Capital punishment - Life or Death - If you had a choice what would you choose? There are three reasons why governments believe they have the right to use capital punishment. Firstly, to protect the safety of the citizens, secondly, to deter others from committing similar offences and finally, to have some form of punishment for the offender. All three of these are convincing but none of them justifies the killing of the criminal. I strongly believe that the death penalty doesn't dissuade potential criminals and that it should be abolished. Some of you might have strong beliefs about capital punishment and some of you might not have even considered it. So today I hope to persuade you that capital punishment is an abuse to humanity that only brings the society down to the same level as the criminal and doesn't deter people, more expensive than life imprisonment, and has the risk of executing innocent people. .
What is capital punishment? The World Book 2002 defines capital punishment as punishment by death for committing a certain crime. The crimes that capital punishment is mandatory for in certain countries include murder, armed robbery, kidnapping, rape and treason. The methods of capital punishment that are globally used today include hanging, shooting by firing squad, electrocution, poisonous gas, lethal injection, beheading, and stoning. Already about 100 nations have abolished capital punishment (including Australia and the UK). However, about 90 nations still permit it, including many countries in the Middle East and some poor countries in Africa like Ethiopia. .
Amnesty International states, "If hanging a man by his arms, until he suffers excruciating pain is rightly condemned as torture, how does one describe hanging by his neck until he is dead? If administering 200 volts of electricity to the most sensitive parts of a man's body conjures disgust in you, what is the rightful reaction to passing 2000 volts through his body for the purpose of killing him? Does using legal processes make such a sanction justifiable?" Capital Punishment can't be reversed once it's done.
