Hannah Gomes 11-1

The Death Penalty Must Be Abolished (Worldwide) The Death Penalty is the killing of a person as punishment for an offense. The Death Penalty no longer exists in the UK, it was eradicated for definite in 1998 as it hadnt been used since 1964 but still remained as a law. Its still a concern for countries such as the USA who have up to 300 people executed each year in some states. The five aims of The Death Penalty are retribution, deterrence, protection, reformation and vindication. Some of these aims are supposed to be met by the Death Penalty for instance deterrence, protection and vindication but is too strong a punishment and doesnt allow for reformation. It is the most ridiculous system to prevent crime that has ever been enforced; it is inefficient and does not meet its aims well enough to be successful. It must be abolished. Generally people on Death Row have committed murder or drug related offences, but do they really deserve to be killed for it? We have no right to determine who deserves to be killed. Who lives, who dies, who decides? As the Bible says let him who is without sin cast the first stone. Everyone has sinned in one way or another so we cannot under any circumstances be hypocrites and punish others because of their sins when we have not been punished for our own. This is not to say that we should be severely punished for petty crimes but we cannot pass judgement if our own conscience is not clear. Its not just that people are being killed in torturous ways that are called and defended as supposedly the most humane methods, but it begs the question is killing someone at all humane in any way? There are also the innocent people who are accused and yet have done absolutely nothing wrong. If anyone is able to say that The Death Penalty should be kept despite the issue of innocent death then they are just as good as the murders themselves. Derek Bentley a British teenager and Christopher Craig burgled a warehouse on 2nd November 1952; his friend Christopher Craig murdered a police officer by shooting him in the head. If anyone had to be given the Death sentence in this case, it should be Christopher Craig. However as Craig was under the age of 18 he couldnt be held responsible, he was given 10 years imprisonment but Bentley was sentenced to death. Any reasonable, moral person must see that it is an extremely bad system that we have to remove. If the moral argument is not enough to make you think twice about having the Death Penalty then maybe the methods used will. The most common way used is the lethal injection. Imagine being strapped down in a chair, knowing you will be injected with something that will kill you. Imagine how your family would feel, maybe even your children? The pain, suffering and grief they would experience. Possibly even the regret of not being able to stop you from being killed. In short, its not just the victim of The Death Penalty that suffers its also their family and friends. Should we emotionally torture innocent people because of something that someone else has done? Isnt seeing their father, brother or other family member incarcerated suffering enough?

Mrs Richards Creative writing

Hannah Gomes 11-1

In the South, there are a significantly higher number of black people being put on Death Row than white. This is a reflection of the racism that still exists and shows the institutional racism within Americas legal system. Representation is an area in which the law is biased in favour of those with money. People are often given incompetent lawyers that are inexperienced to deal with such an area like the sentencing of death, yet they need to be in order to represent those people the best they possibly can. If the law is going to be unequal and biased towards certain individuals, how can it fulfil its purpose and protect sane people from harm when it is inflicting harm on others? This leads to an argument about social provision and how certain sectors of society are not receiving a proper education and housing which lead them to crime. Many laws may have to be reconsidered and changed to make each law agree with the others. States where the Death Penalty doesnt apply show the murder rates to be a percentage difference of up to 50%1 less than those that legally have The Death Penalty. So, if we were to eradicate the Death Penalty in these states it could potentially decrease the murder rates in the future. We could then use other alternatives to maintain the protection of people. Money is another major reason why The Death Penalty should be abolished. Which do you think costs more: To keep someone in prison for life or to lethally inject them? You may think that the first is more expensive but in actual fact the latter costs more. To put someone on Death Row costs far more due to legal costs, trial costs, incarceration and appeals. The estimated cost is around 650,000 as opposed to incarceration which costs 474,180. You must agree that instead of spending this amount of money on killing somebody, the money should be spent on helping those in poverty through education which can ultimately decrease the amount of crime and help people that need it the most. Lack of education is one of the main reasons why many people commit crimes so it is very selfish that people would want to use the money on The Death Penalty to kill those that deserve it rather than helping them to tackle why they were reduced to crime in the first place. In fact, often as a result of the amount of money needed to run The Death Penalty properly some prisoners are released early and police numbers are reduced leading to more crime. Wouldnt it be better and safer for everyone if the criminals were secured in prison where they cant do anybody harm, to prevent crime? The Death Penalty is called a solution to the problem of crime, but its not a solution as it doesnt solve the problem and it just doesnt work. A Christian approach to The Death Penalty shows that it is clearly wrong. Sister Helen Prejean, a liberal Christian says theres killing going on, we try to make it antiseptic, we try to make it clean but there is killing going on and killing is opposed to love This is a profound statement, The Death Penalty is- killing. It shows how by killing a person you are showing them hate. Therefore you are in no way at all being a Christian by supporting The Death Penalty. Sister Helen Prejean also says "Execution is the opposite of baptism into a
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Statistics from The Death Penalty Information Center ( http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/deterrence-stateswithout-death-penalty-have-had-consistently-lower-murder-rates )

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community. Baptism into a community means "We are all connected, we are all one family and you are part of us." And execution is removing a person from the human family, step by step, saying, "You are no longer part of us. You are not human, like we are, and so we can terminate you." When you are baptised you are brought into Gods community and by executing someone you are removing them from Gods community, saying they are unworthy of being in it. The big, key moral questions raised from this are Do we have the right to remove someone from Gods community or can only God do that? and Do we deserve to kill? Life is a sacred and special gift from God and once it is taken away can be devastating to all the people around that person. The Sanctity of life principal states that life is holy, sanctified and of great value so it is not to be violated. The Sanctity of life act has been imposed in the US, 1995 but should be adopted by all other countries also, because The Death Penalty goes against this principal and act by completely violating peoples right to live. The people that suffer the most are the victims family not only the victim themselves. The answer to the question is no, we dont have the right to kill as its one of the Ten Commandments Do not kill, and if you still feel that The Death Penalty should be enforced then you are not living the Christian life that God intended for you. Forgiveness is a key part of Christianity and sins should be forgiven. We should forgive peoples sins because as Sister Helen Prejean says there is more to a person than the worst thing they have done in their life, which is absolutely true. What they have done is a mistake and they will feel guilty for doing it if they have any conscience or moral values. People may say this is not enough of a punishment but the psychological effect it can have on a person is enormous. Living on Earth is nothing compared to what eternal life with God in heaven is, as the bible says. In any case they will suffer for it for the rest of their life, whether that will be physically: it will be in their head tormenting them, or spiritually: being punished by God for their sins. If one of the aims of The Death Penalty is to make the person know that killing is wrong then surely instead of killing them they will suffer more with their conscience and have to face their wrongdoings. Edward Earl Johnson is one example of an innocent man wrongly accused purely based on his race. Edward supposedly murdered a police man and sexual assaulted a white woman: Sally Franklin in Mississippi. Police claimed the reason they believed he was the murderer is because he had the same car (a Buick) as that which was used during the crime to pick up the criminal. This may seem like a valid reason but taking into consideration the fact that the Buick was an extremely popular car in America at the time, leads to the question of whether this is significant enough evidence to charge him and sentence him to death. The key witness of the case was unreliable and her statements kept changing many times. Johnson was forced on the night to of his arrest to confess to the crime by the two white officers that had detained him and threatened to kill him at gunpoint (under duress). By law they could kill Edward so of course he was scared and did what anyone else would do and confessed to get himself out of the situation. Edward spent 8 years on Death Row and continued to plead his innocence. He submitted 10 appeals with the help of Clive Stafford-

Mrs Richards Creative writing

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Smith, a lawyer in the USA who deals with issues such as human rights and the Death Penalty. 8 of these 10 were rejected. He also agreed to take a lie detector test but the police refused. Edward Earl Johnson was executed in spite of all the errors and lack of evidence on May 20th at 12.06 am by means of the gas chamber. After his execution it was discovered that the victim, Sally Franklin had known Edward and had told police that he was innocent. How many people need to suffer like Edward did before we put a stop to it? There are alternatives to The Death Penalty that are more efficient, cost less and actually do what The Death Penalty is supposed to do. One of these is life imprisonment without parole which costs less and keeps the criminal away from society fulfilling the aims of deterrence, protection and vindication. 56% of people prefer this to a death sentence. There could also be the option of life imprisonment where the inmate could work and give their earnings to the victims and their families. Another alternative could be using rehabilitation or reformatories to work with people and help them with the reasons behind why they commit these crimes. The majority of criminals do need help with physical, mental or moral issues as these are what lead them to crime. Its clear that even after being in rehabilitation that some people still cant be reformed which is why life imprisonment without parole is the best alternative to The Death Penalty. The Death Penalty is the most immoral, inhumane device used to try and tackle the problem of crime. The Death Penalty is wrong, is cruel, and is brutal! It MUST be abolished!

Mrs Richards Creative writing