Capital punishment is also known as the death penalty is a highly controversial issue. Those in favor of capital punishment base their opinions on the fact that it is justice in its kind while those against it say it’s a rejection of the moral principles based on the right to life and liberty.
Those who are against capital punishment and think it should be abolished are only thinking about the cruelty of it as families are broken apart. From them, one method of lethal punishment is just as barbaric as another. These people say that those who commit such horrible acts have in themselves been victims of neglect, emotional torture, violence, lack of love, and destructive social conditions and these conditions had made them sick, hence it is wrong to hold them accountable.
Those in favor of capital punishment say that such criminals should be given the death penalty as because of their merciless act, the families of the victim are hurt beyond comprehension. For instance, there was a case of Susan Smith who strapped her two children in the backseat of the car and drove it straight into the lake. She was however awarded a life sentence instead of a death penalty that would have been justice for such a barbaric crime. Joseph de Maistre, who was a French diplomat, said that if governments give up punishing such criminals then our society would be in chaos and the criminals would be free to do as they wish.
Another argument against death is that it has a very brutal effect upon society and its law enforcement officials as it states that it is okay to kill in some circumstances. Furthermore, they state that capital punishment itself is thought to be responsible for increasing the number of murders committed in societies where it is practiced.
The counterargument is the enforcement of justice in society by giving death to heinous criminals. Allowing capital punishment shows that justice systems take the right of life for everyone quite seriously and are committed towards society. Furthermore not giving the death penalty to criminals brutalizes the family of the murder victims as well as the society. Furthermore, another argument in favor of the death penalty is that death penalty cases receive many judicial reviews which make it almost impossible to state that a miscarriage of justice can happen in a death situation rather than in life imprisonment.
The counterargument put forward, in this case, is that the justice system should give the criminals a chance to redeem and think about what they have done and for such people life imprisonment is justice as it is painful for them to ponder over their wrongdoings. Hence the counterargument of substituting capital punishment with life imprisonment is moot.
To conclude, even worldwide there is little consensus on the complete abolishment of capital punishment as some say it’s one of the best forms of deterrence and reduces the murder scale while others say that taking someone’s life goes against the principle of freedom of unobstructed life.