Running Head: DEATH PENALTY SHOULD NOT BE ACCEPTED 1

Death Penalty Should not be Accepted

Paola Cordero Oviedo

Universidad de Córdoba
DEATH PENALTHY SHOULD NOT BE ACCEPTED 2

Abstract

Death penalty is usually understood as a process in which the government causes death to a

common person as a result of having committed a serious crime, such as: terrorism, murder, and

so on. Many people agree with implementing this penalty, claiming that it is a good way to

prevent horrible crimes and the delinquency of a country, however there are others who disagree

with this affirmation. This paper seeks to give the readers some arguments that make them think

about if it is really effectiveness the application of the death penalty in the society, exploring

some arguments against this practice; for instance, the suffering of the people involved in this

situation, the type of trial that is given to the condemn, and so forth.
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DEATH PENALTHY SHOULD NOT BE ACCEPTED

Death Penalty Should not be Accepted

Nowadays, it is very common to watch on the news, read in the newspapers, listen on the

radio or read on the social networks about many types of crimes, and it is not surprising to listen

to people to wish the victimizers´ death and ask the government the implementation of the death

penalty for those bad people. However, the application of this penalty has some negatives

features; hence, it should not be accepted in any country.

First, death penalty is a practice that violates two fundamental rights which are: the right

to life and the right not to suffer torture. Death penalty is about killing someone and do not give

him the opportunity to get reformed and incorporated to the society again, because it is an

irreversible situation. Killing a prisoner in order for that person not to commit a crime again, it is

similar to say that the doctor has to kill his patient, so that person not becomes sick again.

Furthermore, the condemned are exposed to be beheaded, hanged, electrocuted, shot in the neck

by firing squad and they are applied the lethal injection, without taking into account that they

sometimes do not die on the first try, so they have to be torture the amount of times necessaries

until they die, producing them suffering, and not only to them, but their families as well, because

they are aware of the procedure their condemned relatives are subjected.

Moreover, this type of penalty has not showed effectiveness. There are many countries

which state that death penalty is a way to dissuade the delinquency; however, it has not been

proved that this is a helpful strategy against the delinquency. A research carried out by The

National Academy of Sciences of the United States, explained that it is not known if the death

penalty reduces homicides, and even if it increases them, because it has been almost impossible

to find the opposite, in fact, in the United States, the average murder rate for states that use the

death penalty is higher than for states that do not.

DEATH PENALTHY SHOULD NOT BE ACCEPTED 4

Besides, in some cases this practice is not fair. There are no fair trials. Defendants are

rarely allowed to be represented by lawyers, and in many cases they are not informed of the

progress of legal proceedings against them. Death sentences usually are based on confessions

obtained through torture or non-reliable testimonies, and people are killed although there is not

enough evidence to deserve the death penalty; for instance, the cases of Larry Griffin in 1995,

Carlos de Luna in 1989, Gary Graham in 2000. Additionally, countries such as China, Iran and

Saudi Arabia, use this penalty as a politic tool to minimize their political opponents or with other

crimes as drugs, apostasy, witchcraft and sorcery.

To conclude, before accepting the use of the death penalty or not in a country, the issues

concerning this practice must be taken into consideration, such as the fundamental rights that can

be violate, the suffering of people directly and indirectly affected with the application of this

penalty, if it is effective or not and if innocent people can die or not.