Capital Punishment
Capital punishment is the execution of criminals for committing crimes, regarded so bad that this is the only acceptable punishment. Capital punishment lowers the murder rate, but its value as retribution alone is a good reason for handing out death sentences. It is one of the only fair punishments allowed by the judicial system. Another issue is that it saves money compared to the alternative of life in prison. Capital punishment is necessary in order for justice to prevail.
The death penalty deters murder and prevents murderers from killing again by putting the fear of death in to would be killers. A person is less likely to do something, if he or she thinks that harm will come to him. Another way the death penalty may help deter murder is the fact that if the killer is dead, he or she will not be able to kill again.
Criminals deserve to die and not stay in jail. If a man kills a man and is convicted he should be ready to die next. Supporters of the death penalty feel that criminals should be punished for their crimes, and that it doesn’t matter whether it will deter crime. They want to make examples out of offenders so that the threat of death will be enough to stop them from committing such horrible crimes. Some people might say to give the murderer life in prison. This is hardly a punishment at all. Today, due to overcrowding in prisons, a lot of prisoners don’t serve their full sentence. Another thing about today’s prisons is that the prisoners get free meals, clothes, bed, electricity, air conditioning and heating, cable and many other luxuries that make it a comfortable place to live if you get used to the people. The death penalty should be given the day after conviction. Many people believe that criminals live in prison off other peoples’ hard earned money.
Criminals should think of the consequences before they kill someone. If they don’t do this or did and still killed someone, they probably aren’t intelligent enough to make any positive impact on the world or they are mentally unstable. They shouldn’t get off the hook for killing someone. People might feel that sentencing them to life in prison is punishment enough but to other people it is just getting off the hook.
There are seven main types of execution: Hanging, where the prisoner is blindfolded and stands on a trap door, with a rope around his neck. The trap door is opened suddenly.
The weight of the prisoner’s body below the neck causes traction separating the spinal cord from the brain. The second most widely used technique is shooting, where a firing squad shoots the prisoner from some meters away. Another method is Guillotine, a device consisting of a heavy blade held aloft between upright guides and dropped to behead the victim below. Then there was garroting, in which a tightened iron collar is used to strangle or break the neck of a condemned person. One of the more recent is Electrocution where the prisoner is fastened to a chair by his chest, groin, arms and legs. Electrodes are placed around a band around the head, and then jolts of 4-8 amperes at voltage between 500 and 2000 volts are applied at half a minute at a time. The newest forms of execution are Lethal Injection where a lethal poison is injected into the prisoners arm or the Gas Chamber where the prisoner is placed in a room with Sodium Cyanide crystals and left to die. By giving a killer the death penalty it would reassure the people close to the victim that it would not happen again. Also it gives them the feeling that the death has been avenged. A family will feel less pain if the killer dies like he should. It also makes criminals think about whether committing a crime is really worth their lives. Capital punishment ensures peace of mind to the world because it ensures that the murderers will never kill again.
