String 'em up?: Pro

Perhaps the best demonstration of a judiciary system that includes the sanction of death for the most serious of crimes is the USA. 38 states practise the death penalty, and there are also 60 capital federal crimes, with federal law stating that the methodof execution shall not be cruel or unsual. These states execute, not because it has been shown to be an effective deterrent; but that it is a fitting punishment for crimes such as murder.

Execution is surrounded by such a stigma that sends a signal that the crime committed is utterly immoral. As a society we have a duty to display the intolerance of immoral behaviour.

Every person is a single moral entity that is capable of decision, right or wrong. In just the same way that many people are praised for their good moral decisions, criminals should be punished for their immoral decisions. This makes justice seem vengeful, but justice is just that, regulated revenge by society for immoral deeds with a punishment to fit the crime.

Punishment by death for murderers equilibrates the weight placed on the life of the victim and that of the murderer; without such punishment the murderer’s life appears to be more sacred than the of the victim. Removing murderers from society takes away the capacity of and forcibly prevents the recurrence of violence, maximising public safety. Figures have shown that over 10% of people on death row are there for more than one murder. Had they been sentenced to death, rather than life with the possibility of parole, than innocent lives may well have been saved.

But surely state sanctioned murder is one of the greatest invasions of our civil rights? Civil rights shold be inherent in our society, but a deliberate deviation from what society expects should be punishable by the removal of such rights. We don’t complain when thieves are imprisoned, for they have voluntarily given up, in their decision to steal, their rights of freedom. People who deliberately kill have invaded an innocent person’s right to life, and have given up all their own civil rights in their decision to commit murder. Society should have the right to reduce the civil rights of people by a level that fits the crime, which in the case of pre-meditated murder is death.

The death penalty is a means by which society can regulate its moral standing. The sanction of execution for intentionally causing the death ensures that things remain equal between the criminal and victim, which essentially is society itself