And what about death penalty?

     Death penalty, also called capital punishment, is a legal process in which a person is executed by a sentence applied by the law as a punishment for a crime. This fact has brought a lot of controversy all over the world. There are two possible postures in front of this situation: to be against or to be in favor.

   On the one hand, many worldwide organizations have the main purpose to abolish death penalty. It’s said that killing someone, no matter which crime has he or she committed, is a violation of the most important human right: “The right to live”. People who are in this position think that it’s just a way of revenge and that can’t be condoned.  What’s more is  there has been many wrongful executions in which sentenced people end up being innocent, but it was already too late. So shall we abolish death penalty?

     On the other hand, death penalty is a good tool for police officers to maintain order in society. This posture is normally accepted for major crimes, such as serial killers, torture murderers, terrorism, mass killing, etc. This could be a way of ensuring that those extreme criminals will never offend again. Moreover, many even believe that the punishment must be painful according to the crime. Or shall we keep on killing the bad guys?

         Depending on the posture you take based on the several reasons there are, and the personal experience you may have had, you can be in favor or not of this situation.   In my opinion, we have not enough power to judge whether or not to take a person’s life because he or she committed a crime. I think this person should be treated professionally to try to rehabilitate and reinsert him or her in society. There should also be done huge efforts by the governments to strengthen the bases of the society, like improving education, dealing with drugs and increasing security. As a result, we could construct a better organized civilization in order to prevent the appearance of such crimes that lead us to apply these kinds of penalties. 

Death penalty discussion

We all know that delinquency is a really worrying problem in our society, and nobody would accept it. However, there's no such agreement in considering how it should  be punished. One option is the death penalty, which has been applied in some countries and now it's a very discussed issue.

Supporters of death penalty present as their main argument the following one: criminals who have murdered someone deserve to die, because they have taken an innocent person's life. If this happened, these criminals wouldn't be able to kill innocent people anymore and peace would return to the victim's family. In addition, as human beings fear death, it's easy to think that murders will be reduced. They also believe that criminals shouldn't be given a chance to rehabilitate in prison.

Opponents of capital punishment claim, above all, the right of life. Death penalty shows that killing is wrong by killing people, and it makes no sense. Furthermore, this form of punishment will never bring the victims back to life. Death is irreversible, as well as charging an innocent person with murder (consequently, this person would die).

On balance, I think, like supporters of death penalty, that a murderer deserves to die, but it's true that innocent people's lives could be in danger, and it's not fair at all. That's why I firmly believe that penal servitude for life is the best form of punishment.

Rafa Jiménez, 2A