DEATH PENALTY

Argument on the death penalty

Argument on the death penalty

Introduction

The paper is discussing the death penalty and the risk of errors involved in it. However, the focus will be on the argument that is the death penalty should get accepted in the society or the death penalty should get over. However, death penalty, capital punishment or execution is to cause death or murder of a convicted by the State as punishment for a crime established in the legislation, the crimes for which this penalty got applied repeatedly termed "capital offenses." However, the death penalty is a very debatable topic. It gives rise to much controversy, raises numerous questions and problems, and divides society into two opposing camps, not only in America, but throughout the world (Sheffer, & Cushing, 2006).

Discussion

The death penalty is the very negation of the most fundamental human right, to live, as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and gets regarded as the ultimate form of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. The years spent in death row can also be regarded as a form of torture, universally prohibited by the Convention against Torture of 1984. Today, the prevailing trend worldwide, is to abolish the death penalty (Sheffer, & Cushing, 2006).

The death penalty got decided by the judiciary after a trial. In the absence of a trial, or in cases where it is not done by a recognized institution, we are talking about summary executions, acts of revenge or individual justice. It got provided in the legislation of almost 100 countries, but only 18 countries carried out executions in 2009. The idea of penalty got based, on the one hand, on religious grounds, whose highest expression igot found in the Old Testament, such as the law of retaliation: "Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth"; Also noteworthy from theological foundations, that the penalties should be based on the need for atonement. In short, the ultimate punishment has always been present in society (Simon, 2007).

On the other hand, it gets based on the absolute theories of punishment, whose maximum penalty was fair. These theories got based on the natural freedom and equality of all men. Therefore, when a man commits a crime, has to give back to the offender to a penalty equal to the harm he has caused. Exercise of self-defense, this argument got based on the idea that the subject, a victim of crime, could not exercise their right to self defense, and; therefore, it is a society that should be undertaken. The death penalty would be for a murder in self defense.

However, it is the practice of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment is clearly and unequivocally prohibited by international human rights and international humanitarian law. International treaties such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, the Arab Charter on Human Rights, American Convention on Human Rights or the Convention UN torture, among other things, prohibit ...