I believe that the death penalty is outdated and has no place in a modern society it should be eliminated. In fact, I can give you five good reasons. The first reason is that we primarily execute murderers. Murder is bad, so we punish murder by murdering the murderer. Does this make sense? Not to me.
The second reason is that the people who are most punished by the death penalty aren’t the convicted. When someone dies by the death penalty they die, quick and painlessly. Their mother, wife, kids and friends are all punished by not having the person they care for anymore. These are most likely hard working people that have never committed a crime before (most people don’t.)
The third reason is the most important, what if the person was misjudged. If there is any possibility of innocence, innocence that could be condemned by a system that has had flaws in the past. For this example one must employ empathy to actually being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Watching the little pistons go down and then you die. Even once is once too many times. (This has happened too, look at cases of people executed annulled by DNA evidence when it came out.)
The fourth reason is that in most biblical tests killing is condemned. If it is true, then we are damning our executioners to hell, or whatever eternal damnation their religion of choice offers the guy who pulls the lever.
The fifth reason contained in this essay is that, there are deep and long lasting psychological effects on the prison guards assigned to deal with the executions. Even if they are killing scum or a murderer, it’s still a psychological nightmare for one’s conscience.
As an alternative, I recommend using the prisoner for testing of drugs for the betterment of humanity (so at least the death serves a purpose), life imprisonment with work so that society may benefit, or finally life imprisonment with lifelong restitution payments for the family. We live in a modern society, it’s time to act like one.
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