The death penalty is considered by most nations as a cruel and inhumane punishment. It punishes the criminals by taking away their life and a criminal should be given a second chance to live. The criminals'soul might change if they are forgiven for the crime they have committed. However, the criminals should also not get away without being punished as they have taken someone's precious life. If the point of criminal punishment is to punish, death simply does not qualify, while life imprisonment qualifies extremely well. Sometimes criminals are convicted of being guilty and punished without giving them any chance to prove their innocence.
The justice system is not always right in making the decision and sometimes they fail to deliver justice. The death penalty is also known as the capital punishment. In the United States, the death penalty is currently implemented in one of five ways: lethal injection, firing squad, hanging, gas chamber, and electrocution. Many people from the country have been surveyed about keeping or abolishing the death penalty. Although people are concerned that justice system is not always successful in making the correct decision, majority of them are in the favor of keeping the death penalty rather than abolishing it.
They assume that we execute murderers primarily because we believe it will discourage others from becoming murderers. However, criminals are forced by themselves for committing crimes in order to fulfill their basic necessities. Moreover, in some court cases, people are convicted guilty of a crime they did not commit. For instance, in1976 Joseph Spaziano, a man convicted guilty was sentenced to the death penalty for the murder of Laura Lynn Herbert. He spent nine years in prison. After that, a Florida jury discovered a set of audiotapes in which police hypnotized and coached the primary witness to go against Spaziano. This evidence did not matter and Spaziano's case began to move toward the electric chair.
Also with many efforts, Joseph was unable to prove himself innocent against the prosecution. Michael Mello, a well-known author, strongly believed Spaziano to be innocent and wanted to save Spaziano from the death penalty. Michael Mello became his defendant after hearing of this incident. Luckily with the help of Michael Mello, Joseph was saved from being killed by the electric chair. (Www.upress.umn.edu) From the above case it is significant that justice system failed to make a decision and proved that it could not be relied upon. Besides, capital punishment does not succeed every time, and hence innocent criminals have to suffer from being sentenced to death.
Wrongful convictions can easily occur as a result of the phony judgment made by the adjudicators. Furthermore, in "The Unquiet Death of Robert Harris,?Michael Kroll, the author writes about witnessing his friend's execution. He describes Harris's execution as "indescribably ugly?and "nakedly barbaric.?After Robert Harris is sentenced to death, Kroll realizes that the jury had made a very regrettable mistake. Kroll wanted to do as much as he could to stop the execution, but it was beyond his control and therefore he lost one of his valuable friends. (The Brief Bedford Reader. "The Unquiet Death of Robert Harris?by Michael Kroll. Pages: 438-442)
Consequently, from the above example Kroll has proved his point that the capital punishment is not the only solution to punish the criminals, whereas life imprisonment would be commendable in some cases like his friend Robert's case. He also believes criminals to be given a second chance to live and to lead an improved life. He indirectly comments on the poor job carried out by the justice system. Another example of such wrongful justice is given in the movie called "Dead Man Walking.?The movie is about Matthew Poncelet, who was a murderer of two teenage lovers, and for that crime he was going to be executed. He writes to the Hope House to get help on his death row because he does not know if he is guilty or innocent.
Later, Helen Prejean, a sister from Hope House agrees to help Matthew and be his spiritual adviser. Sister Helen finds out that Matthew was ashamed for the crime he has committed and was planning to began a better new life with his family. His lawyer and Sister Helen appealed the court members to stop his execution. However, the court disagreed and therefore he was sent to the death penalty. (Movie: Dead Man Walking) Since Matthew was not given another chance to live, the justice system has again failed in making a correct decision. Matthew would have been given some other kind of less severe punishment instead of the death penalty.
Matthew was also willing to change and also he was regretful for the crime he had committed, but the jury members did not considerate the appeal made by Matthew's lawyer and Sister Helen. Human beings often make mistakes, and as one of the God's moral is to forgive, juries should note the point of God's will and so they should not punish criminals by taking away their lives. In conclusion, the justice system needs to be more careful before making any decision.
They should be aware of the innocent lives that are taken away by giving the punishment of the death penalty. Besides, they should also go through each case twice before announcing the decision of the death penalty. On the other hand, they should also not get away without giving any punishment to the criminals, but they should give some less cruel punishment. On the whole, justice system needs to be better in bringing justice in order to be relied upon by the society.
