Capital Punishment

Capital Punishment Capital punishment is a very controversial topic because of all the different perspectives it could be viewed by. Over 4,000 prisoners in the United States have been executed between 1930 and 1989.

It does not seem like the best way to detter violent crimes and the courts should decide on alternative methods of punishment for serious types of offences.

Politically it may seem like the right thing to do for various reasons including overcrowding of the jails; the system in the US is steadily increasing in population and the number of people that go through it.

So as an effective solution to this problem, capital punishment may seem fitting. Another reason may be as a show of great authority on the government's behalf. They try to show other potential murderers what will happen to them if they commit a similar crime.

This is not the way to do it though. Murder is defined as the killing of an individual intentionally and unlawfully. With every murder there is a trigger that provoked an uncontrollable anger in the aggressor. Capital punishment therefore is also murder. The murder of the convict is allowed because what he did aggrevated society.

On this standpoint it does not seem that justice is being served. From a moral standpoint, using a violent method of punishment to deter violent crimes doesn't seem to fit properly.

It is the same as reprimanding a child who hit someone by giving him/her a smack in the mouth. This teaches the child and the rest of the observers that hitting is ok when they are older. They don't see it as much as a punishment but as a display of power. This is a very dangerous thing to teach young children if used improperly.

And there are times when parents sometimes punish the wrong child for something they did not even do. Capital punishment is also subject to error of this kind. It is almost impossible to find out the exact number of people who have been executed in the United States that were wrongfully convicted.