DEATH PENALTY

DOES IT SERVE ITS PURPOSE?

Imagine, a good friend of yours. Better yet, imagine a loved one, perhaps a little brother or sister or son or daughter. Now try to imagine life without them, simply because the murderer thought that he was above the law. Who knows, maybe he or she was just bored and decided to take a life. What if someone took the life of your child or loved one? What are we to do about the person(s), such as these murderers who decide that they can take a loved one's life. Obviously, anyone who takes one's life, other than self defense, should not ever be let out into everyday society to function in everyday life, because such as this are from normal. Those that prey on the weak will always prey on them. A majority of those convicted and sentenced to capital punishment were "repeat offenders that continually prey on the weak and innocent

Some Statistics

Thirty-seven out of fifty (37 of 50) states currently hold laws authorizing the death penalty.
Most executions are carried out in the Deep South.
Currently there are more than 2000 people on death row
Because of various legal interferences, a majority of executions will be stalled.

The death penalty is applicable in cases involving murder, but it becomes clearly easy to come up with this suggestion of punishment in cases involving the murder of the ones put in charge of protecting us and our community. Killing a cop is like shattering or killing that "thin blue line that seperates between civilization and anarchy"(Cop, 1). Police officers are the ones who keep the streets safe for our society and uphold our society's beliefs. It is just I better than anyone else and nobody is going to tell me what to do.

The deterrence factor is the likeliness of one not to committ a crime as a result of being aware of the consequences of the crime. Many argue that the death penalty does not deter.

However, by simply convicting a person to confinement for a certain crime with an easy sentence, is much like receiving a simple slap on the wrist for committing serious crimes. Punishment,

when speaking on serious terms, is socially valuable because it deters criminals from repeating their crimes and may keep others from repeating the same acts. If in fact the deterring effect

misses its point, it is the fault of the justice system the all the red tape found behind it. At its current standing, the system is viewed as a joke because no authority is taken, no one believes, let alone fears, the system. Both the lengthy time and the high expense result from innumerable appeals, including many technicalities which have little nothing to do with the question of guilt

or innocence. If these wasteless amount of appeals were eliminated or at least controlled, then the procedure would be much shorter, less expensive and more efficient.

Many argue that the death penalty violates human rights, yet, they do not question the reason or action that got the convict on death row in the first place. Every person has an equal right to life, "until they take another's life, then all bets are off (News, 2). Society does not understand that when a convict on death row is executed it is because they, themselves took some innocent person's life which caused them to be put there. The only impression given about the death penalty should be the fact that murder is a crime punishable by death. The death penalty is in no way hypocritical it simply shows a country that murder has very serious consequences and has a fit and just punishment (News, 3). The main purpose here is to instill fear in other men, to show that this will not be tolerated and justice comes first, always.

Conclusion
Anger is simply an expression of caring about one's moral community and society needs more men and women who care for each other and who do for the sake of others. It is passion which allows us to act for reasons having nothing to do with selfish or mean calculations. Nothing but the simple desire for justice to be served influences the upholding of the death penalty. Punishing is the only way we have any chance at preserving our moral community and passion also acts as a protector. The death penalty is not a settled issue and, indeed, continues to an issue of enormous emotion and importance. It, therefore, will always accompany controversial and difficult debate.

Ruben Diaz

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