Well, I was reading on Wikipedia, and chanced upon this topic. So today, this post will be about capital punishment. Simply said, capital punishment is punishment through death. (Own, definition, not from wiki). In the dictionary, capital means punishable by death......
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Capital punishment is practiced in Singapore, with her having the most execution rate per capita, between 1994 and 1999. This strict form of punishment might have deterred some would-be offenders from committing crimes. Therefore, capital punishment should be legal, as a form of punishment.
Capital punishment should be practiced, firstly because it a very good form of deterrent effect. Some people might be tempted to smuggle drugs from overseas into Singapore. But, they might be deterred from bringing in drugs, due to the heavy consequences; one can be hanged, just when one possesses grams of drugs. Most people would be deterred from committing the crime, as most would be afraid of dying. Thus, with the penalty of hanging, it will be a successful deterrent to would-be criminals.
Secondly, it fulfils the spirit of "an eye for an eye". A murder ought get the same consequences as to those he or she killed. Also, a drug trafficker brings harm to others, destroying other people's life when they introduce the drugs to them. How would one expect a cold-blooded killer, who has killed people, not to face death? Wouldn't that be doing injustice to those innocent lives? In countries that do not practice capital punishment, it is most likely that they employ the use of life-imprisonment. It would be unfair to those victims, because the murderer or trafficker will never need to worry about food and shelter; food is provided to them, and shelter too. Also, in around twenty or thirty years, they may be let out of the prison on parole, with no strings attached. Is this how a killer will face? Therefore, capital punishment is the way that can redress those victims' grievances.
Lastly, capital punishment can in some way comfort those victims' family and friends. They will be comforted that justice was done to the perpetrator of those unpardonable crimes. Imagine, seeing the killer in the streets walking, like nothing happened, after he or she was let out of prison. Wouldn't you be reminded of the incident that might have happened decades ago? What about the grief and helplessness of the family members, unable to be able to bring justice to the offender?Also, if the society hates the offender to the core, and wants to procecute him or her further, but in the end is bounded by the law. Would this not bring riots and protest, due to the public's uproar? So, capital punishment is needed to maintain the serenity of the society.
Capital punishment is a way that will ensure fairness in the execution of justice; other ways might not be that fair. Also, it will be a good deterrent to many people. Thus, in conclusion, capital punishment should be an avenue to the enforcement of justice.
Extra Info:
John Henry George Lee (1864 – c. 1945), better known as John "Babbacombe" Lee or "The Man They Couldn't Hang", was a British man famous for surviving three attempts to hang him for murder.
On February 23, 1885, three attempts were made to carry out his execution at Exeter prison. All ended in failure, as the trap door of the scaffold failed to open. This was despite the fact it had been carefully tested by James Berry, the executioner, beforehand. As a result, Home Secretary Sir William Harcourt commuted the sentence to life imprisonment. Lee continued to petition successive Home Secretaries and was finally released in 1907. The only other man in history known to have survived three hangings was Joseph Samuel.