Don’t Kill the Criminal, Kill the Crime
The death penalty also known as capital punishment continues to be a hot issue of controversy for many years. The death penalty, based on the theory of retribution, is the cruelest and ultimate resort. It uses state power to deprive convicted criminals of their right to live and separate them from society. Nonetheless, K. Martin suggests, “Returning violence for violence multiples violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.” Death penalty should be abolished owing to the guarantee of basic human rights and the violation of the principle of proportionality and crime correction.
One of the most compelling reasons that the death penalty should be prohibited is that it violates the basic human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) stated that “Everyone has the right to live, liberty and security of person”. Regardless of race, color, or social background, people are endowed with the right to live. What’s more, “No one shall be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. Death penalty comprises “brutal and unusual punishment" and the various means used by the different states to kill a criminal are incredibly cruel. Sentencing criminals to death not simply violates the basic human right but also runs counter to the two international covenants declared by the United Nations, including International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Based on the declaration, nobody has the authority to end someone’s life, since all men are created equal before the law.
Additionally, the death penalty violates the principle of proportionality and crime correction. Such a kind of punishment seriously violates the principle of proportionality because it is irreversible and inflexible. Once the punishment is executed, the result cannot change forevermore. Indeed, there are more than the rulings of 130 cases had been reversed in the USA since 1973 owing to the advance of forensic technology and the emergence of new evidence. If the government sentences people to death without full consideration, it is almost impossible to reverse the result. In other aspects, apart from sending the criminal to prison, this punishment negates their possibilities of becoming a better person and deprives their right to correct errors in the future. Actually, in most cases, the convicted wash their hands of the crime after receiving the corresponding punishment. A rehabilitated criminal can make a morally valuable contribution to society by doing a small business or finding a stable job. Therefore, death penalty should not be carried out owing to its merciless and inflexibility.
With regard to some people they may argue that abolishing death penalty would contribute to the increase of crime rate drastically. In fact, no solid evidence could conclude that the crime rate is directly proportional to the abolition of the death penalty. Conversely, the crime rate had decreased steadily in several countries, such as Bhutan, Ukraine, Philippines, and Mexico after the government prohibited the death penalty. As the statistic conducted by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime suggests, homicide rates had dropped two percentages after the abolition of the death penalty officially carried out in Philippines. Furthermore, among the ten countries with the lowest homicide rates in 2008, six out of ten are the countries that abolish the death penalty. Iceland, Monaco, and Peru are tied with first place in this chart because there is no homicide case happened this year. Hence, the abolition of the death penalty is beneficial to decrease the crime rate to a great extent.
In conclusion, based on the protection of basic human rights and compliance of the principle of proportionality and crime correction, the death penalty must not be carried out. Furthermore, with the importance of human right has been emphasized in recent years, many countries abandon this brutal punishment and embrace the more humane methods to face the criminal cases. After all, the most important thing is not killing the criminal but the crime itself. Government should deliberate on the meaning of death penalty to society and then building a safer place in the future.
References:
United Nation. (1948). Universal Declaration of Human Rights
https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights