The death sentence can be looked as two faces on a coin. It is both good and bad in a way for implementing such punishment to those that commits state crimes. Death sentence for one is a pretty straightforward method used in Texas by lethal injection. Prior to the usage of the lethal injection, Texas used electrocuted chairs to shock the offenders to their death. Those that are given the death sentence have committed a very serious crime often relating to homicides. Now the good side of the coin reflects that the death sentence is a punishment that can bring peace and assurance to the citizens in that county and to the families of the death ones. The citizens in the county can feel a little assured that one offender will be erased from this world, and they would hope that such crimes would decrease in their county. The families of the death ones feel that the death sentence has given their love ones the justice that he or she deserves. Although death sentence may mean that one less offender is living and it may give the victims the justices that he or she deserves, death sentence also has a negative impact on our state and how these judgments do not really reflect what death sentence can do. This side of the coin is all about how death sentence is just another punishment with an ironic reasoning. For one, those that are given the death sentences are those that have murdered, and now they too will be killed. It may sound more fair to be killed by a state law from injection than by any other forms. However, the point doesn't matter. What matters is that it is still a form of killing, which is murder!! Texas has always been ranked number one in issuing death sentences and number one with the most death sentence offenders. Is Texas competing among other states with this same law to always be ahead of the game? Instead, death sentences do not solve any fundamental problems. How is it going to decrease the numbers of murders in Texas? How will it prevent future crimes? How will it assure its citizens that they are living in a protective environment? Death sentences can not answer any of these questions because this punishment can not solve the bigger picture in life. What we need is to know that the crime rates will drop and the people need to know that they are living in a safe place. Death sentence can only provide immediate results for that one particular offender.
I do not object with the death sentence because I think that those that commit any sort of crime should pay back and serve their time. What I don't like about the death sentence is that it gives Texas a negative image besides not solving the bigger problem of crimes. For being ranked number one, Texas is thought to be very strict and very Republican. Does this infuriated the Democratic in Texas about the image that shaped Texas many decades ago? I also feel that Texas as well as other sates should implement laws that can change its society for the good of the people by promoting more active participation and benefits for everyone. Strict punishments are not always good. We are all kids in a way that we will obey to those that shows us more affection and true care compared to those that just punish. Thus, punishments do not always mean that people will learn and that it will do any good for the society. Texas should promote more positive activities for everyone of any group and they should truly care for the welfare of their citizens and not do it just for their job.
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After scanning through several classmates' blogs, I found Kylie Nguyen's blog of particular interest to me. The death penalty is one of those gray areas for me. I never really had a strong opinion for or against it until fairly recently.
ReplyDeleteWhile Kylie is for the death penalty and makes a very valid argument, I am going to have to disagree. I am no longer for the death penalty as I once thought I was. The death penalty may bring "peace" to the family of the victim, or to the community for that matter, but it seems like a cop out to me. Instead of this offender living every day chained up thinking about what he/she has done, they just get put to sleep basically. They are put out of their misery. How is that justice??
Nobody (sane and mentally healthy) likes the thought of taking another life. No one. This means that the death sentence can make us feel sympathy for the monster who committed the crime. Strange isn't it? Not to mention the fact that it is MORE expensive for us taxpayers when we choose capital punishment over keeping someone in prison for life. Think about all of the additional court dates and appeals that go along with capital punishment sentences, it can take a decade or even longer before the perpetrator is actually put down.
Lastly, In 1972, the Supreme Court declared that under then-existing laws "the imposition and carrying out of the death penalty… constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments." (Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238)
The death sentence is indeed cruel and unusual punishment, and again I will say, let the murderer suffer every single day for the rest of his or her life. Let's not do them a FAVOR by putting them out of their misery. They don't deserve that!
http://www.aclu.org/capital-punishment/case-against-death-penalty
http://www.balancedpolitics.org/death_penalty.htm