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Should capital punishment be reintroduced?
I chose this topic as I believe it is still relevant in today’s society as it varies between countries and there is still not a unanimous opinion on the topic therefore is highly controversial and I would like to complete this research to discover my own true opinion. I also have interests in law and criminal justice that I would like to further explore and believe it would be an interesting area to explore because of the variety of opinions. I believe the opinions have so much controversy due to a lack of education around the topic.
Capital punishment was made illegal in 1969 by the House of Commons following multiple miscarriages of justice. It was decided that the country would be better off without it, but is this what society truly wants? It was abolished as too many innocent people were being killed for crimes they did not commit. In the world today 70% of countries have now illegalised the death penalty (Death Penalty Information Centre, 2021) however as of 2020 it was still legal in 56 countries (BBC News, 2020). So, who is right?
The abolishment came about because of a variety of factors including campaigns, changing social attitudes, and continuous miscarriages of justice. Unlike other countries, it was parliament and MPs that fought for the abolishment, not the people (Julian Knowles, 2015).
There were a few major cases that were pivotal in the decision because of the severity of the miscarriage of justice that had taken place. One of these includes the case of Timothy Evans in 1950. He was a Welshman living in that was falsely accused of murdering his wife and child and as a result, he was executed. It to this day is still one of the most awful miscarriages of justice to ever take place in the legal system (BBC, 2012). One of the more controversial cases was involving Derek Bentley in 1953. It was due to a miscommunication when a friend of his fired at a police officer and consequently was wrongfully hung. It caused mass protests and took 40 years of campaigning by the family to have Derek pardoned in 1993 (GCSE History, 2020). As a result, people began to doubt the ethicalness of capital punishment. These are just a couple of well-known examples of failures of the legal system and there are many more that have taken place over the years which ultimately led to the abolishment of the death penalty.
I conducted a survey with students aged 16-17 where I gathered 40 responses to gain insight into the opinions of the next generation. In this I found that the opinions are just as varied as those in the rest of society, therefore I feel that this gives an accurate reflection. However, it is very interesting to see that those in the same environment have such dramatic differences of opinion on this topic. It was mostly an even split from one extreme to another. Many that agreed with capital punishment believed that if it was to be implemented that there should be a more ethical way to conduct it.
In this data 1 is totally against capital punishment and 5 is completely for and the rest is somewhere between. From these results, we can see that more people are for rather than against capital punishment however the spill is still very even to show us this is very controversial with some people having no favored opinion at all. Seeing as so many have no absolute opinion does this suggest that it’s outdated and no longer relevant to today’s society or is there just not enough education surrounding the topic?
However, when asked if capital punishment is ethical many disagreed, so why do people agree with it if they don’t believe it is morally right?
Discrimination
There is a well-known history of systematic racism in the history of the justice system, and this has had effects on those trialed for the death penalty. In America, 89% of those that were sentenced were black defendants. 75% of murder cases were sentenced to death because of a crime against a white victim although there is an equal chance for either race to be a victim. There has been a bias toward white victim cases in almost every single case that was studied over a prolonged period of time (Death Penalty Info, 2020). Due to this, we can see that when in practice the justice system is not always fair so to sentence someone to death wrongly is one of the most unethical and inhumane things that could be done.
However, is significantly more equal to America, placing 16th on world rankings compared to them 69th place so is hard to compare their data but we still are aware of the inequalities faced.
UK data
Christianity is the most influential and common religion. There are many controversial messages from Christianity, so it makes it difficult for its followers to know what to follow. The ten commandments clearly state, ‘You shall not murder’ (Exodus 20:13). In the Old Testament the quote ‘But if a serious injury results, then you must require a life for a life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot’ (Exodus 21:23-24) is used which suggests people should be punished for their actions. However, later on in the New Testament, talks about personal encounters, and the Old Testament is talking about government encounters. there is a response to this that says ‘But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also’ (Matthew 5:38). These quotes completely contradict each other, and therefore difficulty is created for those that follow Christianity as they may not know which belief to follow as they have been given multiple responses by their God. This is especially difficult for Christians who rely on answers solely from the Bible and no other sources as there is no clear message given.
In the Roman Catholic Church, the 5th commandment prohibits the unjust taking of human life, it supports capital punishment in principle but holds that current application is unnecessary since we have matured as a culture. The Pope and the Bishops concluded that capital punishment was not suitable in today’s society as they say it does more harm than good (Avery Cardinal Dulles, 2001).
Keeping people imprisoned costs a lot of money but also delivering the lethal injection. On average it costs around $18,000 to keep criminals alive, however, it would save around $12.5 million for the state if they were executed rather than sentenced to life in prison (Weebly, 2020). This would also act as a prevention so even more money would be saved.
Impact on families 300
Punishments can also have negative impacts on the family outside of prison. The family may lose respect from the community and be faced with the burden of that member not being present in daily life. That member may have been the breadwinner for the family so with their absence the family may also struggle financially. This also has a negative impact on children as they may witness crimes or arrests which can cause trauma early on. Furthermore, when children are raised, they are socialized by their parents and part of this is the influence they have, if the child is raised in an environment where it is considered normal to be committing crimes and spending time in prison, they will continue this in later life and the cycle will continue. Many researchers have found that children, whose parents are in prison, are more likely to show depression, hyperactivity, clinging behavior, sleep problems, truancy, and poor school grades (Murray, 2005).
Impact of Facing the death penalty on Friends and Family
The basic argument of retribution and punishment is that all guilty people deserved to be punished, only guilty people deserve to be punished and guilty people deserve to be punished in proportion to the crime they have committed (BBC,2014). Following this logic in the case of a murderer the crime deserves death, so why is it forbidden? However, many say that this would be achieving vengeance rather than retribution, but why do we value the lives of the people that have done wrong so much?
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