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God has announced to reward those, who do good deeds and save the
humanity, and this reward is in the shape of heaven. Similarly, man has
The objective is to stop those unruly behaviors which create problems for
others, and also that the people having the thinking of might is right could
were days when kings and emperors ruled the world. Every crime during
those eras was punished by death. There was not judicial proceedings. The
criminals were killed at the behest of the kings and even sometimes
death. It happened in the eighteenth century BC. These were the first laws
which punished the criminals by death penalties. The next code was the
code of Hittite, a legal code codified in Athens in the seventh century BC.
In this code, there was capital punishment for every other crime, while the
Roman laws gave death penalty only some serious crimes. However, it was
from the modern day Britain where it is stated that Henry VIII executed
punishment and how it should be executed. In the United States, the death
more than 60 crimes, while the task of executing the death sentence is
done through the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994. However, there is a
proper judicial procedure for this. This act considers everything before
awarding the death penalty (The Resource Guide for Managing Capital
correct. Even though some people think that capital punishment should be
banned and abrogated, it should not be stopped because not only it deters
crime rates, but also saves high costs of keeping criminals in prison,
rights of others.
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when there is death sentence, the criminals think twice before coming
punishments is kept open all the time. It is not only psychologically correct
but also legally. Psychologically, because human beings stop short of doing
things, where they see some threats to life and property. If threats and
punishments are open, they deter further crimes and threats as it they are
procedure is followed, they have full backing of the moral authority that is
the state and the law. Hence this deterrence works in checking crimes.
Haag further adds that By coming the crime, the criminal volunteered to
assume the risk of receiving the legal punishment that he could have
that he would have to face the music if he tramples upon the rights of the
other people to live, and his getting capital punishment for doing the crime
would not be unjust. Therefore, death penalty could not be called unjust in
case the criminal has committed the crime for which this punishment has
carried out which have highly favorable results. Liptak has cited such
studies where executions have surely saved several lives only because the
criminals think that they would be hanged for a certain crime. He quotes
that one death penalty is said to have saved murders from 3 to 18. As the
quickly, the crime rate has dropped and has also the rate of murders
dropped considerably. Even some economists have also done the studies
on the same thing and have reached the same conclusion that more than
two decades of studies have concluded that the murder rates have fallen
drastically after the rise in execution rates (Liptak). Another writer Fagan
has quoted Professor Becker saying in connection with the objection of the
execution of the innocent, stated that it not a greater issue. But even then
Fagan himself appeared before the U.S. Congress in this connection and
for long and that too of the very serious crimes, is very high. Sometimes it
is even higher than the cost of executions and other crimes that ensure
cell cost for a killer is more than $24,000 per annum while the security
expenses are besides this as they amount to more than $75,000 per
incurs on taking the criminal to the court and back to the prison cell
(Sharp).
Although there are claims that if compared with the criminals having
committed the same offenses, it is stated that this is average cost and it is
However, they have not taken into account the budgetary and inflationary
issues which increases the cost every year. The increase in costs includes
and deaths, and violence. And interesting point is that these costs increase
year by year and may amount to millions if the inmate does not die and live for
longer period of time. These days a prisoner costs more than $70,000 per year
while the cost for medical has risen sharply after the discovery of the HIV,
Hepatitis C and Congo Virus as the price of medicines have increased sharply
(Sharp).
Just imagine if there are 100 such criminals who are to be kept in cells for
next five or so years, how much they would spend of the nation that could
millions. Therefore, instead of putting the criminals into prisons for life
sentence and keeping them alive on the public expenses which could be
punishment. This would not only save expenses but also check crimes as
The third point is that that the criminal who has committed the
crime of killing some person feels the same pain of death when he is
awarded capital punishment. Therefore, it serves him right for doing what
he has done. In this connection Pojman states that it is mistake on the part
of the people that they often think retribution as revenge (Pojman) which
is not the case. The reason is that it sin to revenge but to do the same but
vengeance signifies anger of the person who has suffered. However, in the
connection of death penalty, the judiciary and the process stays aloof from
to the gravity of the crime. Therefore, this retribution is not what is called
in proportion to the gravity of his or her crime (Pojman). The desire of the
victim does not matter whether he wills or not. He further clarifies the
point that if the society somehow fails to punish the culprits, the danger
persists that the society would take law into its own hands and mob may
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come out to execute these punishments which have been given to the law.
It is also that everyone agrees that there must be some punishment for
the crime and the punishment of life sentence for killing a living human
through money, which is an insult of the life itself. Although it is said that
there should eye for an eye and blood for blood, but this does not fit into
However, there is another side of the argument. There are several institutions and human
rights activists who are in the forefront to end the capital punishment. They are of the view
that this issue of capital punishment is rather absurd. It is an archaic and old way of punishing
human beings as sometimes a person is killed none of the mistakes but another one is killed
for him. This does not make sense. This is not only costly but also ineffective as it has
nowhere deterred crimes. Rather it has put the criminals on the run to do more crimes. Even
philosophically, prisons are there to rehabilitate the person not to kill them. They serve the
criminals better in making them human beings. If a killer is sentenced for life and he becomes
a better person, it is better that he should be alive than a dead person. However, death is final.
In fact, it does not strengthen the criminal justice system but makes it vulnerable to certain
other objections such as institutionalized revenge, causes violence and even costly monetarily
The first side of the coin in this connection is very solid. The points raised above such as it
has served as a yardstick to check crimes, have saved a lot of the public money to be spent on
the public welfare and to punish a criminal are more valid. The peak of a justice system is to
deter crimes and it can only be done through proper punishment not through human rights
cries or through stopping or changing punishments. Divine is right when he states that it is
rather sanctioned by the law with the power of the state to stop the individuals from taking
personal revenge Divine). Sharps argument of high costs of prolonged incarceration are also
solid in that these costs carry on increasing every year (Sharp). Therefore, capital punishment
Despite serious objections, it could be stated that capital punishment has been retained in
several eastern and western countries. The statistics collected in this connection have made it
clear that it has stopped and check crimes at several points. In some countries, it has lowered
the crime rate. Even the United States and its some states have concluded that it is good for
the society to keep capital punishment to check crimes as it is working as a deterrence in some
cases. It is also that a criminal costs the government much in public money as he is kept in the
cell or the prison, eats, gets medical treatment and even proper medical care at the state
expenses. Therefore, he becomes a lot dearer than an ordinary person while capital
punishment abolishes these expenses. Furthermore, the argument of justice does not complete
and does not seem fair if a hardened criminal is left only because human rights do not want
him to be punished. Therefore, the debate weight heavily in the favor of capital punishment to
be kept so that the crime rates could be lowered and the perspective killers could be stopped
from taking lives of others. Despite raising strong voices on the international forums, several
countries have refused to step down from this claim that capital punishment is working
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effectively over there. Even the most civilized country, the United States of America, has not
abolished the capital punishment despite having strong voices in support of it.
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Works Cited
<http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.answers.php?
questionID=001004#answer-id-006249>.
<http://www.law.columbia.edu/law_school/communications/reports/su
mmer06/capitalpunish>.
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/angel/procon/haagarticle.ht
ml>.
Liptak, Adam. "Does Death Penalty Save Lives? A New Debate." The New
<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/us/18deter.html?
pagewanted=all&_r=0>.
McElwee, Sean. "It's Time to Abolish the Death Penalty." Huffington Post. 08
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sean-mcelwee/abolish-death-
penalty_b_3557782.html>.
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Adam Bedaus & Paul. Debating the Death Penalty: Should America
57-67.
Randa, L., ed. "Society's Final Solution: A History and Discussion of the Death
Resource Guide for Managing Capital Cases. "Death Penalty: Pros and Cons."
<www.fjc.gov/public/pdf.nsf/lookup/dpen0000.pdf/$file/dpen0000.pdf?
<http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/dp.html#D.Cost>.