by Paul Brodie

Created on: October 04, 2010   Last Updated: October 15, 2010

Throughout recorded history executions have been used to enforce laws, punish violators, deter criminal acts, punish sin and support societal hysteria. The means of carrying out an execution hasn’t changed very much, if at all, throughout the years. Depending on the location and point in time you will find beheadings (by sword or guillotine), hangings (for the purpose of asphyxiation or by breaking the neck), burning at the stake, shootings, electrocutions or injections. There isn’t a universal consensus regarding the justness of capital punishment, as it is referred to today (it is a bit more palatable sounding than execution), but there is one point that all people can agree on; the person being executed will never commit another crime.

In order to classify capital punishment as just, it would need to meet three characteristics: deterrence, restitution and retribution. Some questions to consider: Does putting an offender to death deter that offender from committing further crimes? Does it prevent observers from committing crimes for fear of receiving the same punishment? Does killing a murderer or other convicted individual make restitution for their crimes (obviously taking the life of one cannot restore the life of another)? Does the death of the offender fulfill retribution to the surviving victims?

As has already been mentioned, the offender who is put to death will never offend again. If justice involves preventing future crime then the death penalty is effective for the one individual. But is it effective at preventing other people in society from committing crimes? By looking to history we see that this is not the case. Death sentences were rampant during the 17th and 18th centuries in England. There were over 200 crimes with the penalty of death attached. If the sentence of death was an effective deterrent, 18th century England should have been a crime-free zone, which it was not. Research has been done in modern days and in the United States of America regarding the effect of the death penalty. A quick search of the Internet will reveal data that does not support the death penalty as an effective deterrent outside of the person executed. Besides, doesn’t it seem slightly backwards for us to kill in order to teach that killing is not right?

For the case of restitution (meaning the offender restoring what they have taken unlawfully), the death penalty has its greatest claim for being just. When one person takes the life of another

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>