Jose Julian Avila Arias English B 1.

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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-in-law'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 brother-in-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.