DEATH PENALTY

It feels nothing when you are on a death row. You don’t live for tomorrow because you don’t
know if you still got one. You only live for today. Death penalty is a government-sanctioned practice
wherein the state puts a person to death as punishment for a crime. This results in death by beheading,
lethal injection, hanging, shooting and electrocution.
Killing someone, the meaning of this sentence already informs us that killing is wrong. In many
states, death penalty or also known as capital punishment is legal as a punishment for heinous crimes,
but that doesn't make it right. We should stop capital punishment because it is morally wrong. Why?
First, if all people who are convicted will be executed, mistakes could be possible. How can we
risk putting an innocent person into death? Even though we want to think that our justice systems are
perfect, we are far from it. Absolute decisions can result in people paying for crimes which they have
not committed. There are many cases wherein after their execution, further evidences were revealed
and ended up on a not guilty accusation but it was too late. We can’t take back someone’s life.
Second, it is prejudice. Are you familiar with the song “Tatsulok” by Bamboo which says that
“ang hustisya ay para lang sa mayaman”. Yes, death penalty is anti-poor, people who are poor are more
likely to be sentenced to death than the wealthy one. One main reason behind this great difference is
that rich people seem to have more resources to defend themselves unlike to poor people.
Next, it doesn’t deter crimes. There is no concrete evidence that the death penalty is way more
effective in reducing crime than life imprisonment. Most of those states with the lowest murder rates
have no death penalty. To put it differently, the existence of the death sentence has no effect on crime.
Death penalty creates a revenge aspect and it is not for justice. Because it denies the most
important values of human life. We can’t blame the families of victims in seeking justice. But because
of their pain and loss there is enough reason for even considering things such as revenge. However, the
problem we have with the death penalty is that it does not enforce as a form of justice. You build this
belief of culture that if you do something to me, I can do exactly the same thing to you.
Justice has the purpose of creating a situation where truth has a clear high ground. When we
allow the state to kill people for its own heinous actions as a result, then we also devalue life itself. Just
because we have the rule by our side doesn't mean sentencing someone to death is a morally correct
choice.
The best solution to capital punishment is life imprisonment. Life imprisonment would be a
better option, as it reduces errors. If an innocent person is guilty of a crime and that person is put to
death and was ever to be proven innocent, there's no going back. If we continue this, we risk our
country in making the ultimate mistake.
Furthermore, capital punishment should be removed from the legal system. And people should
see that it is morally wrong. Criminals have done heinous crimes in their life but this does not mean
that they have no right to live. We have every positive reason to live. Nobody is perfect in this world
we all commit mistakes, let God decides the punishment for them. I believe that a mistake cannot be
corrected by doing another mistake.