How Do We Justify Killing?

Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is defined as the pre-meditated or planned taking of a human life by a government in response to a crime committed by that legally convicted person. It has been discussed extensively over the years by many people. There are many reasons to agree or disagree with capital punishment, but the reasons against it completely outweigh the ones that support it. Many of the justifications for affirming the death penalty either do not apply wholly to our justice system, are misunderstood, or just do not make sense. There is no justification for killing other human beings and all of the arguments cannot change this. Since 1976, over one thousand people have been executed by the government.

In his essay, H.L. Mencken, claims that the death penalty should be used as a means to katharsis or a way of revenge. This does not, however, fit in to our justice system as a whole. Our justice system is set up to give convicted criminals a sentence that adheres to their crime, yes, but it is not a complete eye for an eye system. We sentence people to time in jail or probation or some other sort of retribution that we have predetermined fit to punish these criminals. The justice system does not sentence a rapist to be raped, nor does it sentence someone that has mutilated another person to be mutilated themselves. Instead they sentence these people to jail or community service of some sort. It would not be logical or moral to only punish one type of criminal with a different form of punishment. It does not make sense to make to jail sentence continually worse and then just jump to a new form of punishment for something society considers the worst.

Society is the only determining facto...

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...et our society on the rightful track. Our government needs to lead by example and stop. There is just no real justification for killing any person.

Works Cited

Death Row Fact Sheet. Florida Department of Corrections, 2011. Web. 12 April, 2011.

Facts About the Death Penalty. Death Penalty Information Center, 2011. Web. 13 April, 2011.

King, Coretta Scott. “The Death Penalty Is a Step Back.” Muller 148-150.

Mencken, H.L. “The Penalty of Death.” Muller 145-147.

Muller, Gilbert H., ed. The McGraw-Hill Reader: Issues Across the Disciplines. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2008. Print.

Radelet, Michael L. and Marian J. Borg. “The Changing Nature of Death Penalty Debates.” Annual Review of Sociology 26 (2000): 43-61. Annual Reviews. Web.

The Case Against the Death Penalty. American Civil Liberties Union. Web. 13 April, 2011.