Writer Steven Young in his article “The Death Penalty: Right or Wrong” presented his view on death penalty, whether it should be given to the criminals or not. Author classifies prisoners as animals and even worst than them, because animals kill for their protection and survival however these criminals commit heinous crimes for revenge, money or just because they want to do something. He elaborated further by saying that prisoners are killing uncountable people and still moving free because of the law established by Supreme Court and Central Government. He raised a finger on the whole legal system. He concluded by saying that prisoners who have done heinous crime should be given death penalty.
Counter Argument:
I have different view from the author on the issue of death penalty. All the points mentioned by author in his article inviting lot of debate. I am not in favor of giving death penalty to any prisoner and I have various reasons and arguements to support my statement.
Every individual on this earth have a right to life and this fundamental right can not be snatched from them just because some people like Mr. Young do not consider them human beings and call them animal. No one should be given an authority to decide upon life or death for a person. This is against the law of nature. Nature holds the supreme power to decide about the life and death of a person. No one should break the law of nature.
Giving death penalty is not always easy and painless as it seems. In current scenario people are using lethal injection and electrocution for giving death penalty. There is no guarantee that both the process will be pain free. Various incidents have reported where both the process were found very painful. If our motive is to give them pain then why we are giving them death penalty rather we should let them survive in jail which is very painful than anything else.
There is one thought to ponder upon, how death penalty will help our system and people. Is it guaranteed that giving death penalty to one criminal will stop other criminal to do such heinous crime? Not really. Let us take an example of most heinous crime that is murder; If we think from physiological point of view, people murder someone when their aggression is at higher level and in aggression people do not think about the law and order, they do not understand what is right or wrong they do what they feel is right. Here it is immaterial that whether murder was planned or sudden, if someone decided to murder he will do it irrespective of law of death penalty.
If there is law, there are also people who are ready to misuse the law. Hence if there will be a law of death penalty chances to give punishment to innocent people will also increase. Death penalty is something, which is once given can not be taken back. If person is killed, he can not comeback. Instead of punishing someone our priority should be to save innocents. So to save innocent people it is better not to form such laws that have no recourse to the action.
Mr. young in his article raised a finger on whole law system. Before raising his objections he should have thought that law is not only meant to punish criminals, it is also meant to save the innocents. Role and responsibilities of our legal system is very high, each and every people of the world is bind with some laws and orders. Our legal system is here to provide justice to everyone, whether he is criminal or innocent.
Instead of having death penalty we should think about the root causes for such crimes. Why people take such hard step to kill someone. Why criminals rape someone, why they sell drugs, why they do robbery and at last why criminal become criminal, what is the reason?
Can we decrease the number of crimes by making or amending some policies?
References
Death an inquiry into man's mortal weakness. (n.d.). Retrieved November 15, 2011, from www.library.thinkquest.org: http://library.thinkquest.org/16665/deathpenalty.shtml
Young, S. (2011, September 22). Digital Journal. Retrieved November 15, 2011, from www.digitaljournal.com: http://digitaljournal.com/blog/13067
