Importance Of Capital Punishment

Name: Josh Ryan Chan (02)

Class: 4i1

3. Is capital punishment ethically acceptable? Historically, capital punishment has been carried out in nearly all societies, and were reserved for major crimes such as murder and adultery. Since the beginning of recorded history, capital punishment has been used as a part of the justice system. Such punishments were especially prevalent during the Middle Ages, and the most common methods of punishment were burning at the stake, executions, and the using of breaking wheels. Modern methods of capital punishment are mainly hangings and life imprisonment without parole. Capital punishment is ethically acceptable in modern society as it serves as an effective deterrence to potential criminals, eliminates dangerous

Society has always used punishment to discourage would-be criminals from unlawful action. Since the prevention of serious crimes is in society’s interests, the highest level of punishment, capital punishment, should be used to deter such crimes from happening. After all, the fear of death deters, and in the event it does not, neither will any other form of punishment. Potential criminals will think twice about committing such crimes for fear of losing their own lives. Capital punishment is an extreme form of justice, taking the criminal’s life as retribution for his crimes, and prevents the criminal from committing further crimes. In 1973 Isaac Ehrlich employed an analysis which produced results showing that for every inmate who was executed, 7 lives were spared because others were deterred from committing murder. Since people fear death the most, the prospect of death will deter them the most. Therefore, the administering of capital punishment serves as a deterrence to would-be criminals and makes them reconsider their

Dangerous individuals are a threat to society, and if placed together in prisons, could organise an outbreak and cause mayhem. Given their attitudes towards their behaviours, they would not hesitate to continue with their actions given the chance. Thus, the best course of action would be to deal capital punishment to these individuals. One such example was child abuser Westley Allan Dodd. Dodd had raped and fatally stabbed two brothers, 11 and 10-year-old Cole and William Neer, in a park in the September of 1989. When he became confident that the police could not connect him with the Neer murders, he began looking for new victims. On October 29, Dodd abducted a 4-year-old from a school playground, molested and tortured him, then hanged him. When caught, Dodd showed no remorse, telling authorities that “I will kill and rape again and enjoy every minute of it”, and that “I think I got more of a high out of killing than molesting”. Dodd refused to appeal against his sentence, stating that hanging was the ideal method of death, and tried to make himself into a celebrity. It can be clearly seen from this example that such individuals are a danger to society, and have no chance at rehabilitation. Thus, instead of imprisoning such individuals, in hopes that they would reflect upon their actions, a death penalty would be more appropriate. Therefore, administering the death penalty would serve to remove