The Death Penalty

Recently the subject of the death penalty came up in my class.We had a leghthly discussion on it and I for one am totally and utterly against it.Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the execution of a person by the state as punishment for a crime.What right has one person,or group of people,to take anothers life?.There are so many cons for this method of punishing.You could kill the wrong person for instance.One case of this was Anthony Porter who was on death row for sixteen years.Anthony was jailed for the murder of two teenagers in Chicago.Porter’s IQ was tested and found to be 51.An appeal was filed on the grounds that Porter was incapable of understanding his punishment. Forty-eight hours before he was scheduled to be executed, another stay was granted.It was found that another man Alstroy Simon was guilty of the murder and he was sentenced to 37 years imprisonment.Imagine if Porter had been executed.What would that have done to his family.He would have died and they would have thought he was a killer,a murderer.

There is also the argument that some of the methods used are inhumane.There have been a number of cases that have come to light recently proving that some of the chemicals used in the leathal injection can paralyse you,but you feel every organ shutting down.

Some popular forms of death penalty in the past are :Burning,Hanging,Stoning,Boiling to death,decapitation,crushing,drowning,guillotine,gassing,impalment,leathal injection and the supposed “humane” form of capital punishment,Nitrogen asphyxiation.

Killing someone is wrong,no matter what bull you spout to try ease your conscience.I would like to end with a qoute from Ganhdi.

“If everyone was to take an eye for an eye the whole world would end up blind”-Ganhdi