The death penalty has been in man's society dating back to ancient times. There have been a variety of crimes that have been punishable by death, anything from selling beer to murder. In modern society, the death penalty, otherwise known as "capital punishment", is still practiced almost worldwide. This is an important issue because it concerns fundamental moral and political questions about the way law and order solves a problem in society. This essay will consider arguments for continuing on with the capital punishment as part of the law and order in a country and point out some problems with these views and how alternatives are there for us to use if only we were interested and look at it through a positive point of view. It will then put forward reasons for putting the death penalty out of the picture and why it should remain that way. The people getting this punishment may have just been sentenced for their race or religion. The guilty may have been terminally ill mentally, with a positive chance of recovery. The condemned are not given a second chance to live their lives. The crime they committed which are considered unforgivable are repaid with another.
It has been debated that death penalty is not immoral and it is morally right according to the Roman Catholic Church's Evangelium Vitae (Scalia ,2002). It also claimed that death penalties can actually help build up a society and helps promote steady improvements in the organization of the penal system. The death penalty serves as a penalty imposed to protect rather than avenge for the society. However, as Scalia states, that the mistaken tendency to believe that a democratic government, being nothing more than the composite will of its individual citizens, has no more moral power or authority that they do as individuals has adverse effects in other areas as well. These other areas will not be touched in this essay but instead, we will put more emphasis on the effects it has on the society.