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To this date, Seven hundred and seventy two criminals in the U. S. alone have been subject to Capital Punishment. (Executions USA 2002). Using specific examples such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Timothy McVeigh execution, capital punishment is seen as inhumane, wrong and an unusual punishment. The death penalty is greatly rejected and discouraged by many countries and states. There are more than one hundred countries who have abolished the death penalty in law or practice, while the United States has increased the rate of executions and the number of crimes that are punishable by death (The Death Penalty 2000).
Many politicians claim that they are tough on crimes, but they should spend ninety four percent of criminal justice money on preventing crimes instead of after the crime was committed (Get the Facts 2000). Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights to Abolish is an agreement to abolish the death penalty in peacetime. The other two protocols, the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty, provide for the total abolition of the death penalty but allows states wishing to do so to retain the death penalty in wartime as an exception (Facts and Figures 2000). There are several different procedures that are used to execute such as hanging, the electric chair, gas chamber, lethal injection and the fire squad, which is still used in Idaho and Utah (The Death Penalty, 2000). The death penalty is abolished for all crimes under the Human Rights because it is believed to be inhumane, cruel and degrading, but it is still enforced today.
The death penalty should also be abolished because the failure to prevent the execution of the innocent and the cost for executions are outrageous. In the eyes of those who are for the death penalty, they believe that the criminal should lose all rights once they commit a heinous crime and they also believe that the cost of imprisoning someone for life without parole is extremely higher than just putting them to death. They also take into consideration that the death penalty is okay by their religion. They believe that God was for the death penalty and they claim that He once killed men who crossed Him.
Some people believe that there is no proof that an innocent person was sentenced to death. There has been proof that there are twenty three cases, since the 1900 s, that were proven to be innocent, but it was too late (Death Penalty Facts, 2000). The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, Punishment has the primary aim of redressing the disorder introduced by the offense. If I commit a serious offense against society, I bring about a disorder, and the point of punishment is to reestablish the lost order.
If I willingly accept my punishment, it assumes the value of expiation. And it can protect you from future crimes I might commit. The Catechism thus gives three purposes of punishment: defending public order, protecting people, and moral change in the criminal. Paragraph 2267 reminds us that the traditional teaching of the church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty but then adds, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor. This appears to make a secondary purpose of punishment override the primary. That appearance has led to some fuzzy thinking.
The correct meaning must be that the primary aim of punishment can be achieved short of exacting the death penalty. A single means-say, life imprisonment restores the order lost by the crime, protects society against future crimes of the incarcerated, and gives the prisoner a chance to repent. (The Catechism of the Catholic Church). One human right is the right to life and by taking a life away by execution is cruel, inhumane and degrading. The United Nations pledged to promote fundamental rights of freedom, justice, and peace in the world which was adopted in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (Death Penalty Facts, 2000). There are two rights stated in the Declaration: 1. A person has the right to protection from deprivation of life and 2.
No one shall be subjected to cruel or degrading punishment. The death penalty clearly violates both these rights because it is taking a life in cold-blooded, cruel and in an inhumane way. The techniques used to kill a prisoner are profoundly brutal, humiliating and against the Declaration. The physical pain caused by electrocution, gassing, hanging, poisoning, or shooting are all barbarian methods. Prisoners have their flesh burned and their organs stop during electrocution.
Asphyxiation during gassing, tearing of the spinal cord or asphyxiation during hanging, respiratory paralysis during poisoning, and destruction of vital organs or the central nervous system during shooting, which one may have to face when sentenced to death (Death Penalty Facts, 2000). Under no circumstances in the Declaration of Human Rights does it say that the government has the right to take the right of life away from anyone, but yet they are making that decision quit often. No one should have to live their last few minutes of life being tortured and put to death; we are not animals where you can take a life away just because it did wrong. You teach that animal and train it to where it is suitable to live in the world and imprisoning a person for life will teach them that lesson. The United Nations Economic and Social Council adopted the Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of Those Facing the Death Penalty in 1984 (Death Penalty Facts, 2000).
The safeguards application of the death penalty pertain to certain categories of the accused, such as being under the age of 18 years when the crime was committed, which will allow that person sentenced to death to appeal to a higher court and to petition for pardon or commutation of the sentence. The Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty because they believe that it is inflicted upon the most vulnerable in society, such as the poor, minorities, and the mentally ill or retarded persons. They even track down death penalty cases and write letters to clemency boards and governors asking the executions to be halted for the cases in which the person was a minor at the time of the crime, mentally impaired or foreign nations because they oppose the death penalty under law whenever and wherever carried out, irrespective of the crime and the legal process leading to their implementation (The Death Penalty, 2000). Human rights are not given or granted by the government, so why should they have the right to take a life away? Human rights belongs to everyone from the time of birth. As long as the death penalty still exist, there is not a hundred percent security that an innocent will not be executed.
There are several reasons why an innocent person may be executed for a crime they did not commit, such as their ethnic background, legal errors, poor defense or investigation which can all contribute to false imprisonment and death. In the United States, there has been over four hundred wrongful convicted cases for capital offenses between the years 1900 - 1991. The majority of these cases were found innocent after years of spending time in prison, but in twenty three cases, their innocence was not proven until it was too late (Death Penalty Facts, 2000). Though, the study proves that there were twenty three cases, there are probably more because authors of the report claim that this number does not represent the total of all innocent victims. This is because once a victim is executed in the U. S. , their case is legally closed which unable's them to investigate for further innocent victims.
The U. S. criminal justice system offers no legal mechanism to review posthumous claims and uncover lethal error (The Death Penalty, 2000). Even though there may be strong doubts about a persons guilt, the U. S. and several other countries continue to pursue on the procedures to execute that person.
Approximately seven thousand prisoners were put to death this century and there were some that were faultless for the crimes they were being convicted for. Amnesty International has documented numerous cases where there were serious doubt about a persons guilt even before the execution. A report from the Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights of the US Congress which examined four eight cases who were released from death row because of innocence, concluded: Americans are justifiably concerned about the possibility that an innocent person may be executed. Capital punishment in the United States today provides no reliable safeguards against this danger. Errors can and have been made repeatedly in the trial of death penalty cases because of poor representation, racial prejudice, prosecutorial misconduct, or simply the presentation of erroneous evidence. Once convicted, a death row inmate faces serious obstacles in convincing any tribunal that he is innocent. (The Death Penalty, 2000).
After serving many precious years of life in prison, these prisoners were later found not guilty of capital offenses. There is a need for a better safeguard in protecting the innocent from being convicted of a capital crime because they do not need to waste their time in prison or be executed for something they did not do, and the best safeguard is to abolish the death penalty permanently. The cost of the death penalty has also been of a great concern to everyone. In the United States, the cost for executing a prisoner is far higher than imprisoning that person for life. The United States Supreme Court has recognized this because the death penalty requires safeguards against this procedure.
The main things that are costly, in terms of money and human resources, in a capital case are the two-phased judgment and sentencing trial, automatic state review, post-conviction hearing, and Supreme Court petitions. The cost of maintaining the death row inmates in prisons, clemency hearings, and of the execution itself are also added to the price of capital punishment. In New York, there was an in-depth study about capital cases. They proved that over $ 1. 8 million is spent on execution, which is three times the cost of imprisoning someone for life.
This includes three stages of the judicial proceedings and does not include additional court, security, counsel fees, estimated millions of dollars associated with state and federal post-conviction reviews and with the execution itself. California spends approximately an extra ninety million dollars per year on capital cases and Florida spends $ 3. 2 million on each execution, which is six times more than incarcerating a prisoner for life. Texas with the highest murder rates and the highest executions, spend about $ 2. 3 million per case. This is roughly three times more than imprisoning someone for four years. (Death Penalty Facts, 2000). The cost of incarceration is cheaper than execution because capital cases are not taken lightly and are long procedures to make sure that no miscarriages occur, which do The case of Timothy McVeigh sets an example showing that if the state executes him, it is involved in state-sanctioned murder. Hard cases make hard law.
The execution of McVeigh apply to any other death penalty case and it involves all the same arguments. Capital Punishment is a morally uneasy venture at best. It gives the state the power to kill somebody who no longer poses a threat and who has been incapacitated through imprisonment. Timothy McVeigh is a man who committed a mass murder to get back at the U. S. government for a previous mass murder and with the execution the U.
S. government will be getting back at Timothy McVeigh, in other words revenge. (Dont kill McVeigh, 2001). The issue is not McVeigh, but whether our State and government should at ant time take the life of anyone convicted of murder. If capital Punishment is wrong, its wrong in all circumstances.
Bud Welch, who in the blast lost his only daughter, was quoted in a New York Times story as saying that Bill McVeigh, Timothy's father, hes going to lose his only son. (David McReynolds 2001). Mr. Welch and Bill McVeigh have been talking twice a week since the government announced the May 16 th date set for the execution. Julie Marie is the lost daughter of Mr. Welch, he said when we take Tim McVeigh out of that cage and execute him, it isnt going to bring Julie Marie back. (David McReynolds, 2001). If murder is wrong all together, it doesnt become right when the State does it.
The U. S. remains one of the most barbaric societies in the treatment of crime and the handling of punishment. A nation that builds prisons faster than low-income housing. They are one of the few nations left which retains capital punishment. (David McReynolds, 2001). The death penalty overall is cruel, inhuman, degrading and against Human Rights.
Even at that, the miscarriages of executing the innocent and the high cost for the execution to be carried out are extreme. The highest toll we would pay, is not with money and not with time, but executing the innocent. Those who are also under the age of 18 years when the crime was committed should not be put to death because their minds are not fully developed and they are still immature. There are even states who executed a person who was mentally ill or retarded, which the execution should not have been carried out for obvious reasons. This punishment for any crime is brutal because of the procedures that are used to carry out the punishment because it inflicts great pain, burning and slow, barbaric death. This is taking away the right to life, which the government does not hand out or grant to people, it is automatically given to you by the Declaration of Human Rights.
Capital punishment should be extinguished from the grounds of earth for many other reasons other than cruel, inhuman, the cost and execution of the innocent, but these are a few good reasons why to abolish this hideous punishment. Work Cited The Catechism of the Catholic Church. N/A. N/A. N/A. Amnesty International. (2000).
Death Penalty Facts (Online). web Amnesty International. (2000). Death Penalty Facts (Online). web Amnesty International. (2000). Death Penalty Facts (Online). web Amnesty International. (2000).
Death Penalty Facts (Online). web Amnesty International. (2000). The Death Penalty in the U. S. A. (Online). web Amnesty International. (2000).
Facts and Figures on the Death Penalty (Online). web Civil Liberty. (9 May 2001). Dont Kill McVeigh (Online). web CUADP. (2000). Get the Facts, Then Decide (Online). web David McReynolds. (27 April 2001).
The Case of Tim McVeigh &# 038; Capital Punishment (Online). web ECADP. (30 April 2002). Executions USA 2002 (Online). web Human Rights Watch. (2000). The DEATH PENALTY (Online). web
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