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It’s Time To
Kill Capital
Punishment
Marina Altson
Suzanne Northey
Public Speaking
Competition
Winner
Don’t fight fire with fire.’
‘Two wrongs don’t make a right.’
Remember those as kids?
‘Okay!’ We said. ‘We get it!’
We kill people for killing people because you are not allowed to
kill people…What?
In many societies, humans contradict their primary laws. Life is
our most basic human right. It is not a privilege that can be taken
away. This is why murder is a crime because
none
of us has the right
to remove something that precious from another human being.
Freedom
, however, is a privilege which can be removed as a form of
punishment. Murderers should be imprisoned and forced to do jobs
for the society we all can enjoy. But we
don’t
have the right to take
another human’s life. We cannot play God. It’s time to kill capital
punishment.
Now there are three stages in the death penalty; charging,
prosecuting and executing. It only seems fitting that I should lay out
the realities of each stage, which are either ignored or unknown by
those who support the death penalty.
First stage: charging. When you hear ‘capital punishment’ I am
sure many of you think of America. It is infamous for being the only
first world country still using it. But why don’t we think of Iran,
Sudan or the other 54 countries which use the death penalty to a
much greater and crueler extent? Many believe that capital
punishment is on the decline. However, the latest figures from
Amnesty International show in 2012 there were at least 1,722 death
sentences. This then increased by over 200 the following year.
These figures don’t even include the execution numbers from China
which are kept secret but rumoured to be at least 2,000 per year.
That’s more than the world total. Yet I personally don’t think of
China when I think capital punishment. Do you?
We also delude ourselves into thinking the death penalty is only
for murder. In reality, 20 countries impose it for petty crimes such as
bribery and theft. I can respect – though not agree with – just one
capital offence; a life for a life. But this is no longer the case. Just 10
years ago, China had over 50 capital offences.
Second stage: prosecution. We in the West are outraged by media
reports of unfair and misogynistic ‘justice’ systems in some Asian
and Middle Eastern countries. Such as rapists escaping penalty but
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