Are you for or against the death penalty?

As far as i know, the death penalty has been around for a very long time, dating as far back as the middle ages. One would naturally assume that it is useful to some extent, since it is still being practiced.

As stated in article 1, the argument for the death penalty is that it serves as a deterrence for people with intentions of committing a serious crime. It is often argued that the death of this one criminal, and the existence of a death penalty would surely put some like- minded criminals off track. As quoted from David Hume in Article 1, "No one ever threw away life, while it was worth living. For such is our natural horror of death." I agree fully with him, for it only seems logical that one's life would be his or her most valued thing. Thus, perhaps the fear of losing one life would be an effective form of prevention of the commitment of serious crimes. However, this may not be fair to the criminal himself, since in this case, he is like a 'sacrificial lamb', since the purpose of his execution is not to pay for his crime, but to serve as a deterrence and prevent others from repeating what he has done. The law deprives them of their rights to life, but it is justified since these people have committed crimes that included murder or similar offenses.

However, one of the main purposes of punishment is to rehabilitate the criminal, so that he may rejoin the community as a corrected, useful person. In this case, if the person as been sentenced to death, it is more than true to say that the person would be of NO use to the society. Only retribution is carried out here. If retribution is viewed as an acceptable reason behind punishment, then perhaps the death penalty can be justified. However, I believe many societies would rather rehabilitate a person than let a life go to waste, unless of course, there is no hope for that particular person. I believe the death penalty is sometimes seen as an easier way out, since the criminal would only have to endure hardship for the few minutes before the sentence is carried out. In the case of a life sentence, criminals have to suffer for the rest of their lives. I believe the lack of freedom may be equivalent, or even greater than the fear of death itself. Thus, I think life- sentence would be a more effective form of deterrence.

On the other hand, since a life sentence means these criminals were never let back into society to see if they have been reformed, we would never know if it is an effective form of deterrence or rehabilitation. Thus, until we have definite methods to stop crime, it is only reasonable to say that the death penalty is the most effective way to prevent serious crimes.