The Death Penalty is a Violation of Human Rights

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Are we playing God? Have we totally forgotten humanity? When I think about death penalty it reminds me about Jesus and when he confronted the people who gathered to stone a woman who had been caught committing by saying, “If any of you have never sinned, then go ahead and throw the first stone at her.” (John 8:7) This action clearly demonstrates that Jesus believed that there was a problem in imposing death penalty because no one is sinless. Jesus did not say that adultery should not be a crime punishable by death, but he did point to a problem with imposing such a penalty. Those valuable teachings on human rights have been entirely ignored by society in the United States.

During the last decade more than 500 prisoners were executed in the United States. Another 3,500 wait on death rows. The United States is one of the very few industrialized countries in the world, which executes criminals. It is one of the few countries in the world, which executed mentally ill persons, persons with very low IQ, and child murderers (i.e. persons who were under 18 at the time of their crime). How can a first world country that embraces Christianity, as it’s main religion also embrace death penalty. Death penalty is an archaic and barbaric form of punishment whose existence should be relinquished from all legal systems of civilized societies. Let’s set the pace and protect the human right to life from such an inhuman or degrading act.

In the United States, about 13,000 people have been legally executed since colonial times. By the 1930’s up to 150 people were executed yearly. Lack of public support for capital punishment and legal challenges reduced the execution rate to near zero by 1967. In 1972 the U.S. Supreme Court banned the practice, however, in 1976 the Supreme Court authorized its resumption. Each state decided whether to have the death penalty or not. As of the end of 1997, only 12 states do not have the death penalty; Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin. From 1976, when executions were resumed, to the end of 1997, there were 432 executions in the US. As the end of 1997, there were about 3,222 prisoners on death row in 34 states. 47 (1.5%) are women. Recent laws have expanded the number of crimes for which capital punishment can be applied. Other laws have reduced some of...

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...ich would outweigh the human rights, and furthermore the death penalty contradicts the internationally accepted goal of rehabilitating the offender.

I believe that it is more important for the convicted of the capital punishment to pay for it throughout the rest of his or her life. By eliminating a person through the death penalty, people will forget about the person and the act the person committed, which would not serve the purpose of punishment as a deterrent. By letting the convicted of capital crime to live to be reformed and to work on reparation for his or her crime is far more meaningful and effective as a deterrent to similar crimes by others. Stop playing God. Stop violating fundamental human rights. Lets give closure to one of the degrading chapters of our society and prove to the world how civil we really are.

Work Cited

Amnesty international http://www.amnesty.org/

“Rights for all” http://www.rightsforall-usa.org/

“The Annual Report” http://www.amnestyusa.org/ailib/aireport/ar99/amr51.htm

Death Penalty Links “Human Rights Death Penalty” http://www.derechos.org/dp/

Sandoholzer, Kuno Death Penalty USA Pages http://www.agitator.com/dp/

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