by Sara Green

Created on: March 25, 2007   Last Updated: April 21, 2007

Capital punishment

First thing I have to get of my chest about this subject is that I believe it is totally and completely wrong. Why? I hear you ask, well seeing as you asked..

Capital punishment is no punishment in my view, surely rotting in some prison cell for life thinking about the crimes you have committed is worse? And what if the courts make a mistake? As far as I am aware no one has invented a process that brings the dead back to life and as may people hanged have been pardoned in the years since, it leads me to say, we all make mistakes and the justice system does not always work. The victims (i.e. family of the dead) of unjust murder , as it is in my view, do not get any compensation as far as I am aware. And I do truly believe it is murder, it is forcing those who choose to uphold our laws to become the criminal and take someone's life. Who are we to play God? Most people when asked would say we can not play God in other cases, such as using embryos in medical research so why is it different in law?

I could not believe it when I read that capital "punishment" had only been completely abolished in 1999, although no one has been murdered in this way since 1964. I can only hope that we move away from this kind of thinking into new ways of dealing with the criminals of Great Briton.

Some would argue that this king of sentencing would deter criminals and lower crime rates, but did it lower crime rates? Did the days of torture upon boats and wagons deter the gold diggers from emigrating to find there fortune even though it was known to be a rare occurrence? My point is, just encase you did not get that last bit, is that those that commit crimes do not think of being caught they only think of getting away with it. We only have to turn to places where this "lawful" murder is still taking place to see that it just does not work.

The same people that argued the above point would also say that capital punishment means that criminals get whet they deserve, an eye for an eye, kind of thing, like it says in the bible, well does it not also preach forgiveness in the bible? Like I have said before it is a definite end that if mistakes are made can not be rectified later.

If you still believe that capital punishment is a just punishment then I have failed to instil the belief that we are all but human. By this I mean we should treat others how we would like to be treated, we should teach our children the difference between right and wrong and we should do our best to make sure that criminals are brought to justice and they do not get away with anything., But remember, that no one is above the law and most of all no one can be God

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