Colonial Death Penalty

The fact that colonial Americans held public executions to employ moral lessons to public intrigued me. Until now, I assumed that public executions during the colonial period were held only to entertain people. It is still disturbing to me, however, that colonial Americans tried to promote an execution to their own use. Such discriminations seemed to be common at that period of time.

Despite their good intentions, it appears that the public attended to enjoy an "Entertaining DEATH." This concept is very bizarre and even frightening to today's common sense. One's death should not be ridiculed by any circumstances even if the one's crime is horribly brutal. Every human right should be respected, as the Constitution tells us.

It is somewhat ironic that capital punishment still exists today in United States. Although they are not held to neither employ moral lessons nor entertain a crowd, the fact that death penalty still exists should be shameful. In fact, there are many reasons capital punishment should be abolished.

Simply, it is against human right. No humans should take another human's life away despite of what he or she did. The ultimate goal of a punishment is to let criminals know what they have done wrong and serve as a proper punishment to pay off for their sins. Ultimately, the society would like the criminals to return as properly functional members of the society. However, death penalty means "getting rid of" criminals without giving them a chance to repent their sins.

Another problem to consider about death penalty is the probability of an innocent person accidentally being executed. In addition, many criminals who are in poverty cannot afford a good lawyer, which increases the probability of them getting harsh sentences than a criminal with good social standing and wealth. If O.J. Simpson was just an average person, he most likely would have been sentenced to death.

These aspects of capital punishment should not be ignored. Many countries over the world have already abolished capital punishment, which puts us to think "What would be the best alternative punishment?" Until then, death penalty should not be practiced.