Dödsstraff
Kategori: Henna
What’s the point with death penalty? I think that a convicted person should get a second chance to become a better person. I think the society should be built on helping people who made it wrong, give them a chance to get better. Jail is a punishment that rehabilitates. You have no longer the freedom to go anywhere, do what you want and when you want. You have time to think, regret and learn from the mistake you made. How can you have time to think, regret and learn from the mistake you made if you’re sentenced to death?
There are 97 countries have abolished the death penalty for all crimes. 8 countries have abolished the death penalty in peacetime, when they’re not at a war. 35 countries retain the death penalty but haven’t carried out any executions in ten years. 58 countries retain the death penalty and have carried out executions the last ten years. More than half of the world’s countries have the death penalty. But the number of countries having death penalty decreases.
The five countries that execute the most are China, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and USA. China is the worst of them, you can’t even count how many executions they carry out each year. But the executions are thousands each year. China executes more people every year than the rest of the nations of the world together. The hidden statistics are high because many countries executes secretly and many countries keep the numbers of executions in secret.
In some countries, they’re forcing confessions through torture and abuse. Some of the countries are China, North Korea and Saudi Arabia.
Public executions are confirmed in Iran, North Korea and Saudi Arabia.
People are sentenced to the death penalty for crimes that do not qualify for the most serious crimes. For example people are sentenced to death for cheating in Iran. It sits at least ten people on death row waiting to be stoned after they have been convicted for cheating. Most of them are women.
Some methods of executions are:
- Firing squad: The convicted is shot. The prisoner is put forward with his head covered and parked to wait for the shots.
- Lethal injection: The convinced is injected with a dose of deadly chemicals. These chemicals are used in hospitals, but at an execution, they are used in lethal doses. This method is the most common in the U.S.
- The electric chair: The convinced is strapped into a chair and electrodes are attached the prisoner’s head and one leg. Strong current is swished on and the death is caused by the stopping of the heart and the cessation of breathing.
- Stoning: The prisoner is buried up to her neck and then stones are thrown at him or her. This is a prolonged execution because a human can withstand heavy blows without becoming unconscious.
- Hanging: The prisoner gets a rope attached around her neck, and then the prisoner will fall through a hatch in the floor. The death is caused by the neck cracking or by suffocation.
- Decapitation: The head is separated from the body with a sword. The prisoner gets unconscious when the spinal cord is cut off. Usually several svings is needed before the spinal cord is cut off. This method is used I Saudi Arabia and Iran.
- Gas chamber: The prisoner is strapped into a chair in an airtight room. It can go fast to become unconscious but if the prisoner breathe slowly or hold their breath, it takes a long time.
USA is one of the countries with death penalty. Ever since 1976, 1174 people have been executed. There are now 3297 people on death row waiting to be executed.
Arguments against the Death penalty
A country that uses the death penalty and sentence a person to death for murder, is committing the very same crime. In fact, they also become killers. The state thinks it’s wrong to kill, but what does the state do against the killers? The state stands up for the right to life by taking it from others. I think that is morally wrong. Why do we kill people who kill people to show killing people are wrong?
Does the death penalty have a deterrent effect? Countries with death penalty often use the argument that death penalty is deterrent. They mean that criminals refrain from committing a crime because they risk their lives. This is false! None of the scientific studies has proven that the death penalty has a deterrent effect on criminals. Therefore we don’t think that the death penalty serves any purpose in this case. Criminals might rather be executed than sitting looked in for life. The fear of death does not reduce the crimes. Wisconsin hasn’t the death penalty, but has half as much crime than what Texas has, and Texas has the death penalty.
The death penalty is cruel. To be sentenced to death involves a mental suffering. You are exposed to a terrible torment awaiting the execution, and in hope that the punishment will be transformed. Those using the death penalty claim that they use the least painful method to carry out executions. This is not true! In one case when using lethal injections it took over 15 minutes before the death sentenced died. Another case in 1997 a convict was executed by the electric chair that was 75 years old. The chair didn’t work as supposed, and the leather mask took fire and the room was filled with smoke.
An execution is something that you can’t regret or correct afterwards. Innocent are sentenced to death and innocent gets executed. The most common causes of wrongful convictions are eyewitness error, government misconduct and false confessions. In one case there was a father who was sentenced for killing his three kids by setting their house in fire. The state knew he was innocent but the appeal was dismissed. In another case there was a man who was beaten and tortured by the police before he was executed. He was sentenced to death for the rape and a murder of a woman. Ten years later after he was executed another man confessed that it was he who committed the crime.
Expenses
First of all, justice must not be influenced by economic terms but some people argue that the death penalty is cheaper than long prison sentences. This is not entirely true. The cost of executions in the USA is very high.
For example, the cost was over 85 million Swedish kronor to judge and execute the death sentence for a terrorist who carried out the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.
In New York and New Jersey, the high costs of the death penalty were one factor in the decision to abandon the death penalty. New York spent about 1.1 billion Swedish kronor over 9 years without carry out any executions. New Jersey spent 1.7 billion in a 25 year period without carry out any executions.
The reasons for the high costs in U.S. are the long procedures for dealing with appeals. In countries with a less costly procedure for appeals, the death penalty seems like a much cheaper option than long prison sentences.
People who are not responsible for their actions
Some countries, including the U.S., have executed people who are proved to have been mentally ill when they have carried out their crimes.
It is generally accepted that people should not be punished for their actions if they cannot be held responsible for their actions because of a serious mental illness. Therefore, mentally ill people should not be sentenced to either prison or be executed. They should instead be sentenced to mental hospital care.
WAR: A war is country against country, but the death penalty is country against its inhabitants. Therefore I don’t think we can compare them.
How many executions of innocent people can be accepted before rejecting the death penalty? 10 percent? 5 percent? 1 percent or 0 percent?
The answer is obvious - 0 percent. This means that the death penalty should have been rejected long ago because there is always a risk that innocent people will be convicted.
Brunei, which is a tiny nation in Southeast Asia, is introducing Sharia laws with harsh punishments such as amputation for theft and stoning to death for cheating. Since you want the death penalty, perhaps we also should start to amputate criminals? Or do you think that amputation of criminals is to bizarre? And if so, why is cutting of someones hands worse than killing someone? We think such punishments are bizarre and don't belong in civilized societies . That also includes the death penalty. The death penalty is demoalizing for humans as a whole.
It is proven that the death penalty does not prevent crime and it is also proven that it doesn't save any costs. So whats the point in having the death penalty at all? Is it retribution (hämnd) for the victims? If so, perhaps we should also allow the victims to kill the sentenced criminals themselves if they want? Or is that to bizarre for you? Whats the difference in that case? The death penalty is bizarre and inhumane no matter who is executing it!
Many people claim that the death penalty is based on the concept of retribution: "eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life." When we have been victims for terrible crimes we have an urge (stark vilja) to strike back and make the offender suffer. But revenge cannot reverse the original act or heal the pain. Instead it awakens and justifies our own impulses to commit murder. We think that vengeance does violence to the soul and actually preserve violence in society. (Vi tror att hämnd gör våld på själen och faktiskt bevarar våld i samhället.)
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