Human Rights Death Penalty example essay topic

Death Penalty The Violation of Human Rights Are we playing God? Have we totally forgotten humanity? When I think about death penalty it reminds me about Jesus and when he confronted the people who gathered to stone a woman who had been caught committing by saying, "If any of you have never sinned, then go ahead and throw the first stone at her". (John 8: 7) This action clearly demonstrates that Jesus believed that there was a problem in imposing death penalty because no one is sinless.

Jesus did not say that adultery should not be a crime punishable by death, but he did point to a problem with imposing such a penalty. Those valuable teachings on human rights have been entirely ignored by society in the United States. During the last decade more than 500 prisoners were executed in the United States. Another 3,500 wait on death rows.

The United States is one of the very few industrialized countries in the world, which executes criminals. It is one of the few countries in the world, which executed mentally ill persons, persons with very low IQ, and child murderers (i.e. persons who were under 18 at the time of their crime). How can a first world country that embraces Christianity, as it's main religion also embrace death penalty. Death penalty is an archaic and barbaric form of punishment whose existence should be relinquished from all legal systems of civilized societies. Let's set the pace and protect the human right to life from such an inhuman or degrading act. In the United States, about 13,000 people have been legally executed since colonial times.

By the 1930's up to 150 people were executed yearly. Lack of public support for capital punishment and legal challenges reduced the execution rate to near zero by 1967. In 1972 the U.S. Supreme Court banned the practice, however, in 1976 the Supreme Court authorized its resumption. Each state decided whether to have the death penalty or not. As of the end of 1997, only 12 states do not have the death penalty; Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin. From 1976, when executions were resumed, to the end of 1997, there were 432 executions in the US.

As the end of 1997, there were about 3,222 prisoners on death row in 34 states. 47 (1.5%) are women. Recent laws have expanded the number of crimes for which capital punishment can be applied. Other laws have reduced some of the appeal mechanisms available to those on death row. In 1997, the American Bar Association called for a suspension of the death penalty, until new policies are implemented to make certain that "death penalty cases are administered fairly and impartially, in accordance with due process, and... minimize the risk that innocent persons may be executed". They are also opposed to the execution of mentally retarded individuals and those who were under 18 at the time of the crime.

There are so many significant arguments to support the idea of abolishing the death penalty. First of all, anti-abolitionists might argue that the death penalty is needed to deter crime, but the death penalty has not been shown to be effective in the reduction of the homicide rate. There are even some indications that executions actually increase the murder rate. Second of all, unfairness created between convicts can not be denied. The poor, males and racial minorities are over-represented among those executed.

One pilot study of over two dozen convicted criminals on death row found that all had been so seriously abused during childhood and that they probably all suffered from brain damage. Women convicted of murder are almost never executed; that is a penalty is reserved for men. Third of all, we should remember that there is always a chance of error in the process of trials. Many convicted murderers are later found innocent and have been pardoned. It is impossible to pardon a corpse. In 1987, a study was published by the Stanford Law Review.

They found some evidence that suggested that at least 350 people between 1900 and 1985 in America might have been innocent of the crime for which they were convicted and could have been sentenced to death. 139 were sentenced to death and as many as 23 were executed. Finally, the most important and essential argument, that should be taken into deliberation as an opposition to the death penalty is the value of human life. Human life has intrinsic value, even if a person has murdered another. The death penalty denies the sacredness of human life.

Live is so precious that nobody should ever be killed, even by the state. Permitting premeditated murder is totally unacceptable, even if done by the state. Capital punishment lowers the value of human life as seen by the general population and brutalizes society. It is based on a need for revenge. It violates our belief in the human capacity for change. It powerfully reinforces the idea that killing can be a proper way of responding to those who have wronged us.

I do not believe that reinforcement of that idea can lead to healthier and safer communities. Defense of life and of the state may be considered as justification. The taking of life by state officials, for example, is justified when they must act immediately to save their lives or others'. The death penalty, however, is not an act of defense against an immediate threat to life. It is the premeditated killing of a prisoner for the purpose of punishment. Like torture, an execution is an extreme physical and mental assault on a person already rendered helpless by government authorities.

The cruelty of the death penalty is obvious not only in the execution but in the time spent under sentence of death, during which the prisoner is constantly thinking about his or her own death at the hands of the state. This cruelty can not be justified no matter how cruel the crime of which the prisoner has been committed. There is no criminological justification for the death penalty, which would outweigh the human rights, and furthermore the death penalty contradicts the internationally accepted goal of rehabilitating the offender. I believe that it is more important for the convicted of the capital punishment to pay for it throughout the rest of his or her life.

By eliminating a person through the death penalty, people will forget about the person and the act the person committed, which would not serve the purpose of punishment as a deterrent. By letting the convicted of capital crime to live to be reformed and to work on reparation for his or her crime is far more meaningful and effective as a deterrent to similar crimes by others. Stop playing God. Stop violating fundamental human rights. Lets give closure to one of the degrading chapters of our society and prove to the world how civil we really are. Work Cited Amnesty international web "Rights for all" web "The Annual Report" web Penalty Links "Human Rights Death Penalty" web Sandoholzer, Kuno Death Penalty USA Pages web.