious military criminals during wartime

No. 2 issue on death penalty is The death penalty disproportionately

affects certain groups

The death penalty is not a good example of blind justice. Studies show
that the mentally ill, people of color, and the poor make up the majority of
death row inmates. When researchers take a deeper dive, they discover
patterns of discrimination based on race.

According to the United Nations, the poor are also disproportionately

affected by the death penalty on a global scale. They are less likely to get
good representation and the system is biased against them. Even though
these groups are not committing the most crimes, they are the ones receiving
the most severe punishment. In a report published by the UN Human Rights
Office of the High Commissioner, United Nations human rights experts*called
for urgent action to end the disproportionate impact of the death penalty on
people from poorer communities. They say imposing the death penalty as a
result of discrimination constitutes an arbitrary killing and Governments must
not stand idly by. According to the report, If you are poor, the chances of
being sentenced to death are immensely higher than if you are rich. There
could be no greater indictment of the death penalty than the fact that in
practice it is really a penalty reserved for people from lower socio-economic
groups. This turns it into a class-based form of discrimination in most
countries, thus making it the equivalent of an arbitrary killing.

However, for the purpose of our discussion, I’ll focus on the racial
discrimination in the US. In the United States, between 5-10% of prisoners on
death row have a severe mental illness, according to Mental Health America.
As for racial groups, as you can see from the graph, 56% of the execution are
white americans. While only 34% for black americans. Seems okay right? In
this graph, one may argue that there are more white americans being
executed compared to other race, so where’s the discrimination?

In determining whether the death penalty in the US

disproportionately affects certain groups, you should not look in this
graph showing the percentage of execution per race. As can be seen in this
slide, yes it is true that there are more white americans being executed than
black americans, but if you consider the totality of US population per rece,
you can now clearly see the disproportion. Despite making up only 12% of the
US population, black people make up over 34% of the prisoners with a death
sentence.

In a studies like that commissioned by the Governor of Maryland found

that “black offenders who kill white victims are at greater risk of a death
sentence than others, primarily because they are substantially more likely to
be charged by the state’s attorney with a capital offense.”
 Another recent Louisiana study found that defendants with white victims
were 97% more likely to receive death sentences than defendants with black
victims.

This how death penalty disproportionately affects certain groups.

#3. The death penalty can be used as a tool for control and retribution,
not justice

In theory, the death penalty is only intended for use as punishment for
the most serious crimes, like murder. However, in places around the world,
governments use executions for non-lethal crimes. This includes drug-related
offenses, burglary, adultery, blasphemy, and political crimes.

The authorities in some countries, for example Iran and Sudan, use the
death penalty to punish political opponents.

Also, women are also subject to capital punishment as a result of

the discriminatory nature of several laws that directly concern them. Lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals can face capital punishment
as well because of the criminalization of certain same-sex conduct, which is
punishable by death in Iran.

To better understand this arguments, let me give some crimes, other

than murder or rape, that are punishable by death penalty. For this report,
our focus is the situation in Iran.

Under laws of Iran, these offenses, which for our culture is not
considered so grave that under our laws may only be punished by fine and
imprisonment, are punishable by death.
Fornication: Article 63 of the IPC defines fornication as sexual intercourse
between persons not married to each other. Fornicators shall be lashed 100
times. However, a man or a woman who has been convicted for fornication
several times shall be killed.
Same sex relation: The penalty for anal sex involving penetration is death for
both parties provided that they are adults, mature and of free will. If same
sex relations without penetration occur between a non-Moslem and a Moslem
as a passive partner, the former shall be killed.

Accusation of fornication & sodomy: Anybody who accuses others of having

committed fornication or having been sodomised may be punished by death
on the fourth count

DRINKING: Article 179 of the IPC foresees the death penalty for drinking
alcoholic beverages on the third count, provided that the condemned person
has received the punishment of 80 lashes on each of the first two counts.

THEFT: Theft is punishable by death on the fourth count even if it is committed

in prison

ARMED AND POLITICALOFFENSE: “Anybody who takes up arms to create fear

and to divest people of their freedom and security is mohareb and mofsed-e
fel-arz.” Anybody convicted of being mohareb or mofsed-e fel-arz or both may
be sentenced to death at the behest of the ruling judge.

Apostacy: Article 26 of the Press Code of 1985 expressly states: “Anybody

who insults Islam and its sanctities by means of the press, amounting to
apostasy, shall receive the sentence for apostacy. Thus, judges have invoked
the said Article 214 to mete out the death sentence in many apostasy.

Cursing the prophet: . “Anybody who insults the sanctities of Islam and/or any
of the grand prophets or the infallible imams or [prophet Mohammad’s
daughter] shall be executed if the case is considered to be cursing of the
prophet…”(Article 513)

I know that in their cultures, these acts is considered so grave to merit death
sentence. However, for us observe, we death penalty for these offenses may
be too much.

Based from the foregoing, It becomes clear that many governments are not
interested in justice, but rather suppression and control. By using the death
penalty so arbitrarily, authorities set their own definitions for what’s
“unacceptable” in society and what’s an appropriate punishment. It makes
citizens fearful and violates their human rights. Allowing the death penalty to
exist allows corrupt governments to use executions for their own purposes.