Death penalty is up for debate again in the UK – at least by the public for now. They will be debated by MP’s when one of the petitions reaches a certain amount of signatures. There are many petitions on the official website for petitioning the government, both for and against bringing back capital punishment. However those that want it to return have different ideas about what should be punishable by death.
The most popular of these being child abusers and child murderers it seems but they’re among other things like drug dealers, terrorists, etc. On the whole, mostly what you’d expect – life ruining and life ending crimes.
But really, where do we place that bar? Don’t get me wrong, I’m just as angry as the next person about these sorts of crimes – but sometimes, a crime isn’t that simple. What if a wife kills her husband, but she’s done it after years and years of abuse from him? Does she get the death penalty? What about people who are taking drugs but not dealing them?
There are so many different scenarios I could go through – but I hope you get the picture, it’s not always as simple as cold hearted killer – though there are of course those out there.
So, what if someone is actually sentenced to death? Surely we’re not going to descend to the archaic hanging, so one assumes it will be done by lethal injection. Quick, painless death.
On the one hand, we can safely say that the convicted person is never going to harm anyone again – which is a good thing, I don’t think anyone wants them to be able to harm anyone ever again.
However death is very final – if there were more victims, there’s no chance of getting any more confessions out of them now. No more information to be had from them. So although some families may see this as justice, others may not get any answers at all now.
And not all victims family and friends want the death penalty. It’s too much of an easy way out for a person who has taken their loved ones and ruined their lives. 30 seconds and their life is over without any suffering whatsoever.
Our technology has come a long way – so much so, that we can solve many crimes that happened years ago with DNA matching. But it isn’t flawless and how awful would it be to sentence and innocent person to death?
I completely understand the anger that people have against such crimes in order feel that the death penalty is a great justice. For me though, it just isn’t any kind of justice and the issue is too complicated to justify such a final sentence.
What are your thoughts? Vote and comment below.
As Life Like As. 
Like you I understand people’s horror at violent crime but for me, taking a life to show that life should be honoured seems to give a mixed message – ‘it’s ok to kill when we say so’. There is also the reality that sometimes courts make wrong convictions – there is great play clef ‘exonerated’ about people put to death in the US who were subsequently found to be innocent.
I don’t think any innocent, good person would feel honoured to have another human being killed in the name of justice for them.
Picking up on your point about miscarriages of justice, one of the questions I ask here – http://marcusmoore.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/bring-back-hanging/ – is: “Would advocates of the death penalty go happily to the electric chair if perchance they themselves were found guilty of a crime they didn’t commit?” To which I have never yet received the answere ‘yes’.