Debat over Capital Punishment

The debate over the merits of capital punishment has

endured for years, and continues to be an extremely

hot topic and complicated issue. People who support capital

punishment feel that society must be protected and kept safe from the monstrous barbaric acts of these. At the same time, we must insure that innocent people are never convicted or sentenced to death for a crime that they did not commit.

I feel that the use of capital punishment as a form

of deterrence does not work, because there are no fewer murders

in countries or states that do have it, then those that do not. In my opinion, in order for capital punishment to work as deterrence, certain events must be present in the criminal's mind prior to committing the offense. The criminal must be aware that others have been punished in

the past for the affiance that he or she is planning, and

that what happened to another individual who committed this

affiance, can also happen to him/her.

This is not the case in most European countries. In America, there are hundreds of thousand people in prison and 80% of them are of color. The judicial system is not set up fairly on the front end so it would be very difficult for any other part of the system to work properly.

It has been proven time and time again that if you have money you are most likely to not be punished for the crime. African American men are more likely to be put to death than a Caucasian merely because their life is not valued as the same as a Caucasian man.

We must be careful. We must be very careful to never, even

when suspicion may cause considerable doubt, send an

innocent person to be executed. It could have happened to

a black man, it could have happened to white man.

It probably has even occurred numerous times in the history

of the earth. With proper police investigations, and

where the evidence shows that the individual is a threat to

the peace of society as long as he or she is alive, capital

punishment is still not the answer. Capital punishment sends the message that killing is acceptable for one but not for another.

Capital punishment is in itself a form of vengeance on the killer

After the attack on the Twin Towers, America was quick to kill. It was if they felt that by killing others would make up for they horrible act upon us. Two wrongs will never make a right. Capital punishment is a barbaric act in a so called civilized country and it does not work.

But individuals who commit any types of crime ranging from

auto theft to First Degree Murder, never take into account

the consequences of their actions. Deterrence to crime, is

rooted in the individuals themselves. Every human has a

personal set of conduct such as how much they will and will

not tolerate and how far they will and will not go. This

personal set of conduct can be made or be broken by

friends, family, home, life, etc. An individual who is

never taught some sort of restraint as a child, will

probably never understand any limit as to what they can do,

until they have learned it themselves. Therefore, capital

punishment will never truly work as a deterrent, because of

human nature to ignore practiced advice and to self learn.

There