• ~ 05/21/08 ~


    arrow Capital punishment has been commonly known as the ‘Death Penalty,’ or ‘Death Row,’ which is too extreme to be in our legal system as a means of ‘justice’. First off, the death penalty was originally a savage ruling intended for extreme crimes where they would sever the head from the body. There is no proof or evidence to show capital punishment has ever been an effective way to reduce crime or to prevent it. Innocent people have been falsely accused of a capital offense and sentenced to death by the legal system; however, they should be trying to get to the actual culprit at foot instead of killing people who have done nothing. Obviously, capital punishment is ridiculous and an inhumane way to keep justice for the people.
    arrow The origin of ‘capital’ in capital punishment comes from the Latin word capitalis, literally meaning "regarding the head". In other words, it was originally meant as punishment by decapitating those who had committed an offensive or illegal act as defined by the law. There are some countries where capital crime involves sexual offenses, religious offenses, serious corruption, slavery or drug trafficking. A person who offends any of these listed, such as rape, will be sentenced to death by law. One might say that it ‘puts them in their place,’ or ‘an eye for an eye’, but is it really? The death penalty is no way to solve or make anyone ‘feel better’ by another’s death and should no longer be used as a way to try to achieve this.
    arrow U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer once said on June 24, 2002 in the Ring vs. Arizona case, “…In terms of its ability to deter crime, to incapacitate offenders, or to rehabilitate criminals. Studies of deterrence are, at most, inconclusive.” To rephrase what Stephen Breyer meant, capital punishment does not shorten crime, disable offenders’ abilities, or restore a criminal’s good mental health. As well as doing absolutely nothing for the community, it is an inhumane and unethical way of life. No matter how much we would want a person dead for committing such an extreme terror in one’s life, it does not change the fact, or situation, that they have done something wrong or illegal. Human feelings of anger, aggression and revenge should not get in the way of how to deal with what is right and wrong in our society. Like the Cleveland Judge, Daniel Gaul, said after sentencing Quisi Bryan, “Why do we kill people who kill people to prove that it's wrong to kill people? It's not about his soul. It's about our souls -- the community's soul. It deals with the sanctity of life.”
    arrow The third issue has to deal with the right that people have to a fair trial, is it right to have the innocent people who didn’t commit the capital crime, be killed off if they lose? Occasionally in cases, there have been false accusations on people who have died for something that either never happened, or didn’t do. Who is to say that they should die in the first place? Capital crime and the death sentence are unfair mistresses who have no care whatsoever in this matter of who is innocent and who is not. The real issue that follows with capital punishment is: “Who should we kill next?” Is this message what we want spreading over the country? No; the answer is to end capital punishment.
    arrow Now the truth about what Capital Punishment truly melts down to is revealed for all to see. It is not justice, it is not honor; it is to kill another human for killing another person. The Death Penalty goes against our morals as human beings, being free, and to live life as anyone should. The problems do not lie within the issue of false accusations of the innocent, this is not about reducing crime, and it is not about where, what, who, or when it began. The new generation is coming in, and our decision should be to end capital punishment because it goes against everything we have meant to achieve by sentencing one’s death.

    “If it's not a deterrent, then what is it? Retribution? I don't want to be a part of that. I think when we evolve as a species, we won't do this anymore.”
    -- Daniel Gaul, Cleveland Judge, after the sentencing of Quisi Bryan, Cleveland Plain Dealer, 11/17/2001.