Capital Punishment Should be Abolished

Introduction

Capital punishment is the legal infliction of death as a form of penalty ever since a long time for the inhuman crimes committed by an individual. According to the Bible, it is mandatory to impose a death penalty on various crimes ranging from robbery to witchcraft. By 1500's, the punishment of the death penalty is given for committing a murder, conducting burglary ignoring the scale it is conducted in, against arsonists, committing theft, raping an innocent and breaching some by showing disloyalty (www.britannica.com).

Religious Perspective

There is a conflict between what the Old Testament states and what the Christ's message states. There are several views stating the concept of Capital Punishment is against the teaching of Christ. It gives the message of forgiveness where as the Old testament completely supports the concept of Capital Punishment.

The teaching of Jesus Christ can be derived from the Gospel of Mathews and Luke that a women guilty of adultery is being stoned because of her indecent acts. Jesus intervened in the stoning process and condemned the process of physical retaliation. This communicates that physical retaliation is a brutal form of an act which is a sin.

However in the Old Testament, the Leviticus supports a list of crimes for which the execution becomes mandatory. In terms of the sixth commandment, it states that "Thou shall not kill" which can also be stated as "Thou shall not murder". However, the denomination here does not have a hard stance on the translation and so this allows people to have a will to make their own decision (www.net.bible.org).

Background of Capital Punishment

The utilization capital punishment dates till the initiation of recorded history. Elimination via inducing death to individuals committing a crime and as well as the political opponents is been used by all societies since the beginning of time. It is used to suppress crime also to suppress governmental disapproval (www.pbs.org). In the past, penalties that are inflicted as a form of capital punishment were:

Death by boiling

In this penalty, an individual guilty of crime is dipped in boiling liquid such as water or oil. This mode of punishment is used in Asian as well as Europe. This mode was used by churches considering that it was not allowed to spill blood.

Slow Slicing

This was the mode of punishment used in China where by small slices of the body were made using a sharp knife. The slices made were not done in one go but over a longer time.

Crushing by Elephant

This was the most common method used. This punishment was used in the Southeast Asia and mostly in India. The elephants were trained to be able to torture blameworthy individuals through public executions.

Execution by Burning

This is also known as burning an individual to death or burning the person alive. This form of punishment has also been mentioned in the Bible. According to the bible it was conducted through molten lead being poured down through the throat of the individual which induced instantaneous death. Such form of capital Punishment ...