Paper Example - Abolishment of the Death Sentence

The death sentence also referred to as capital punishment is the killing of people for committing certain crimes using methods such as lethal injection. According to Engle, there are 56 countries out of the 195 countries that condone the death sentence. Among these countries is the United States, which executed 25 people in 2018, leaving about 2700 awaiting their execution (Engle). In my opinion, the death sentence is a cruel punishment that should be abolished worldwide. Although some of the crimes that lead to capital punishment are major and inhuman, the death penalty should not be applied as a sentence under any circumstance.

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First, human life is sacred, thus should be respected at all costs. From a Biblical perspective, God is the creator of human life and therefore, should be the only one to take it. The fifth commandment, according to the Bible, stipulates that human beings should not kill. The death penalty is also prohibited in the Bible in John chapter eight, when Jesus had an adulterous woman brought before him. According to the Jewish rules, the woman should have been stoned to death. However, Jesus protected the unfaithful woman claiming that all human beings were sinful. These biblical excerpts show the value of human life and the wrongful nature of the death penalty. As a result, the death penalty should not be administered as it violates the teachings of the Bible.

Secondly, the death sentence leads to the execution of innocent people. According to reports, since the 1970s about 150 people who were in death row in the United States were exonerated following new evidence (Engle). As a result, no country should practice capital punishment.

The death penalty also does not achieve its objective of crime deterrence. The execution of people under death row is often publicized to act as a warning to the public against committing certain crimes such as treason, espionage, and aggravated murder. However, deterrence, according to studies, remains a myth. For instance, in the United States, states that administer the death penalty had the highest murder rates (Bedau). If the death penalty were successful in deterring crime, the crime rate would be low in countries that condone it. Furthermore, the U.S. has the highest number of prisoners in the world despite some of the harshest penalties. Countries should put more police officers on the streets and prevent the abuse of drugs to deter crime. Most major crimes are committed at the spur of the moment and are rarely premeditated. Therefore subjecting more people to the death penalty cannot prevent the future occurrence of crime.

It is a shame that the death sentence has survived in the 21st century. In my opinion, capital punishment is a barbaric act that no country should tolerate. While some of the crimes committed may be worthy of grievous punishment, the death sentence should not be an alternative. Countries should always strive to rehabilitate criminals since no human being has the authority to take the life of another human being.

Works Cited

Bedeau, Hugo. "The Case against the Death Penalty." ACLU, 2012, https://www.aclu.org/other/case-against-death-penalty. Accessed 12 Dec 2019.

Engle, Jeremy. "Should We Abolish the Death Penalty?" New York Times, 20 March 2019, nytimes.com/2019/03/20/learning/should-we-abolish-the-death-penalty.html. Accessed 12 Dec 2019.

The Bible. The New Oxford Annotated Version, 3rd ed., Oxford UP, 2001.