Our 1st argument / issue against death penalty is that Capital punishment

is cruel and inhumane

According to Amnesty International, the death penalty violates the

most fundamental human right – the right to life. It is the ultimate cruel,
inhuman and degrading punishment. ... An innocent person may be released
from prison for a crime they did not commit, but an execution can never be
reversed.

The death penalty is a denial of the most basic human rights; it

violates one of the most fundamental principles under widely accepted
human rights law—that states must recognize the right to life. The UN
General Assembly, the representative body of recognized States, has called
for an end to the death penalty and human rights organizations agree that
its imposition breaches fundamental enshrined human rights norms.
Convention is quickly moving towards a position in support of worldwide
abolition.

Under Article 3 of the UDHR, life is a human right. Without life, you
cannot exercise all other rights. This makes the death penalty our most
fundamental human rights violation. As long as governments have the right
to extinguish lives, they maintain the power to deny access to every other
right enumerated in the Declaration.

In many parts of the world, the death penalty is now generally

understood to be a human rights violation. This understanding has led to
progress in the abolition of the death penalty worldwide.
 According to amnesty international, today, over 140 nations have
abolished the death penalty either by law or in practice and, of the 56
countries that have retained the death penalty, only 21 carried out known
executions in 2011.

Now, what makes death penalty so cruel? There as many ways or

methods of execution. Some of these methods may be considered as
barbaric. In the US, for example, Prisoners are executed in the United States
by any one of five methods; in a few jurisdictions the prisoner is allowed to
choose which one he or she prefers.

The traditional mode of execution, hanging, is an option still available

in Delaware, New Hampshire and Washington. Death on the gallows is easily
bungled: If the drop is too short, there will be a slow and agonizing death by
strangulation. If the drop is too long, the head will be torn off. This too is
oone of the most common way of execution in Iran. I am sure some you
have seen imgaes of prisoners hanging from a construction crane, displayed
to public and left for several hours.

Two states in the US, Idaho and Utah, still authorize the firing squad.
In this method of execution, the prisoner is strapped into a chair and
hooded. A target is pinned to the chest. Five marksmen, one with blanks,
take aim and fire. China traditionally also uses the firing squad as its
standard method of execution. In our history, we know someone very close
to our hearts that suffered this kind of execution – our national hero, Jose
Rizal.

Throughout the twentieth century, electrocution has been the most

widely used form of execution in this US, and is still utilized in eleven states,
although lethal injection is the primary method of execution. The condemned
prisoner is led – or dragged – into the death chamber, strapped into the
chair, and electrodes are fastened to head and legs. When the switch is
thrown the body strains, jolting as the voltage is raised and lowered. Often
smoke rises from the head. There is the awful odor of burning flesh. No one
knows how long electrocuted individuals retain consciousness. Have ypu
seen the movie “The Green Mile”, from that movie we can see how cruel
electrocution is. How painful it is to the prisoner and how simple mistake by
the executioner can cause so much more pain to the prisoner. One known
case is the case of William E. Vandiver. October 16, 1985. Indiana.
According to witnesses of the execution, After the first administration of
2,300 volts, Vandiver was still breathing. The execution eventually took 17
minutes and five jolts of electricity.[8] Vandiver’s attorney, Herbert Shaps,
witnessed the execution and observed smoke and the smell of burning.
Imagine the torture of being electrocuted for 17 mins.

The introduction of the gas chamber was an attempt to improve on

electrocution. In this method of execution the prisoner is strapped into a
chair with a container of sulfuric acid underneath. The chamber is sealed,
and cyanide is dropped into the acid to form a lethal gas. Execution by
suffocation in the lethal gas chamber has not been abolished but lethal
injection serves as the primary method in states which still authorize it. In
1996 a panel of judges on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California
(where the gas chamber has been used since 1933) ruled that this method is
a "cruel and unusual punishment." According to the Report, the 1992
execution in Arizona of Don Harding, “Don Harding took ten minutes and
thirty one seconds to die."
 The latest mode of inflicting the death penalty, enacted into law by
more than 30 states in the US and also here in the Philippines, is lethal
injection,. Lethal is considered as the most humane of these methods of
execution. It is even claimed that under this method, the prisoner will feel
pain.

However, it is easy to overstate the humaneness and efficacy of this

method; one cannot know whether lethal injection is really painless and
there is evidence that it is not. Also, this method of execution is also prone
to error. Even a slight error in dosage or administration can leave a prisoner
conscious but paralyzed while dying. There several recorded cases where
observer noted that lethal injection caused so much pain for the inmate.

Have guys seen the film law abiding citizen? In that film, there is a
scene where one of the convicted murderer is being executed. However, the
execution did not go as planned. Instead of dying peaceful and painless, the
inmate suffered immesurable pain. The reason – the main protagonist,
Gerard Butler, was able to swap the chemicals used in the execution.

That scene is not very far from reality. In fact, it was also observed
several executions through lethal injection in US. For example, in March 10,
1992 in Oklahoma during the execution Robyn Lee Parks using Lethal
Injection. Parks had a violent reaction to the drugs used in the lethal
injection. Two minutes after the drugs were dispensed, the muscles in his
jaw, neck, and abdomen began to react spasmodically for approximately 45
seconds. Parks continued to gasp and violently gag until death came, some
eleven minutes after the drugs were first administered. A reported wrote
that the execution looked “painful,” “scary and ugly.” That’s not the only
problem encountered in lethal injections, for example, April 23, 1992 in
Texas during the execution of Billy Wayne White using Lethal Injection.
White was pronounced dead some 47 minutes after being strapped to the
execution gurney. The delay was caused by difficulty finding a vein because
of White’s long history of heroin abuse. During the execution, White
attempted to assist the authorities in finding a suitable vein.

Based on these experiences, there is no denial that any form of

execution is cruel and in violation of the rights of a person under the
universal declaration of human rights.

Thus, in 1989, the General Assembly adopted the Second Optional

Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),
one of the UN’s primary human rights treaties.[36]  Parties to the Protocol
must take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty and protect
their citizens’ right not to be executed, although signatories may reserve the
right to apply the death penalty for serious military criminals during wartime

No. 2 issue on death penalty is The death penalty disproportionately

affects certain groups

The death penalty is not a good example of blind justice. Studies show
that the mentally ill, people of color, and the poor make up the majority of
death row inmates. When researchers take a deeper dive, they discover
patterns of discrimination based on race.

According to the United Nations, the poor are also disproportionately

affected by the death penalty on a global scale. They are less likely to get
good representation and the system is biased against them. Even though
these groups are not committing the most crimes, they are the ones
receiving the most severe punishment. In a report published by the UN
Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, United Nations human rights
experts*called for urgent action to end the disproportionate impact of the
death penalty on people from poorer communities. They say imposing the
death penalty as a result of discrimination constitutes an arbitrary killing and
Governments must not stand idly by. According to the report, If you are
poor, the chances of being sentenced to death are immensely higher than if
you are rich. There could be no greater indictment of the death penalty than
the fact that in practice it is really a penalty reserved for people from lower
socio-economic groups. This turns it into a class-based form of
discrimination in most countries, thus making it the equivalent of an
arbitrary killing.

However, for the purpose of our discussion, I’ll focus on the racial
discrimination in the US. In the United States, between 5-10% of prisoners
on death row have a severe mental illness, according to Mental Health
America. As for racial groups, as you can see from the graph, 56% of the
execution are white americans. While only 34% for black americans. Seems
okay right? In this graph, one may argue that there are more white
americans being executed compared to other race, so where’s the
discrimination?

In determining whether the death penalty in the US

disproportionately affects certain groups, you should not look in this
graph showing the percentage of execution per race. As can be seen in this
slide, yes it is true that there are more white americans being executed than
black americans, but if you consider the totality of US population per rece,
you can now clearly see the disproportion. Despite making up only 12% of
the US population, black people make up over 34% of the prisoners with a
death sentence.

In a studies like that commissioned by the Governor of Maryland found

that “black offenders who kill white victims are at greater risk of a death
sentence than others, primarily because they are substantially more likely to
be charged by the state’s attorney with a capital offense.”

Another recent Louisiana study found that defendants with white

victims were 97% more likely to receive death sentences than defendants
with black victims.

This how death penalty disproportionately affects certain groups.

#3. The death penalty can be used as a tool for control and
retribution, not justice

In theory, the death penalty is only intended for use as punishment for
the most serious crimes, like murder. However, in places around the world,
governments use executions for non-lethal crimes. This includes drug-
related offenses, burglary, adultery, blasphemy, and political crimes.

The authorities in some countries, for example Iran and Sudan, use
the death penalty to punish political opponents.

Also, women are also subject to capital punishment as a result of

the discriminatory nature of several laws that directly concern them.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals can face capital
punishment as well because of the criminalization of certain same-sex
conduct, which is punishable by death in Iran.
 To better understand this arguments, let me give some crimes, other
than murder or rape, that are punishable by death penalty. For this report,
our focus is the situation in Iran.

Under laws of Iran, these offenses, which for our culture is not
considered so grave that under our laws may only be punished by fine and
imprisonment, are punishable by death.

Fornication: Article 63 of the IPC defines fornication as sexual intercourse

between persons not married to each other. Fornicators shall be lashed 100
times. However, a man or a woman who has been convicted for fornication
several times shall be killed.
Same sex relation: The penalty for anal sex involving penetration is death
for both parties provided that they are adults, mature and of free will. If
same sex relations without penetration occur between a non-Moslem and a
Moslem as a passive partner, the former shall be killed.

Accusation of fornication & sodomy: Anybody who accuses others of having

committed fornication or having been sodomised may be punished by death
on the fourth count

DRINKING: Article 179 of the IPC foresees the death penalty for drinking
alcoholic beverages on the third count, provided that the condemned person
has received the punishment of 80 lashes on each of the first two counts.

THEFT: Theft is punishable by death on the fourth count even if it is

committed in prison
ARMED AND POLITICALOFFENSE: “Anybody who takes up arms to create
fear and to divest people of their freedom and security is mohareb and
mofsed-e fel-arz.” Anybody convicted of being mohareb or mofsed-e fel-arz
or both may be sentenced to death at the behest of the ruling judge.

Apostacy: Article 26 of the Press Code of 1985 expressly states: “Anybody

who insults Islam and its sanctities by means of the press, amounting to
apostasy, shall receive the sentence for apostacy. Thus, judges have
invoked the said Article 214 to mete out the death sentence in many
apostasy.

Cursing the prophet: . “Anybody who insults the sanctities of Islam and/or
any of the grand prophets or the infallible imams or [prophet Mohammad’s
daughter] shall be executed if the case is considered to be cursing of the
prophet…”(Article 513)

I know that in their cultures, these acts is considered so grave to merit

death sentence. However, for us observe, we death penalty for these
offenses may be too much.

Based from the foregoing, It becomes clear that many governments are not
interested in justice, but rather suppression and control. By using the death
penalty so arbitrarily, authorities set their own definitions for what’s
“unacceptable” in society and what’s an appropriate punishment. It makes
citizens fearful and violates their human rights. Allowing the death penalty to
exist allows corrupt governments to use executions for their own purposes.