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And I Scream No - Death Penalty Article
And I Scream No - Death Penalty Article
If you feel you deserve a second chance, then everybody else does...
The clamour for change and for a better Philippines took one man to run for
presidency. He had no intentions at first, but as the history unfolded, President
Noynoy Aquino did, and now holds the highest position of the land.
As he said, he would, by all means, implement measures to free the country from
corruption. One of the measures being considered (as of press time, not by
President Noynoy but a number of Juan dela Cruzes) is the re-implementation of
death penalty, saying that all corrupt officials should be put to death, firing squad
perhaps, so we can finally break free from the chains of intertwined problems of
poverty, prostitution, degraded quality of education, unemployment, and blah.. blah..
blah..
In a random text survey and interview I made, 60% said that they are in favour of
death penalty-“if that (death penalty) would make people scared to commit crimes”
then, “it must be implemented again.”
Death penalty is not only for the corrupt officials, they said, but also to those who are
convicted of heinous crimes-drug trafficking, rape, kidnapping, bribery and the likes
for “criminals should be dealt with iron hands and not kid’s gloves.”
I for one had been an advocate of death penalty during the height of the Abusayyaf
turmoil. I was among those who thought that taking Leo Echegaray’s life through
lethal injection was a sure way to liberate us from social injustice. But I guess,
growing old made me see that the highest form of justice is the one that makes a
person realize the weight of what he/she had done, and from there move forward
and be an inspiration to fellow “convicts,” now with a changed heart and a renewed
spirit, remorseful of the crime committed... and death penalty would never make that.
And with this, let me SCREAM LOUD ENOUGH! I DO NOT FAVOR DEATH
PENALTY:
Death Penalty magnifies the disparity between the upper class and the lower
class.
Those who are convicted are mostly those who cannot afford to avail service
of very good lawyers and ended up being either framed up or maltreated.
There are still lapses with our justice system and we have to improve this first.
In a study made by the Supreme Court from 1995 to 1999, two out of every
three death sentences handed down by the local courts were found to be
erroneous.
In a survey conducted among 425 convicts in 1998, most convicts were
agricultural workers, construction workers, transport workers, and workers in
sales and services. “Only 6% finished college while 32.4 % finished various
levels of high school while the remaining did not go to school or have finished
only elementary or vocational education.”