Justice is served??

This week’s topic is such a controversial one.  On one hand we have people saying that yes we should kill criminals that have preyed on innocent victims and left life scarring effects on families and loved ones.  Then we have people saying that the death penalty is wrong because then it makes us just as wrong to kill someone, a life for a life, and the ones who have to issue the execution are also scarred for life.  So what is the answer to this question?  If we use lethal injection as a tool for justice then we are setting an example to others and possibly preventing more people from committing similar crimes.  If we allow people to sit in prison and “think about what they have done,” then you are allowing them to live their life while others were not spared.  Not only do they get to live, but get the taxpayers to pay for their life behind bars.  They may not be able to live freely in society, but technology has allowed them to keep up with everything that is going on.  Many prisoners have access to TV, internet, and phones allowing them to connect with the outside world.  Even those who are on a tight lock down have managed ways of communicating beyond bars through a system of codes and can therefore have outside sources fill their places and continue to kill.  I think that the death penalty should remain as an example to others.  I believe that it does help in many ways to stop violence.  With today’s technology and advances in the criminal investigation world, we are better able to target killers allowing us to finalize our decision to execute them without the feeling that we have killed an innocent person.  Honestly, if you really think about it, the lethal injection is still an easy way out for criminals. 

Many people are against the death penalty for a variety of reasons.  Gandhi once said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”  He is pointing out that two wrongs don’t make a right and he is correct in some aspects.  But if wonder if the people who are against the death penalty have ever put themselves into the shoes of a person who has lost a loved one in a tragic way.  A man comes in and kidnaps your eight year old daughter.  He then rapes her, tortures her, and then viciously kills her.  He then hides her body in an undisclosed area hoping she will never be found and then he goes home and pretends like nothing happens.  That family is now frantically searching for their little girl and are tormented by the thoughts of who took her and what did they do.  Months later her body is discovered and this family will never again be the same.  The innocent life of this child has been taken.  When the murderer is discovered, all evidence points to him and he gets to sit in prison for the rest of his life.  The family gets to sit there and think about how this man is just laying in bed in a prison that feeds him, gives him medical care, and allows him pleasures such as books, games, and tv.  Is it right that the murderer gets a chance at life after committing such a heinous crime?  Desmond Tutu is quoted saying “To take a life when a life has been lost is revenge, not justice.”   Using the example from above, revenge would be defined if the family went out themselves and hunted him down to kill him themselves in the same manner as the little give.  Justice plays a role by allowing this murderer to die in a more humane way by lethal injection.  All he has to do is simply lie down while toxins are put in his body and he is put to a permanent sleep.  How is that revenge?  Albert Camus, a French philosopher once said, “Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders.”  Well sometimes we have to weed out the criminals and rid the world of them.  We have pests all over the country such as insects and mice that constantly are killing crops which leads to people suffering.  We solve this problem by killing them with pesticides and other means to protect our crops.  We purposely plan out the deaths of these creatures when they were put on this earth and are doing what their DNA tells them to in order to survive.  The premeditated murder of innocent creatures is ok while ridding the world of criminals isn’t?  Where do we draw the line? 

I have to agree with the death penalty because I think that it helps to set standards.  We make examples out of people and crime goes down.  How are we setting a good example to society when we allow people to have a “life” in prison?  There are many shows about prison life that show us what goes on.  Some prisons allow people to access to things like computers, books, and TV.  Others that are more strict allow inmates only 30 minutes of time outside and other than that they are confined to a small cell with nothing.  The thing that people also see on these prison shows is that the people behind the bars are still committing crimes! You would think that being sentenced to life behind bars would teach them a lesson and try to have them turn themselves around.  Instead they are digging themselves into deeper holes, which only makes society try to find other solutions to help them become less violent and takes the focus off of people with real problems like homeless and medical.  Our state funded money gets spent more on trials and programs for prisoners then it does for people who actually deserve life.  The death penalty helps in controlling the prison population, sets an example for others before they commit a crime, and serves as justice for victims’ families.  Technology has allowed us to correctly identify criminals allow for less error of killing and innocent person and lethal injection allows for a humane way of disposing of the criminals.

Facts:

Gandhi-“an eye for an eye” http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/30302.html
Camus-“capital punishment..” http://www.antideathpenalty.org/quotes.html
Tutu-“…Not justice”  http://www.antideathpenalty.org/quotes.html