For and Against Essay

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Capital punishment should be abolished

Capital punishment is sentencing the person who has committed a most heinous crime to death. Capital punishment has been abolished by many countries as Human Rights organizations around the world have been condemning it as it is inhuman to kill some even if they have committed a serious crime. On the other hand some countries including India have the justice delivery system that permits death sentence in rarest of rare cases. Such countries probably believe that death sentence will act as a deterrent for crimes of the same or similar scale.

Capital punishment must be abolished as it is inhuman to take away a person’s life. By punishing the wrong doer with death the institution of law and justice sends a message to the society that an barbaric act should be dealt with by another barbaric act. The purpose of punishment is to reform the wrong doer and not put an end to his life.

Some think that death sentence will act as a deterrent, that is, it will prevent any further occurrence of crimes of the same order. However we see that even in nations where the law permits death sentence in cases involving heinous crimes, the incidence of crime has not come down. This proves that rate of crime cannot be reduced with death sentence. Aggressive or violent character traits which eventually results in serious crimes stem from lack of education, poverty, unemployment, ruptured childhood and so on. The State should ensure individual who exhibit violent behavior traits are given due counseling besides economical and emotional support.

Capital sentence must not be abolished because if people who have gruesome crimes are not sentenced to death it would set a bad precedent: habitual offenders and those who are suppressing vengeance fearing death sentence, against their enemies could get emboldened.

While the perpetrator deserves the suitable punishment the innocent victim certainly deserves justice. If the perpetrator gets away with even after committing heart chilling act of harassment and murder, the victim is left disillusioned and distraught. Thus the victim may lose trust in the institution of Law and Justice, whose objective is to uphold justice at any rate.

As the saying goes “Criminals are not born but made” we see that majority of the people who have been involved in criminal activities are those who have been suffering from poverty and unemployment resulting from illiteracy. So, the state must ensure that the nation’s wealth is appropriately divided among the population with a larger share reaching the poor and weaker sections. In addition steps must be taken to provide free and compulsory education to all people. These steps will certainly bring down the incidence of crime in the society and eliminate the need for death sentence.