To truly understand and develop a sense of the importance of capital punishment in our justice systems, we looked at four main arguments that are in favor of the death penalty. But before that, we were given some historical information about capital punishment. The death penalty was the earliest form of justice that was followed by many. From the times of Jesus to the Roman times and at present, we still apply the death penalty to our justice systems. The bible itself contains a lot of passages and verses that supports and even encourages the enforcement of capital punishment. After having some knowledge about the history of capital punishment, we went to the first main argument that is for capital punishment, the deterrence argument. We learned that the argument of deterrence should not be used against the death penalty. Because even though studies has shown that places with capital punishment produces a higher crime rate, we haven t considered some factors that might affect this conclusion. We should consider the size of the area, the population and the crime rate in that area. Crime rates do not increase because of capital punishment, but capital punishment is imposed because of high crime rates. The next argument that was discussed was the economic argument. We learned that is would cost a lot of money to impose life imprisonment rather than capital punishment. Also, why should we be giving those criminals that are a menace to our society a place to live, free food, and a decent life, when they have caused a lot of misery to the families and friends of their victims? The third argument we touched upon was the retributive argument. Those criminals deserve to die for committing serious crimes like murder. As a Latin saying goes, An eye for an eye and a life for a life, is justice! The final argument, which supports capital punishment, is the utilitarian argument. The theory of utilitarianism is that the society should aim for the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. And having the death penalty in our justice systems is the best for the greatest number of people. This would make families and people in the communities feel safe and secure at night knowing that there is one less criminal to worry about.
Now that we have been educated by some arguments regarding the death penalty and by its historical information, we can conclude that capital punishment is a law that should be openly accepted in our society today. Without it, our lives are at stake from lingering criminals that are in parole. Our safety is in the hands of the lawmakers. Life in jail won t deter the prisoners from hunting down their next pray. We should do something about these killings. If we don t act now, when are we going to make our first step? Let s not sit around and wait for more innocent victims and their families to suffer. Let s start punishing those murderers. Without capital punishment life won t have a value anymore. And without it, JUSTICE won t be SERVED!!!