Death Penalty, Is it in our hands?

By: Kenia Guerrero

women have complete freedom and rights and our life style is completely different from
the 16 century.
So why is it that we an advanced civilization havent abolished completely death
penalty which is such an ancient practice?
It was on 1948 that the ONU adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which
on its 5
th
article says: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment. And although it doesnt exactly establish the
abolishment of death penalty isnt it part of it? Isnt executing someone an inhuman
punishment?
Most things have changed in
humanity since the 1500s
when death penalty was on
its peak and its purpose was
to inflict extreme pain upon
the offender and make a
public spectacle out of his
death, now humanity is more
civilized weve developed
technology to its fullest,
There are several arguments in favor and against death penalty and for this to be
objective Id like to mention both sides:
People who defend it say capital punishment offers relief to the relatives of the victim,
they say that for this crime that is the only penalty that truly makes justice, but it often
doesnt give any closure to the victims relatives, it may satisfy thirst for revenge but that
is only temporary because later we will realize that our hands are spotted with blood;
other people says it prevents criminals to keep committing crimes by escaping out of
prison and its cost-saving for the system that has to keep maintaining the offender.
On the other side the people against death penalty say the right to the life is basic and
fundamental, and capital punishment is only a cruel method that assaults the human
dignity, is pure revenge and transforms the judge and prosecutor into executioners also
is not applying justice but revenge and its a way to ignore that justice is given by
humans that can make mistakes or have an impartial judgment so as to condemned to
death a person only by its race, sex, or poverty level
Ive heard many times Death penalty is effective to stop crimes and make me realize is
the most popular of the pro death penalty arguments, but seeing the numbers is obvious
that the crime is not lower in cities that allow death penalty that in the ones that dont
and if we dont give importance to that fact or to the statistics that show that only one
execution costs taxpayers about $2.3 million, which is about three times the cost of
imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years which
totally contradicts the popular opinion of pro death supporters, if we still dont find that
relevant lets just think about the value of life and how we are taking in our hands
something that is not our decision, after all who told us we have the right to end a life?
Think about how we are supporting a law to kill someone because he or she kill
someone and the endless illogic cycle of it.
Where is the action?
There is always another alternative in this case is true life imprisonment, with no
possibility of parole under any circumstances, the principal reason why it is more useful
is because people are more frightened to spend their whole life behind bars than be
killed instantly
In order to abolish death penalty we can join to an organization against it such as
NCADP whose role is to find more Americans against it, collect signatures and take it to
the senate or begin in your state talk to your neighbors, make them conscious about the
relevance of this issue and when elections come be sure to elect the governor with the
right proposal to abolish it on your state.
Eye for an eyes is not a logical concept for the development of a society on the contrary
it only pulls us back to the barbarian times a cruel and uncivilized time.
Death penalty makes killers of us all.





References:
(n.d.). Retrieved from: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/death-penalty-dead-wrong-
time-outlaw-capital-punishment-america-completely-article-1.961087
(n.d.). Retrieved from:http://www.texastribune.org/2013/09/18/bar-association-texas-
death-penalty-system-falls-s/
(n.d.). Retrieved from:
http://www.unesco.org/archives/hrgnews/hrgnewsitems_current.php?id_details=310520
105
(n.d.). Retrieved from http://deathpenalty.procon.org
(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/costs-death-penalty