Against the Death Penalty

Andrew at Bound By Gravity gives an example of why he supports the death penalty. I had thought about writing about the death penalty in the past and decided this was a good lead in. This is going to be hard to write because I am not as proficient with words and communication as others like Andrew but I will give it my best shot.

I believe that the death penalty should never be used for the following reasons.

1. People can change.

When we choose to extinguish a life, we are taking responsibility of life and death and judging that death is more deserving than life based on past actions without considering any future actions. What gives us (in the form of the courts) that supreme authority to decide that one person's future is not worth allowing them to live? People may argue that by executing them we are preventing them from doing any more harm, but at the same time we are preventing them from doing any more good. If a killer such as the one mentioned in Andrew's post in a few years came to realize his errors, changed, and became an inspiration to others who were like him and led them away from violent crime, could we still argue he deserved death as a young man?

2. Mistakes can happen.

Thanks to DNA evidence, wrongful convictions are more rare these days but it is not outside the realm of possibility. What does it say of a society that puts the innocent to death, even if it is mistakenly, in the name of vengeance? Which leads to...

3. The only reason for it is vengeance.

Some supporters of the death penalty say that it is for justice that they want the criminals executed. Wrong. Justice is served when they are found guilty and punished whether it is with life imprisonment or execution. Execution itself is not justice, it is punishment. And the reason to choose execution over imprisonment is vengeance. Eye for an eye, a life for a life. I would hope our culture is better than screaming for vengeance at every wrong done to them and I would hope most agree that getting vengeance upon the guilty does nothing for the victims or society except satisfy a primitive blood lust from our cave-dwelling days. Since we don't live in caves anymore, we should similarly bring our sense of "justice" out of the caves as well.

Some people claim another reason is the expense of keeping these criminal imprisoned for life instead of killing them. I respond with this: if our society finds killing people more expedient than spending the money to keep them alive, then I don't want to live in that society. That's not a good reason to support the death penalty.

4. Killing is wrong.

This is more a personal reason than the others. I believe killing another human being is wrong except in cases of self-defence or defence of others. If a person is convicted and behind bars, executing them is neither of these cases and can only be called murder in my opinion.

* * *

I'm glad I live in Canada where the death penalty is currently outlawed, and I hope it stays that way.