Death Penalty is a capital punishment.

It is used today and was used during ancient

times to punish people with a variety of offenses. The bible also advocates death for
murder and other crimes such as kidnapping and stealing. Here in the Philippines,
we used to have Death Penalty, but I believe this capital punishment should be
issued in all states for those people who commit great crimes. Death Penalty should
be issued because death is being feared, it gives Justice, it is a fact that there's no
proof of an innocent being executed and there are some quotations from the bible
that seem to respond this.
Most people have a natural fear of death and I, myself, am afraid of it. Just think
about it; if you die, you'll leave this world and never come back. If we have Death
Penalty and a murderer dies instantly, the homicide rate would decrease because
no one likes to die. Death Penalty is important because it could save the lives of
thousands of potential victims who are at stake.
Another one is that Death Penalty shows justice. There will be justice when we
punish the guilty. It shows equality. On t.v., I have seen people being interviewed
because one or some of their relatives died. They are crying for help and wanting
justice for the death of their loved ones. I know for sure that justice can only be the
solution for them to be relieved. A serious crime must have serious penalty and that
is death. Justice can dignify a person.
People who oppose death penalty claim that in the implementation of this capital
punishment, innocent men are wrongly executed. According to "ProDeathPenalty" ,
there has never been any proof of it. Moreover, our criminal justice system takes
extra precautions to be sure the innocent are protected. What's the use of the
judges who were trained in this field? They also want to make sure who is guilty and
not.
Death Penalty is like "an eye for an eye". Death Penalty helps curtail future
murderers and because of this we can save more lives. If Death Penalty exists,
repeat murderers are eliminated and future murders are deterred. Just imagine it;
we will live in a just society. If death Penalty wouldn't be issued now, then when?
When there are more criminals lurking? It is said that every minute, there is a
chance that an innocent man could get murdered. We must put a stop to it.
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
The expression Capital Punishment or the Death Penalty is ambiguous, referring to a species of acts,
acts of executing someone for conduct judge to be criminal. It often refers to a certain kind of social
institution. The institution of capital punishment is one pattern of punishment that forms part of our
legal system in many, but not all, societies. It involves certain roles like those of the executioner and
the criminal and certain rules such as the rule that only person condemned to death by courts is to be
executed. In most society, the punishment for murder is execution. In the Philippines we have the
same act, the R.A. no. 7659 or the death penalty act.

ARGUMENTS FOR CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

The classical and contemporary literature on the subject of capital punishment
provides several very plausible arguments designed to prove that the act of
executing a person for conduct judge to be criminal is sometimes right.
The death penalty itself on the other hand could strike fear in the minds of those
criminals and make them think twice before committing any act of violence. That
the Capital punishment may act as an instrument with which the righteous may be
guarded against the offender. The enforcement of Capital Punishment under proper
circumstances places a high value on human life and upholds dignity of man, than
making him stop to the level of criminals by lashing out at them with similar
brutality in the guise of justice.
Prevention
Capital punishment is sometimes morally justified as a means of preventing the
criminal from committing additional crimes. By his past action the criminal has
shown himself to be wicked and dangerous. Anyone deprived enough to murder or
rape once is very likely to act in socially harmful ways again. The only sure way to
prevent such a person from going on to murder or rape in the future is to execute
him. Imprisonment is a far less effective means of protecting society from such
dangerous criminals. Most prisoners are freed after a time-often having become
most dangerous than when they entered prison-by parole, pardon or the expiration
of their sentences. In any case, escape is always possible. And even within the
confines of prison, a condemned criminal may murder or rape a guard, a fellow
inmate or a visitor. Executing a condemned criminal is the only sure way to prevent
him from committing additional acts of crime. Since it is the only right to protect the
innocent member of the society from the most serious crimes, capital punishment is
sometimes right.
Retribution
While the arguments from preventions and deterrence look to the future and
attempt to justify capital punishment by an appeal to the future harm it will avoid,
the argument from retribution looks to the past and tries to justify capital
punishment as the right response to the wrong that has been done. Granted that
society would be unjustified in taking a person's life in punishment for any trivial
crime, capital punishment is just retribution for the greatest crimes. If one person
has killed another, it is only fir that he give his own life in return. Kidnapping and
rape are also very wrong that the person who commits these acts deserves the
greatest penalty, death. Justice demands that each individual be treated by others
and by society as he deserves. The person who does good act ought to be rewarded
with good, and the person who does evil ought to suffer evil-each in proportion to
the good or evil done. The conception of justice implicit in this argument has

traditionally been illustrated by the figure of a blindfold woman holding a set of

balance scales. The woman is blindfolded so that she cannot recognize her friends
and enemies and award the former more good and the latter more evil than they
deserve. The balance scale symbolizes the element of retribution, the notion that
good or evil are to be awarded in return to the good or evil he has done. Applied to
punishment, this means that the punishment should fit the crime that the evil
inflicted upon the condemned criminal should be in proportion to the degree of
harm he has done. Since the only penalty bad enough to equal the greatest crime is
death, and since justice requires that the criminal receive just retribution for his
past misdeeds, and since it is right to do what justice requires, capital punishment
or death penalty is sometimes right.
Self-Defense
Capital punishment is sometimes right because it is sometimes an exercise of
society's right to self defense. Although it is generally wrong for one human being to
take the life of another, there are exceptional cases where this is morally justified, A
person has right to kill his attacker if this is necessary to preserve his life or limb.
Society, like the individual, has the right to preserve itself when its very existence is
threatened. Now a murderer attacks not only his individual victim, but the society
itself. Since society is constituted by aggregate of individuals, to kill one or more
individual is already to begin to exterminate the society. Moreover, certain laws,
such as the law prohibiting murder, are necessary if any collections of individuals
are to live together in organized society. Hence, to break those laws that alone
make the existence of society possible is to threaten that society with death. Capital
punishment is sometimes right because it is right for society to exercise its self
defense, and in extreme cases capital punishment or death penalty does not defend
the society from the attacks of a criminal that threaten its very existence.
Capital punishment or the death penalty is the act of killing or executing a person,
who was found guilty of a serious crime, by the government.
Without a doubt, executions are considered the ultimate punishment for a crime,
because there is no repeal from death. The logical alternative for capital
punishment is life in prison without parole, yet a lot of nations still perform the
death penalty. This is because the debate whether capital punishment is ethical and
justifiable is still widely disputed.
Therefore, lets review each reason for and against capital punishment to determine
if it is ethical and logical.
Reasons For Capital Punishment
1. Prison: There are three purposes for prison. First, prison separates criminals
for the safety of the general population. Second, prison is a form of

punishment. Third and finally, the punishment of prison is expected to

rehabilitate prisoners; so that when prisoners are released from prison, these
ex-convicts are less likely to repeat their crimes and risk another prison
sentence. The logic for capital punishment is that prisons are for
rehabilitating convicts who will eventually leave prison, and therefore prison
is not for people who would never be released from prisons alive.
2. Cost of Prison: Typically, the cost of imprisoning someone for life is much
more expensive than executing that same person. However with the
expensive costs of appeals in courts of law, it is arguable if capital
punishment is truly cost effective when compared with the cost of life
imprisonment.
3. Safety: Criminals who receive the death penalty are typically violent
individuals. Therefore for the safety of the prisons guards, other prisoners,
and the general public (in case a death row inmate escapes prison), then
logic dictates that safety is a reason for capital punishment.
4. Deters Crime: There is no scientific proof that nations with capital
punishment have a lower rate of crime, therefore the risk of the death
penalty does not seem to deter crime.
5. Extreme Punishment: The logic is that the more severe the crime, then the
more severe the punishment is necessary. But what is the most severe
punishment: lifetime in prison or execution? I am not sure that anyone alive is
qualified to answer this question.
6. Appropriate Punishment: It is commonly believed that the punishment of
a crime should equal the crime, if possible. This is also known as "an eye for
eye" justice. Therefore using this logic, the appropriate punishment for
murder is death.
7. Vengeance: Some crimes are so horrific that some people think that
revenge or retribution is the only option. This reasoning is not based on logic;
but rather, it is based on emotions. Therefore, this reason should not be
deemed a valid justification.