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WHY THE DEATH PENALTY SHOULD BE ABOLISHED

The world we live in has always had crime and criminals in it since time immemorial. In

order to have a society that doesn’t embrace crime, key deliberations have to be undertaken. For

so long, there have always been methods designed to punish those who commit crimes in order

to stop them and any other person from committing crime. Crime, however, is relative and has

always ranged in terms of its intensity and those it affects with its collateral damage. Due to this,

there have been punishments designed to counter the most serious of crimes. One of the

punishments that many states, including the United States of America, have come up with to

punish the most serious of criminals is the death penalty. By simple definition, the death penalty

can be defined as the capital and one that is sanctioned by the government of the day, which

involves the killing of a person by the same state as a punishment of a crime they previously

committed. In most cases than not, the crimes punishable by the death penalty are serious crimes

that go against humanity as a whole(Spinelli 66). This paper aims to justify why the death

penalty should be abolished.

The death penalty as an ethical and criminal justice problem

Until research ascertained that there had been 150 individuals who have been executed through

the death penalty, while they were innocent, this was never a loud ethical (NCSL, 12). It is
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therefore worthy of underlining that it emerged as an ethical problem when it started encroaching

into the morality that defines human beings, and that was in the execution of innocent

individuals. As of now, the problem of the death penalty is being addressed by increasing lengths

and numbers of appeals to ensure that every stone is turned before a verdict is offered. It is also

being addressed by being eliminated in many states, and as the days go by, many states are

banning its application.

Why it should be abolished

There are a number of reasons that work independently or dependently to underline the

fact that it is time the death penalty got abolished in its entirety. It is also these same reasons that

can be used as a reference to why the death penalty is ineffective and, therefore, an inhumane

way of trying to rectify crimes against humanity.

The main treason as to why the death penalty should be done away with is because it is

very inhumane, to say the least. It is one thing to underline the fact that there are crimes that are

hurting, it is another thing to punish those crimes in the best way possible. In the event that a

person is sentenced to the death penalty, this is inhuman because of the simple reason that a

person is probably being murdered for committing the same type of crime. Many have always

wondered, how is it justified to kill a person while trying to punish them? Some have even

question of death is punishment, now that when dead, the offender doesn’t suffer or account for

their mistakes anymore. This, therefore, goes against everything that the penal code stands for,

and hence a reason as to why its time to stop the death penalty all over the world, and justifiably

so, to say the least(Abascal et al. 34).

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The second reason is the fact that time and again, we have heard of wrongful convictions.

If this is the case, then a person who is wrongly convicted, when sentenced to the death penalty,

would have their lives ended, and the most painful thing is the fact that it can never be taken

back and hence very destructive, to say the least. Take an example of someone you loved, who,

because of circumstances or coincidence, ends up being accused of a crime they never

committed. At the time of trial, there is no evidence or enough of it to acquit them of the same

crime, and because the crime is heinous, he or she is sentenced to death. Years later, after his or

her death, the evidence that could have been used to acquit him or her is revealed. What then is

done to recover the life wrongfully ended? The fact that the death sentence is irreversible means

that any error could be as good as someone’s life. Looking at it from a wider scope, it is evident

and justifiably, so to say the least, that the death sentence should be abolished.

It is also important to abolish the death penalty because it makes a public spectacle out of

the killing of an individual. As mentioned earlier, there will never be a humane way to kill

anybody and what this does is it makes the killing of an individual even worse by exposing it to

many people and making a spectacle out of it. A society that punishes murders very heavily for

ending someone’s life can never be the same society that celebrates the death of another, for

whatever the reason. A quick look at some of the cases that ended in death sentences, the public

has always been served a lot of spectacles, media twists, and anticipations. This should never be

the case in the very first place. The fact that the death penalty creates a spectacle in the killing of

a person makes it disgusting and should therefore be fully abolished.

It is not effective at all, and this is justified by the fact that it doesn’t deter criminals. A

study has shown that since the abolishment of the death penalty and a replacement with the life

sentence, the murder rates in Canada have significantly dropped. For so many years, criminals
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used to be hanged or killed, but the types of crimes they were killed or hanged for never ceased

to exist, and this is an example of how it doesn’t deter crime. This, therefore, goes a very long

way to highlight the fact that it was never effective and hence should be abolished in countries

where it is still being used to date. At the same time, this should serve as enough reiteration of

the fact that the death penalty, in its use, never achieves the maximum result, and has collateral

damage, to say the least.

Policy Solution

My policy solution is to abolish the death penalty as it violates human rights. Not only is

the death penalty cruel and unusual punishment, but it violates human rights that are cited in our

8th amendments “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and

unusual punishment,” and the 13th amendments state, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,

except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist

within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. It is should also be abolished

because of the inaccuracies that come with DNA forensics. Study has ascertained that over 150

people have been wrongfully convicted, and 34 of these were because of inaccurate DNA

information(Garrett, Jakubow, & Desai, 24). This is, therefore, a detailed account of my

proposed policy solution and why it is also justified, bearing in mind the issue it aims to counter

in the long run.

The best way to implement this policy solution would be through enacting laws that stop

the courts from exercising this kind of punishment. It is blatantly clear that the best way to

abolish the death penalty would be to go back to parliaments and other legislation arms and

construct an elaborate law that abolishes the death penalty in all the states. It is important to

underline that to implement this solution better, the executive and the legislature will have to
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work together to achieve the desired level of efficiency. At the same time, it is worthy of

coverage to mention that, for this policy solution to work better, other non-governmental

institutions and organizations could come in handy because of their ability to hold the

government accountable for most of its decisions and deliberations. In these actors, then this

policy will find a way of becoming efficient and achieving its purpose, which is to eliminate this

ethical problem. This is, therefore, how the policy solution could be implemented.

Counterargument

There are those who think that the death penalty is appropriate, and they aren’t wrong in

their thinking, as much as they are different from what this paper has covered and implied. Their

argument is that the death penalty isn’t there to punish these criminals or make fin out of them,

but to set a precedence in society going forward. It is acknowledged that killing someone doesn’t

punish them because they are simply dead and have no feelings (Garrett et al. 23). It is the

impression it leaves on society that matters, and that is to scare others from committing any

serious crime. This is the main counterargument to this argument and one that is also justified in

its own rights. By mentioning and discussing it, we are able to draw an understanding of those

who are opposed to our view of things.

Conclusion

In conclusion, based on the above points, among many others, the death penalty should

be abolished as it goes against what humanity is all about. The progression of this essay has

managed to paint an accurate picture of why the death penalty needs to be done away with. The

justifications given herein aren’t the only ones, but some of the most reliable ones, to say the

least. For the purposes of rationality, a counterargument has also been given in the later parts of
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this paper. This paper recommends doing more research at the grassroots level to further

understand this criminal justice problem, and therefore make the relevant counter-measures.

With comprehension and attention to detail, this paper has managed to prove that the death

sentence should indeed be abolished.

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References

Abascal, Aliana, et al. ‘Exclusion of Psychiatric Diagnosis and Substance Use in Consideration

of Death Penalty Case Appeal.’ Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the

Law, 2018.

Spinelli, Margaret. ‘Infanticide and American Criminal Justice (1980–2018)’. Archives of

Women’s Mental Health, 2019, doi:10.1007/s00737-018-0873-7.

Garrett, B. L., Jakubow, A., & Desai, A. The American death penalty decline. The Journal of

Criminal Law and Criminology.2017

NCSL. States and Capital Punishment. .2018.