Capital Punishment Cheapens the Value of Human Life

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Reserved today for the most serious crimes [notably murder and treason] , the death penalty [or its analogue capital punishment], is the judicially ordered execution of a prisoner as a punishment for a ‘capital’ crime (definitions differing from State to State). Such brutal killing of a citizen by the State dates back to antiquity. In fact, from an objective standpoint, the Gospels account of the trial and later crucifixion of Christ over two thousand (2000) years ago can be considered as a classical death penalty process. Accordingly, He was taken to the authorities; later arrested; given an arraignment; He stood mute to the charges; He was later tried; convicted; sentenced to death; and finally saw his appeal for pardon being denied by two sovereigns even though there were no conclusive evidence to so convict Him- outside of the crowd calling for His head. Today, the death penalty continues and remains a divisive, polarising and emotionally charged subject abundant with passionate conviction from both retentionists and abolitionists: it is ridden with morally persuasive arguments on both side of the fence. It was as far back as in 1830, that the Marquis de Lafayette vociferously stated: “I shall ask for the abolition of the punishment of death until I have the infallibility of human judgment demonstrated to me”. Why? The following quote by Stewart J sums it up perfectly in that: [T]he penalty of death differs from all other form of criminal punishment, not in degree but in kind. It treats all persons convicted … not as uniquely individual human beings, but as members of a faceless, undifferentiated mass … subjected to the blind infliction of the penalty of death. Death, in its finality, differs more from life imprisonment ... ... middle of paper ... ...l community overwhelmingly has accepted the position that the application of the penalty of death amounts to cruel and inhumane treatment or punishment. Why? Because it Not only does the State, with all its moral virtues, have time on its hands to change its mind, but also civilised society is able to prepare, premeditate and actually take part in the taking of human’s life. In so doing, stripping the recipient of all dignity and self-respect he or she so deserves by just being human coupled with the ultimate effect of “[C]heapen[ing] the value of human life.” By having State sanctioned executions therefore, the State disregards the very fundamental concepts of the right to life and dignity of the individual, and as a consequent the very respect for the human rights of the individual (a concept being introduced around the world by most modern democracies).

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