Capital Punishment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Capital Punishment - Essay Example Capital Punishment Whatever crime the person has committed, killing should be considered as the last result. He further argues that communal policy should respect the value of human life. When administering a severe sentence on someone, caution must be taken to avoid any error. This is because if flaws occurs which result to guiltless person falling victim, the situation cannot be reversed and this will be injustice to a guiltless person. He adds that different punishments should be administered for different offenses, and that slighter penalties should be considered where the situation warrants. However, there is always a dilemma in deciding the best penalty for specific offense. According to Bedau (424), the law offers protection to people responding to threat on their lives or protecting the lives of other people. In such situations, the person responding to a threat is considered guiltless even if he or she hurt the attacker. He says that there is no evidence whatsoever that the attacker would real ly cause any harm to anybody. He argues that the law should take into consideration the all the means which were at respondent’s disposal to avoid the attack. For example they should run away from the threats instead of counterattacking the person frightening them. By escaping, they would have avoided trouble with anybody and they could not hurt anyone.However, when they respond by attacking the person who was threatening their survival, they result to similar incidence of assault or murder before the law. After all there was no surety that they would really be attacked or injured, therefore, the fact that someone was threatening to assault them is not enough reason for committing a crime. Finally he argues that there is probability that even if they were assaulted, the magnitude of this assault would be less severe that the one they caused by counterattacking the other person. There should be no exercise of unnecessary power for personal protection. According to Bedau (428) capital punishment lack fairness from the manner in which it is executed. For example, if a person murdered another one and is taken to court, the execution of his death may be more lenient that which he or she committed. This may be the case if for example the penalty is executed through electrocution. This form of death may be more tolerable than killing by strangling or any other method which the criminal may have used. Also in some place like United States of America, substantial racism prevails because black Americans are likely to be killed compared to white counterparts even if they committed similar offense. This implies that the actual meaning of punishing the crime is not achieved due to failure to follow the right channel of charging for the crime (Newsweek, 0209). In addition, suspects of crimes are taken before the authority and legal processes followed to decide the case. This may take several months or year before it comes to completion. Even after the bench ruling th at the criminal will be hanged; the process may take some time. This will end up causing additional pain to the guilty person which was not the case with the victim of murder. This implies unfairness in execution on death penalty because delayed justice is justice denied. According to Haag (365) the law mandates police, judges and other parties